Long overdue gratuitous public transport vehicle photo for the author of the Thai Mass Transport blog who has been a help to the cat :)
All the cat knows about Chaiyaphum is that the guy who runs Thai Noodle House along Coronation Rd in Singapore comes from that province.
Random pic of Udon Thani city #1 - first time seeing a temple with red walls:
Random pic of Udon Thani city #2 - a scene out of anywhere in provincial Thailand (with farm tractor advert banner):
The Thai-Lao international bus from Udon Thani to Khua Din bus station in Vientiane:
Gratuitous public transport vehicle photo for the author of the Thai Mass Transport blog
This service uses buses from both Transport Co. (Thai company) & a Lao company, the difference is easily seen from the side of the bus on which the doors & driver's seats are located. Once in a while Thai passengers will walk to the wrong side of a Lao bus & Lao passengers will walk to the wrong side of a Thai bus to hunt for the door :P On board with the Project Metta Heart 3 guys & us was a Lao guy who works as a guide bringing rich Vientiane residents on tours to Singapore.
How times have changed - even nagas have to cross via the Friendship Bridge instead of swimming across the Mekong :P
Photos taken on 03 Aug 2007
The muddy Mekong:
This was the cat's first time entering Laos by road, & first time seeing how the lanes crossed on the Lao side so that vehicles could switch between driving on the left hand side of the road in Thailand & on the right hand side in Laos.
On the Lao side of the Friendship Bridge, after clearing immigration:
Photos by K-san
The guys running the immigration form-filling service/business had appropriated all available immigration arrival cards...had to squeeze to the front of the immigration queues to ask for the cards. The cat had no idea that there was a 'bridge fee' to be paid. It walked straight past the fee collection counters & was waved through into Laos by some immigration officer whose duty was to check that the 'bridge fee' had been paid...only then it turned back to look for the Project Metta Heart 3 guys, & saw them queueing (at what it had thought were additional immigration counters) to pay the fee...sometimes it's good to be a blur cat :P
