ThePete Doherty Tour (A baby shambles) Part I (To Luang Prabang)
I like to travel by the seat of my pants. Partly because I like to think that’s the best way to travel, partly because I don’t like to be ‘locked in’ to any particular plan, but mainly because I am an intensely disorganized guy and like to label my incompetence something more palatable .. I call it ‘spontaneous’ … yeah... I’m spontaneous.
So an hour before I left for the airport I realized that I was going to arrive in Bangkok at midnight with no guidebook (as I left it in a friends car), no hostel booking, and no real idea. So I was convinced (thanks date) to call somewhere and book. They were full, but the next place dutifully took down my booking.
I had (obviously) left my camera in Australia (it is with you, right Mr and Mrs Cohen?), so I brought one duty free as my flight was in final call. Not realizing the battery would be flat and that an Australian connector probably wasn’t going to be the same as Thailand.
I got into a cab and realized I didn’t have directions in Thai for the hostel. And they don’t read English, and I don’t speak Thai. But I knew roughly where it was. Shouldn’t be a problem.
A very long time later I arrived, at about 1am. There are three hostels together, and not a lot else in this area. I walked past the nice one (that was full) to the other one (that had my booking). Only they didn’t (they don't know how to 'take' the booking, let alone how to'hold' the booking). And they were full. And it was 1am. And I was tired. And she offered me the massage table (which turned out to be generous, but was weird at the start as I thought she was offering me a massage). I ended up getting the last room at the other place. I was last minute and lucky. My theme for the week.
At 9am the next morning I spent an hour online trying to figure out the best way to get to Laos. At 10 I realized it was a flight that left at 12.30. At 10.01 I realized I didn’t have enough money on my credit card. At 10.30 the bank registered my transfer, let me buy a ticket. As I got into a taxi at 10.45 I realized I hadn’t asked the hostel guy if I could leave my bag with him for a week, that I didn’t have enough Thai currency to pay the taxi driver (and the departure tax) and at 11.30 I arrived at the airport and got on the flight.
Arriving in Luang Prabang airport is a funny thing. It is a single runway that ends next to a kinda house. But customs is where it gets odd. You need two passport photos and a very specific amount of US currency (varies by country) for the visa. I obviously didn’t have the photos but I had cleaned out my currency draw at home and put it in my pack. I had 60 Canadian, 500 pesos, 1 quetzal (Brazil), 60 pounds and $27US. The first queue you gave them your photos that everyone had. I explained my predicament (not that I am an idiot who doesn’t read visa info, but that they had mysteriously disappeared). They would sort me out for a $1. Sweet, now have $26
Next queue was the visa. There three pages of typed text that was a price list. I have never seen anything like it. Canada was $22, UK and almost all of Europe was $30, US and Switzerland were $35. It was bizarre. Australia: $25!
Taxi ride to the city: $1US.
Got a very nice hostel, had my first shower for the trip (I didn’t bring a towel, but this hostel supplied them (and soap…. Which I also didn’t have). They also had an international converter (so that’s where my photos start).
So an hour before I left for the airport I realized that I was going to arrive in Bangkok at midnight with no guidebook (as I left it in a friends car), no hostel booking, and no real idea. So I was convinced (thanks date) to call somewhere and book. They were full, but the next place dutifully took down my booking.
I had (obviously) left my camera in Australia (it is with you, right Mr and Mrs Cohen?), so I brought one duty free as my flight was in final call. Not realizing the battery would be flat and that an Australian connector probably wasn’t going to be the same as Thailand.
I got into a cab and realized I didn’t have directions in Thai for the hostel. And they don’t read English, and I don’t speak Thai. But I knew roughly where it was. Shouldn’t be a problem.
A very long time later I arrived, at about 1am. There are three hostels together, and not a lot else in this area. I walked past the nice one (that was full) to the other one (that had my booking). Only they didn’t (they don't know how to 'take' the booking, let alone how to'hold' the booking). And they were full. And it was 1am. And I was tired. And she offered me the massage table (which turned out to be generous, but was weird at the start as I thought she was offering me a massage). I ended up getting the last room at the other place. I was last minute and lucky. My theme for the week.
At 9am the next morning I spent an hour online trying to figure out the best way to get to Laos. At 10 I realized it was a flight that left at 12.30. At 10.01 I realized I didn’t have enough money on my credit card. At 10.30 the bank registered my transfer, let me buy a ticket. As I got into a taxi at 10.45 I realized I hadn’t asked the hostel guy if I could leave my bag with him for a week, that I didn’t have enough Thai currency to pay the taxi driver (and the departure tax) and at 11.30 I arrived at the airport and got on the flight.
Arriving in Luang Prabang airport is a funny thing. It is a single runway that ends next to a kinda house. But customs is where it gets odd. You need two passport photos and a very specific amount of US currency (varies by country) for the visa. I obviously didn’t have the photos but I had cleaned out my currency draw at home and put it in my pack. I had 60 Canadian, 500 pesos, 1 quetzal (Brazil), 60 pounds and $27US. The first queue you gave them your photos that everyone had. I explained my predicament (not that I am an idiot who doesn’t read visa info, but that they had mysteriously disappeared). They would sort me out for a $1. Sweet, now have $26
Next queue was the visa. There three pages of typed text that was a price list. I have never seen anything like it. Canada was $22, UK and almost all of Europe was $30, US and Switzerland were $35. It was bizarre. Australia: $25!
Taxi ride to the city: $1US.
Got a very nice hostel, had my first shower for the trip (I didn’t bring a towel, but this hostel supplied them (and soap…. Which I also didn’t have). They also had an international converter (so that’s where my photos start).
posted by underwhleming at 4:55 AM
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