Last night and today was time for me to do my first visa run that has been tried and true by others. The journey itself is fairly inexpensive, about $20 each way from Bangkok to the border town of Nong Khai before hopping the border and getting into the capital city of Vientiane, Laos which costs only a couple bucks. 
Of course part of the reason why it is so inexpensive is due to the fact that I’m doing a lot of walking and I’m DIYing the process which puts more work on my end. It also leaves room for a lot more confusion and screwups. For instance, I walked across the friendship bridge not knowing that I had to get stamped out on the Thai side before going to Laos. Unsurprisingly, I was the only one walking the bridge with signs in Thai marking the sidewalk as closed.

In addition, the Royal Thai Embassy and the Royal Thai Consulate are 2 separate buildings. This added to the stress of getting off a 10 hour bus, misinterpreting the border crossing procedure and arriving in a new country without an internet connection. 

I was able to get everything submitted in time though, now it’s time to wait until Monday where hopefully I can get the work visa. I fell asleep on a bench afterwards and didn’t do much the rest of the day. I’ll save the exploring for tomorrow.

Kingston S. Lim

July 19, 2019

Vientiane, Laos