The LAST Visa Run to Vientiane, Laos

I know that many of you have been waiting with bated breath for the conclusion of the Visa Drama.  Finally, here is the last chapter:

The last, and I might add successful, visa trip was to Vientiane, Laos.  David had researched the train system.  We decided to book the overnight sleeper train to Nong Khai, the end of the Thai train line.  You have to love public transportation!

Anousavari Monument

Our train departed Lak Si around 8:00 p.m.  We grabbed some cart food and snacks and headed to our seats to play a little cribbage (I think I won!).  Within the hour, dinner and drinks were offered and an attendant arrived to make up our bunks.  The sleeping arrangements consisted of two bunks which were curtained off to give privacy.  David slept on the top bunk and me on the bottom.  We hit the hay and 7 hours later, we were awakened by the attendant to make up the bunks and serve us some brekkies.

Once we arrived at the train station at Nong Khai, we took another train across the Friendship Bridge into Thanaleng, near Vientiane, our destination.  This train had a schedule – but not really.  It left whenever the passengers from the Thai train arrived and everyone cleared immigration. 

We had a great time in Vientiane.  Besides spending several hours at the Thai Embassy, we spent a few days exploring the city. It was interesting to hear a mixture of both Thai and French speaking people.  Much of the architecture reflected the French influence, as did many of the restaurants.  We were anxious to try this $2.00 French lunch mentioned in Lonely Planet (we are always looking for a good deal).  To our delight, we had a fabulous French meal for $2.00 each. 

Our Favorite French Restaurant

Sights included Anousavari Monument, a Thai version of the Arc de Triomphe.  It was beautiful.  We also walked the night market, tried some delicacies,had  the best smoothie either of us has ever had, roti and some of the ABSOLUTE best beer we’ve had in Southeast Asia – Beer Lao.  (okay, not exactly a micro-brew, but darn close)

We left Laos with an admiration of the country and a longing to return this summer, this time to Luang Prabang.  And most importantly, after several attempts, David left Laos with a valid visa!

David’s footnote:  The visa drama was actually not over.  I had to now spend ½ day with a driver going to the visa office in Nonthaburi district (1-1/2 hours away) where money was paid, smiles and wais given and then I had a multiple re-entry through October (same as Tammy).  And BTW:  I’m sure I won at cribbage! 

The Quest for a Visa

When we were making arrangements to come to Thailand, David was working in Australia.  He had a multiple entry visa.  Once his contract in Australia ended in October, we didn’t realize that he needed a different visa.  So began the saga of the ever-elusive visa.

Missed Visa Opportunity:  Spain

Not being very savvy about world travel and visas, we were informed RIGHT AFTER we returned from Spain, that David needed to apply for a new visa.  Because he was no longer traveling to Australia regularly, the multiple re-entry visa would not work for him.  Had we realized this even a week earlier, we could have applied for the visa when we were in Spain.

Visa Attempt 1:  Cambodia

David had researched different ways that he could acquire a new visa.  One way to extend your visa is to drive into another country.  The easiest and least expensive way is to take a bus to Cambodia.  Right before the border, you have to take a tuk-tuk across.  It is quite a scam.  The tuk-tuk drivers try to get the farangs to pay an arm and a leg for the short trip.  Luckily, David knew what to expect.  Once he got to the border, he then needed to get to the embassy.  He had read that you have to be careful at the border because people will try to “sell” you a visa.  In actuality, they were really just selling you the paperwork.  But the naïve farang wouldn’t know any different. At the end of this trip, David had a 10-day extension to his current visa.

Visa Attempt 2:  Malaysia

Now David had ten days to figure out what he was going to do next.  A few days later, he arranged a trip to Malaysia.  He was still after the ever-elusive visa – this time hopefully a 30-day visa.  He had arranged passage in a luxury van and this plan had him sleeping in the van on the way there, filing paperwork at the embassy when he arrived the next morning, spending the night at a pre-arranged hotel, picking up the visa the next morning and then home that night.  He had to travel about an hour to get to Bangkok where the van picked up.  He got there in plenty of time.  As he was boarding the van, they were checking passports and paperwork to make sure everyone had the necessary documents.  Problem ~ not enough pages in his passport.  The embassy would not have issued a visa because of this.  Thankfully, they checked this BEFORE he got to Penang.  The next day he was in downtown Bangkok paying the $50+ to get extra pages put in his passport.

Visa Attempt 3:  Hong Kong

Time was getting tight!  David needed to leave the country but we were on a time crunch now because the girls were coming and he didn’t want to have to leave while they were here.  He was looking for another 30-day visa so he could get by until the girls left.  So we scoured Asia Air to find the cheapest flight ANYWHERE outside of Thailand.  Thankfully, David found a fairly inexpensive RT flight to Hong Kong, his old stomping ground.  The departure date arrived and he left our place early for Hong Kong.  Interestingly enough, he ran into some Norwegians who are making a visa run, as well.  They were spending the day in HK and also catching a flight late that evening. David became tour guide and showed them all of the Hong Kong sights.  He made some good contacts for our future, as of yet unplanned, trip to Norway.  He returned home late that night with yet another 30-day visa. 

At this point, I am thinking that David has a pretty good thing going on here!  In about two months, he has traveled to Spain, Cambodia, Hong Kong, ALMOST Malaysia and now he is planning to go to Laos.  Hmmmm!

Next post:  Finally getting the visa!

Our Last Hurrah in Portugal!

Discoveries Monument

It’s funny when I think about planning our trip to Spain.  David was looking at all of the places we could see in our 7 days of travel and at the top of his list (right below seeing Blayne in Cadiz) was going to Portugal.  I really knew nothing about the country other than it was next to Spain.  In the almost 30 years I have known David, I had never heard him speak of Portugal.  But here he was telling me that it was a place he had always wanted to travel to.  Our first few days in Portugal at the beginning of the trip had been fabulous, so we made sure that we left two days at the end of our trip so we could explore Lisboa.  We ended up spending most of those two days in Belem, along the Tagus River.  We visited the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, crossed the Portuguese version of the Golden Gate Bridge and viewed the Cristo Rei Statue (huge statue of Jesus with arms spread), and rode on the oldest streetcar in Lisboa.   Our culinary experiences were of course at the top of our list.  When we returned to Lisboa, it was mid-day and all of the eateries were closed or were closing.  We tried to get into a little café and they sent us across the street to a snack bar (I think because they didn’t want to try and communicate with us).  The only thing we knew to ask for was sopa (soup), so we ordered that.  We tried to express how yummy the soup was.  I guess he understood because he soon came out with bread.  This was followed by pork and clams (a regional speciality).  Yummy!  That evening, our concierge sent us to a restaurant on the waterfront.  We got to try bacalao, a fish specialty of the area (thank goodness for our school library where David read about all of these luscious foods).  And of course, one of my favorites was to have a pitcher of Sangria with loads of fruit in a luscious fruity juice.  Unfortunately, the end of our adventure ended the next morning as we headed to the airport for our 16 hour flight back to Bangkok. 

  

25 de Abril Bridge and Cristo Rei Statue

David in a Lisboa Cable Car

<>

 Mosteiro dos Jerónimos

Spain - We can't wait to go back!

Blayne posing next to Rodin's Thinker

A pueblos blancos

We spent several days in Cadiz, Spain because that is where our niece, Blayne, was living and studying (she is now back home in Gig Harbor, Washington). We have always gotten by in any culture or any country with limited language, pointing and smiling skills.  Our adventure in Spain was fantastic and a much richer experience because Blayne is fluent in Spanish. It was fun to watch her communicate so seamlessly with everyone we came in contact with. We were quite impressed.   For the most part, David and I would explore during the day when Blayne was at school and then we would meet up in the afternoon or evening. In our rental car, David and I would head out to explore towns and villages throughout Spain.  On these drives, we saw many pueblos blancos (white towns of Andalusia).  We would be driving on these country roads and up would sprout a white village in the midst of a sea of green.  We drove through several of them and they were very quaint. One day, we headed to Ronda with its many steep cliff faces.  We walked through a park that overlooked a huge valley.  A woman was playing her guitar and singing.  It was a beautiful setting. Most evenings we would meet up with Blayne for drinks and tapas. Our goal was to try as many different tapas as possible in the short time that we were there.  Another fun experience was having lunch at Blayne’s host home, where we met her host mom, Carmen, and her host sister, Michella.  Blayne had told us what a fantastic cook Carmen was and that was no exaggeration.  We had also heard about the large quantities of food she prepared.  She didn’t want Blayne and Michella to become malnourished.  No worries there.  There was enough food to feed an army. We knew that Carmen spoke Spanish.  I don’t know Spanish and David only knows a bit. But no worries there – Blayne was fluent in Spanish. What we didn’t know was that Blayne had told her mom that I spoke French.  Throughout the afternoon, Carmen tried to engage me in French conversation.  I actually took French thoughout college, but I won’t bother to tell you how many “decades” ago that was.  By the end of the afternoon, however, I was quite proud of the French that I actually could speak and understand.   Another delightful culinary experience was having churros and tea/coffee at a local café. Now we’re not talking Taco Bell churros.  These were snake-like deep-fried something or others that one dipped into a chocolate pudding.  Yummy!  I’m still craving them.  On the last day of our time with Blayne, we headed down to the Cadiz waterfront where we were able to admire the yellow-domed Cathedral of Cadiz.  The view was simply stunning. From there we headed to Jerez de la Frontera where we sampled local sherry at a distillery.  That evening, we put Blaynie on a train back to Cadiz and said farewell to our fun time with her and the beautiful Spain.  Thanks, Blayne, for sharing yourself and your temporary home with us.

Blayne and Tammy waiting for Churros

Cathedral of Cadiz

David and Tammy at Ronda, Spain

Two Continents, Three Countries in Eight Hours!

The Kasbah in Tangiers

Herbs on sale in Tangiers

Two things that made it towards the top of our list for when we traveled to Spain to  visit our niece, Blayne, was to take a day trip to Gibraltar and Morocco.  We had the transportation and Blayne was up for the adventure.  We hopped in the car and headed to Tarifa, Spain.  This is where you can catch the high speed boat to go to Tangiers, Morocco.  If you are unfamiliar with the geography of this area, Tangiers is a city found on the West African coast at the western entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar.  This is where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean.  None of us had been to Africa before, so we thought this would be an excellent opportunity to step foot on an unexplored continent (to us) and, in a few short hours, glean as much history/culture as we could.

Blayne and Tammy

Blaynie getting a shot of the sunset while we get a shot of her and the Rock!

When we descended from the boat, we were greeted by about 30 "guides" and drivers offering their services.  One particularly hefty man started to badger David.  He then headed my way and started to berate me for not accepting his services.  To the rescue came Lerbe, the gentleman who would be our guide (and we are sure now a partner in crime with the first "guide" - think good cop, bad cop).   We hopped into a taxi and headed up to the Kasbah.  From there, we walked the narrow routes through the Kasbah area, checking out the number of stalls lining the pathways.  We had an excellent meal at a "friend's" restaurant.  Then we were ushered to a carpet store to try and sell us a rug.  Overall, it was very interesting with great food and company.  Unfortunately, it did not end on a good note.  When we reached the boat terminal, Lerbe insisted that he had done more than the agreed upon rate and made quite a scene.  David held his own while Blayne and I quickly scampered through customs and out of earshot.  Although parts of this quick trip were stressful, we wouldn't have missed the opportunity.

Twilight in Gibraltar - Catalan Bay

When we arrived back at Tarifa, we decided to head to Gibraltar, not far away.  We have seen Uluru in Australia and pictures of Prudential Insurance's logo.  But we have to admit that the sight of the the Rock of Gibraltar was awesome.  To get from the Spanish mainland to Gibraltar, which is a British territory, you have to go through this gate where they check your passports.  Then you cross over an isthmus which connects Spain and Gibraltar.  The interesting thing is that this isthmus is also a runway.  If a plane is coming in, they stop traffic to allow the plane to land and then resume after it has landed.  Very interesting.  Blayne and I were excited to see more of Gibraltar since we had both finished the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series and Lisbeth Salander speaks of Gibraltar being her favorite place.  We traveled around as much of the rock as possible before we got to Catalan Bay which is where I want to vacation next (and I assume was the setting for the books).  


After a very long day of new sights, smells and people, we headed back to Cadiz, Blayne's fall home, to get rest before our next adventure the next day.

I Never Thought These Places Really Existed!

A church in Sintra, Portugal

We landed in Lisboa, Portugal and picked up the little rental car that would end up taking us hundreds of miles throughout Andalucia over the next week.  We then headed to the hotel we booked off of Av Liberdad, in the center of the city.  The hotel was in a lovely part of town where one can find statues, cobbled roads, fountains and plazas.  And yet next door was Prada.  Our room was on the third floor overlooking the Av Liberdad, huge trees with leaves turning red, yellow and orange.  We drifted off to sleep as people strolled down the street, partying the night away.


The next morning as we were checking out, Jorge, the manager, told us all about the history of the region and highly recommended we visit Sintra on our way to Sevilla.  Sintra was a dream - the type of place you see in movies like Under the Tuscan sun (but not in Italy).  We happened upon a quaint little bakery where we partook of their delicious baked goods and their specialty (each bakery has a specialty) was a little custard baked good.  It was amazing!  As we left the bakery, an outdoor weekend market had set up.  We strolled through the tables of fruits, olives (of course), vegetables, breads, more olives, hams, goats milk cheeses and olives.  We couldn't pass up the opportunity to gather picnic items to eat along the way.

Farmers Market in Sintra

The rest of our day consisted of exploring a bit more of Sintra, stopping in Cascais, an updated fishermen's village, cruising down the coast to Lagos until we then headed east to Sevilla.  It was a beautiful drive.  


We arrived in Sevilla as the sun was setting.  This was a mistake.  Sevilla is quite large.  We had booked a room in the Barrios section.  The entire area was made up of a maze of VERY narrow cobble-stoned streets, most which were one way.  If we put our arms out the windows, we could have enjoyed people's entrees, we were that close.  I am serious about the "maze" part.  We drove through these streets, some which were so narrow that we had to pull in our mirrors so as not to knock them off the car, for at least an hour.  At one point, a man on the side of the street motioned to us that we were driving in a circle.  Duh!  Finally David parked the car and set off on foot to locate the hotel, which ended up being right around the corner.

David and Tammy at a beach in Lagos, Portugal

Bloody, Hell! What do you Mean we have Only 8 Hours in London?

A British Taxi

The Tower of London

Kensington Park

David purposely booked our flight into London so that we would have a few hours to see some famous British landmarks.  His original plan was to fly into London, take a train to Bordeaux to buy some wine, and then take another train to Madrid and then possibly fly into Lisboa, Portugal and then rent a car to drive to Cadiz.  Beings this travel would have taken up our entire week, we came to a compromise to spend several hours in London and then fly into Lisboa to spend the weekend and then drive on to Cadiz.

I had never really been interested in traveling to London before – not exactly sure as to why.  However, now it is towards the top of my list of places I NEED to spend time in.  Our 8 hour “layover” in London consisted of a train ride to Paddington, a walk through Kensington Park, and then a tour of the city on one of those site-seeing buses.  It was drizzly (which I hear is quite common in London), so the bus ride was a warm welcome (especially since I left my only pair of close-toed shoes in Bangkok and my tootsies were freezing).  We saw some great sites including St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, The London Eye and the House of Parliament to name a few.  After a very busy day, we boarded a plane and head off to our next destination:  Lisboa, Portugal.

Europe, Here We Come!

For our October break, David and I headed to Spain to visit our niece, Blayne, as she studies abroad in Cadiz.  We had a fabulous trip, with many diversions along the way.  We will be sharing these adventures with you in the next several blogs. 

Nagoya, Japan

The Nagoya Countryside

Professional Development – Stephanie Harvey Workshop:  I was fortunate to be able to use Professional Development funds to travel to Nagoya Japan to see Stephanie Harvey, a pioneer in the field of reading comprehension.  David came along for the ride.  The conference was wonderful – Stephanie was inspirational, dynamic and down to earth.  She validated much of what we are doing at ISB as well as made me start thinking about some things we should consider exploring.

I Can Wear My Jeans!:  In the 2-1/2 months we have lived in Thailand, I have put my jeans on only once to enter a wat in downtown Bangkok. I almost passed out from the heat. Every other day of the 2-1/2 months, I have either worn capris, shorts or my bathing suit.  As we prepared for our trip to Nagoya, I checked the weather and learned that it was quite a bit cooler there than here in Bangkok.  My initial thought was “OMG!  I’m going to get to wear my jeans!” This may seem a bit petty.  Let me explain.  If you come from the pacific northwest, you enjoy wearing a cozy long sleeved shirt or a worn pair of jeans for a good part of the year (much to the chagrin of many PNW residents).  So far here in Bangkok, it has been warm every day, even if it rains.  Some have said that it has been uncharacteristically cool.  I think the powers that be are helping us to acclimate to the weather.  So I enjoyed two days of wearing long sleeved shirts and jeans.  This could end up being the first and last time I do so this year.  :0) 

Inuyama Castle, Nagoya, Japan

Inuyama Castle:  We arrived in Nagoya, Japan in the morning and ended up with half a day to play.  We decided to jump on the JR train line and head for Inuyama Castle, the oldest castle in Japan.  It was beautiful.  David ventured the many flights of stairs to get to the top floor of the castle.  The castle is located on the top of a hill overlooking Inuyama, near Nagoya.  The grounds were gorgeous and the architecture of the castle was beautiful.  We can imagine how gorgeous it is throughout the seasons of the year. 
As our dear friend Jimbo says, “It’s all about the food!” We were anxious to try out some Japanese food on our short visit to Nagoya.  We tried the local burger joint, Mos Burger.  The burgers were good – I’m not exactly sure what they were made of because we couldn’t read the menu, but they were tasty.  One night we ate at a sushi restaurant.  We went in and everyone shouted greetings to us – at least we think they did.  We don’t know Japanese. We had sashimi, sushi, soup, fried fish and a big mug of beer.  It was great.  Our other beautiful meal was on our way to the airport.  We stopped at a Japanese BBQ restaurant.  We BBQ’d a variety of proteins on a BBQ in the center of the table.  Between the grilled veggies and meats, the soup and rice dishes, we were in 7^th heaven.

Japanese BBQ