A stinky visa run to Laos

Before you jump to conclusions, no it wasn’t Laos that was particularly stinky. In fact, we liked Vientiane and look forward to coming back and cycling through Laos at some point in the future. The riverfront area has a nice vibe with a night market, street food, and a number of sit down grills with local fish, seafood, and Laos style sausage (similar to Northern Thailand’s sai ou-a and with a similar name).

The fresh and fried spring rolls in Laos are really tasty! We ordered 3 servings of these.

I love Beer Lao, one of the best national beers in Southeast Asia so far, but this special brew was my favorite. Unfortunately I drank a little too much Beer Lao and the flight back to Thailand was quite painful.

After being cramped into poorly-air-conditioned transit busses at airports and waiting in line for 2.5 hours at the Thai Consulate in 100+°F heat, in the same shirt for 3 days, it was me that was stinky. And it didn’t go unnoticed lol! A Thai woman on a cramped bus in Thailand had the disfortune of standing next to me as I raised my arm to hold the railing. She wrinkled her nose and said to her grand daughter, เหม็น ผู้ชาย (men pu-chai), which literally means “stinky men”, but Google translate also lists “faint” as an alternate translation. I smiled at her and giggled, because what else can you do in that situation. Luckily she stayed upright and we made it back to Chiang Mai, me staying as far away from the famously odor-sensitive Thais, who often comment about malodorous farang.

At least we weren’t in our cycling clothes! As part of my last lesson with my Thai teacher, I had her teach me important phrases like, “Sorry we are sweaty!” “Do we stink too much?” and “Shall we sit outside?”

But back to the visa run. Overall it was pretty straightforward. We got to the consulate at 8:30 when it opens and were amongst the last people in line; it makes more sense to arrive early or late. Arriving on time gives you the longest line. But we made some friends in line and also realized all the documents we prepared were useless and we had to get new photos and new photocopies anyway. We were worried they wanted proof of sufficient funds, flight plans, or hotel bookings, which other Thai Consulates require, so we had all that prepared. But they needed none of that, and luckily there’s an office to get your photos and copies for a reasonable price next door.

For anyone considering a visa run to Vientiane, here’s exactly what was required as of May 2018:

• Passport with 6-month validity and at least a few blank pages – you need a full page for the Laos visa, full page for the Thai visa you will get, plus entry/exit stamps from Thailand and Laos. 3 full pages used up for each of us!
• One photocopy of the photo page of your passport
• One photocopy of the Laos visa page of your passport (we got the visa on arrival in the airport).
• One photocopy of the Laos entry stamp in your passport.
• Visa application, which can be printed online (Google “Thai Vientiane visa form”) or picked up FOR FREE in the office inside the consulate. Ignore the scammers outside trying to sell forms or visa services; the consulate does not allow visa services here! You have to do it yourself. Tip: when one scammer asked if I needed a form, I said “no” in English and he continued to hassle us. Another guy asked, so I responded in Thai, “mee leh-ow มีแล้ว” (already have), and he left us alone. So maybe practice the Thai phrase.
• Two photos with a white background (one guy got turned away for having a blue background). They are 3.5cm x 4.5cm, smaller than traditional passport photos, so it’s probably easiest to just have them done there. They must be glued on to the application, and they have glue sticks to use for free.
• 1,000 THB due at collection

Heres a full walk through of the process:

1. Arrive at the Consulate. Thailand Consular Section, 316 Rue Bourichane: https://goo.gl/maps/ZMpoeB48D3z I suggest to arrive either early at 8am or late around 10am. Monday was bad with over 400 people and lots of tour groups; a friend went Wednesday and there were only 200 or so.
2. Inside the gate, walk past the line to the building on the left.
3. Get your form, photocopies, and photos done. You can fill out the form while waiting in line.
4. Get in line (there’s only one line for applications, you don’t need to go up to the counters today). There’s a juice lady and decent bathrooms while you wait.
5. Make friends with your fellow visa runners!
6. When you get to the front of the line, they will check over your forms, take your documents, and give you a slip with a number. If you are missing anything, the guy/gal will let you fix it and you can come back to the front of the line. You don’t have to go back in line.
7. The next day they hand out passports in order of your number starting at 1:30pm. Our number was 380 and they called it around 2:45pm, so they do about 300 per hour. The numbers are shown on an LCD screen above the counter and also announced over a very-quiet speaker in Thai and sometimes English. Good opportunity to practice your Thai numbers.
8. When they are about 30-50 numbers from yours, start milling around near the counter; a line will form and people will sort themselves by looking at other people’s numbers. Ignore the drunk Russian who missed his number and is trying to push his way through (maybe that just happened to us, dunno).
9. If you miss your number, you might have to act like a drunk Russian and push your way through. So try not to miss it lol! As long as you pick up your passport that day, you’re okay, but if you miss the pickup day, they void your visa.
10. Take your passport, pay 1,000 THB, verify your visa stamp (it’s a stamp here, not a sticker like we got in Yangon), and go celebrate with all the new friends you made in line. There’s a good cafe just down the street called Cafe Sinouk with cold beer and excellent baguettes.

So we’re back in Chiang Mai and again official tourists in Thailand until July 21, taking us through Steve’s 50th birthday celebration in Phuket in a month! Time to get on the bikes and start cycling! The rain is already starting for rainy season in Southeast Asia so we’re giving ourselves plenty of time to get there.

Next post will be from the road.