Borders are strange things. An artificial political line can make all the difference in the world. Although the border between Laos and Thailand is nowhere near as dramatic as the U.S. and Mexico or even Greece and Turkey, I felt the difference the moment we crossed into Thailand.
First, it suddenly became easier to understand everyone. I had always thought of Lao as just a mild variation of Thai. It actually has more differences than I recalled and frankly, I was done with the confusion and especially the pronunciation differences. It's hard enough to speak a tonal language, but a tonal language with a different accent... it was getting on my nerves.
The immigration officer at the Thai border station in Nong Khai welcomed me back to Thailand and my heart skipped a beat.
There were the photos of their majesties over the government building, the touts trying to get us to take their taxis to the train station and most importantly - a 7-Eleven, found on every block of the entire kingdom. I felt at home again.
Nong Khai, the town at the Thai border, is nothing to look at - but it's clear that the small dusty little Thai town has more development than most of Laos - for better and worse.
As we made our way past the 7-11, the street carts, the rows of ATMs to the Nong Khai train station, everything - including the accents started making perfect sense.
I realized in that moment that Thailand may not be the international love of my life like Bali, France or even Hong Kong - but it was my first love. And you never forget a first love. Thailand is the only place where I really learned another language and the place that got me started on living abroad and loving travel. Thailand will always have a special place in my heart.
However, the overnight train to Bangkok will not. There's nothing wrong with the train, there's just nothing right with it. Thailand puts its oldest train cars on the routes through the poor provinces of the Northeast. Since the advent of cheap domestic flights, mostly backpackers and locals use the trains, which means the State Railway of Thailand doesn't need to impress anyone on that route. Accordingly, I was unimpressed.
Still, the train was clean, comfortable enough and it did the trick. Our 12-hour train ride pulled in an hour late, which is remarkably good time for a Thai train. Train sleep is never good sleep, so despite having berths, Emily and I are absolutely exhausted today. Of course it didn't help that Emily started her day at 5:30 with a man pulling back the curtain of her upper berth, shoving a cup of coffee in her face and saying "You, coffee. You order!"
Both at the beginning of our trip and at the end, we chatted with a 26 year-old German girl sitting across the aisle from us. She has been backpacking around Asia for six months and has one month left before heading home to Bavaria. She quit her job because she didn't like her boss, told her boyfriend she'd see him in six months and took off on an adventure - staying at $3 a night hostels in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. She had just come from a three day trek outside of Luang Prabang during which she and some other backpackers visited minority hill tribe villages.
The girl was exactly what we would expect on a Thai train from Nong Khai to Bangkok. In chatting with her, Emily and I enjoyed her enthusiasm and adventurous spirit while at the same time realizing - once again - that we are at a different place in life. We fuss about underperforming air conditioners and slow WiFi in big, nice hotel rooms instead of stay in large, open rooms with 30 dormitory-style bunks and a fan. We took the train once for kicks - as an option - while our German friend was on a 12 hour train following 24 hours of buses.
We're very fortunate - even more than we realized going into this. We haven't had to sacrifice in any way and we've done everything we wanted. It seems that's the upside of traveling in your 30's instead of backpacking in your 20's. We're very okay with that.
Bangkok is a capitol of more than 12 million people in a country of more than 60 million. Vientiane is a capitol of 262,000 in a country of 6 million. The contrast could not be more stark.
This big, modern metropolis has welcomed us back for the fourth time in our trip - and we're just as happy to see it each time. The city has undergone a giant facelift since I lived here in 2001-2002 and it's far more enjoyable. It has every modern convenience in a still very Thai package. There's incredible wealth, an growing, upwardly mobile middle class and some very severe poverty. It has texture and depth behind the very visible organized chaos.
Best yet, we walked into our hotel where everyone now recognizes us and received an incredibly friendly welcome. We have an exceedingly comfortable room, fantastic WiFi, a delicious buffet breakfast, a sweeping view and a wonderful location in a very nice neighborhood.
To my great delight, the people on the nearby soi (alley where Bangkok life really occurs) remembered us. I knew all the networking from previous visits paid off when the laundry people asked us where we've been and why they haven't seen us in so long. They took great joy in the fact that we had just come from Laos and enjoyed exchanging some Lao expressions. We even laughed about how Lao pronounce the phrase for Thai iced tea. Oh, those silly Lao.... I have laundry friends for life - which means our shirts will come back ironed. It's all about back-soi networking.
We have nine days in Bangkok. We might take a day trip to Kanachanaburi this weekend if things work out. But there's no pressure and no rush. We're just going to enjoy our last stop in Southeast Asia. I'm not sure exactly what will happen here, but no doubt it will include many massages, lots of the world's best street food and plenty of laughs in the back-soi.
First, it suddenly became easier to understand everyone. I had always thought of Lao as just a mild variation of Thai. It actually has more differences than I recalled and frankly, I was done with the confusion and especially the pronunciation differences. It's hard enough to speak a tonal language, but a tonal language with a different accent... it was getting on my nerves.
The immigration officer at the Thai border station in Nong Khai welcomed me back to Thailand and my heart skipped a beat.
There were the photos of their majesties over the government building, the touts trying to get us to take their taxis to the train station and most importantly - a 7-Eleven, found on every block of the entire kingdom. I felt at home again.
Nong Khai, the town at the Thai border, is nothing to look at - but it's clear that the small dusty little Thai town has more development than most of Laos - for better and worse.
As we made our way past the 7-11, the street carts, the rows of ATMs to the Nong Khai train station, everything - including the accents started making perfect sense.
I realized in that moment that Thailand may not be the international love of my life like Bali, France or even Hong Kong - but it was my first love. And you never forget a first love. Thailand is the only place where I really learned another language and the place that got me started on living abroad and loving travel. Thailand will always have a special place in my heart.
However, the overnight train to Bangkok will not. There's nothing wrong with the train, there's just nothing right with it. Thailand puts its oldest train cars on the routes through the poor provinces of the Northeast. Since the advent of cheap domestic flights, mostly backpackers and locals use the trains, which means the State Railway of Thailand doesn't need to impress anyone on that route. Accordingly, I was unimpressed.
Still, the train was clean, comfortable enough and it did the trick. Our 12-hour train ride pulled in an hour late, which is remarkably good time for a Thai train. Train sleep is never good sleep, so despite having berths, Emily and I are absolutely exhausted today. Of course it didn't help that Emily started her day at 5:30 with a man pulling back the curtain of her upper berth, shoving a cup of coffee in her face and saying "You, coffee. You order!"
Both at the beginning of our trip and at the end, we chatted with a 26 year-old German girl sitting across the aisle from us. She has been backpacking around Asia for six months and has one month left before heading home to Bavaria. She quit her job because she didn't like her boss, told her boyfriend she'd see him in six months and took off on an adventure - staying at $3 a night hostels in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. She had just come from a three day trek outside of Luang Prabang during which she and some other backpackers visited minority hill tribe villages.
The girl was exactly what we would expect on a Thai train from Nong Khai to Bangkok. In chatting with her, Emily and I enjoyed her enthusiasm and adventurous spirit while at the same time realizing - once again - that we are at a different place in life. We fuss about underperforming air conditioners and slow WiFi in big, nice hotel rooms instead of stay in large, open rooms with 30 dormitory-style bunks and a fan. We took the train once for kicks - as an option - while our German friend was on a 12 hour train following 24 hours of buses.
We're very fortunate - even more than we realized going into this. We haven't had to sacrifice in any way and we've done everything we wanted. It seems that's the upside of traveling in your 30's instead of backpacking in your 20's. We're very okay with that.
Bangkok is a capitol of more than 12 million people in a country of more than 60 million. Vientiane is a capitol of 262,000 in a country of 6 million. The contrast could not be more stark.
This big, modern metropolis has welcomed us back for the fourth time in our trip - and we're just as happy to see it each time. The city has undergone a giant facelift since I lived here in 2001-2002 and it's far more enjoyable. It has every modern convenience in a still very Thai package. There's incredible wealth, an growing, upwardly mobile middle class and some very severe poverty. It has texture and depth behind the very visible organized chaos.
Best yet, we walked into our hotel where everyone now recognizes us and received an incredibly friendly welcome. We have an exceedingly comfortable room, fantastic WiFi, a delicious buffet breakfast, a sweeping view and a wonderful location in a very nice neighborhood.
To my great delight, the people on the nearby soi (alley where Bangkok life really occurs) remembered us. I knew all the networking from previous visits paid off when the laundry people asked us where we've been and why they haven't seen us in so long. They took great joy in the fact that we had just come from Laos and enjoyed exchanging some Lao expressions. We even laughed about how Lao pronounce the phrase for Thai iced tea. Oh, those silly Lao.... I have laundry friends for life - which means our shirts will come back ironed. It's all about back-soi networking.
We have nine days in Bangkok. We might take a day trip to Kanachanaburi this weekend if things work out. But there's no pressure and no rush. We're just going to enjoy our last stop in Southeast Asia. I'm not sure exactly what will happen here, but no doubt it will include many massages, lots of the world's best street food and plenty of laughs in the back-soi.
Second and third photos look like prize winning photos.
Posted by: Lauree Feigenbaum | 06/09/2011 at 09:38 PM