'We happy few...we band of brothers!'

I just love this picture of the monks with the dusty letters above saying in English - 'I love you'. This pic was taken in Laos in March, 2009. I was speeding behind in a Laos version of a tuk tuk and had to focus quickly and hope for the best. I think it turned out well considering.

Laos visa run - March 4-7th, 2009

This post is a record of my recent trip to Vientiane, Laos for a Non-Immigrant ‘O’ family visa.

I left early morning on the Wednesday of the 4th March. The taxi came at 5:30 am and miraculously we were at Suvarnabhumi Airport 35 minutes later. Eat your heart out Scumacher!

I had booked and paid for a return trip to Udon Thani via Air Asia. The cost was 2,099.83 baht for the return journey. The flight, FD 3360, was on time and was over before it began – only one hour in duration.


At Udon Thani Airport, I waited at the carousel for my bags, which came with the minimum of time wasted, and I was soon off to find a mini bus to take me to the Nong Khai border. The cost for this is 200 baht and you can buy a ticket before you leave the airport terminal (opposite the baggage carousel).

The journey was a pleasant one and I chatted to an English lady traveling in the country with her husband. The only event that stands out here was when we saw a guy on the ground who’d obviously been involved in a fairly serious motorbike accident and there was a fair bit of blood. If the state of his bike was anything to go by, he must’ve been in a bad way. An ambulance soon shot past us in his direction much to our relief.

At the Nong Khai border there were quite a few people intent on crossing – most of them were foreigners with a sprinkling of locals.

The process itself took about an hour or so and was relatively painless. First you had to go through the Thai side, which just simply required you to present your passport to get an exit stamp.


Then a 15 baht bus came and over the Laos Friendship Bridge we went.
There wasn’t much room on the bus so it was a bit of a squeeze especially if you have heavy bags to carry and/or take care of.


At the Laos side, we filled out the entry forms and paid the money in Window 1. Window 2 is for asking for forms and Window three

is for receiving back your passport after about 20 minutes.

Then I hooked up with a couple of English guys who had booked a taxi to take us into The Royal Thai Embassy, Vientiane for 200 baht. It was imperative that we submit our passports before 12 O’clock so we didn’t lose a day.


We went to the first counter just inside the embassy and is really nothing more than a courtyard area. We submitted our carefully prepared documents. I was very surprised to find that they were not interested in my financial statements as that was the reason Suan Phlu in Bangkok rejected my application before for the Non O visa e.g. that all my money was in GBP in an offshore account and not in Thai baht. The only thing they queried in terms of my application was my photos (you need two here) as I hadn’t had time to get more printed professionally and resorted to printing out two from my computer via my colour printer. I really hadn’t expected to get away with it and they were pretty scrupulous about this.

After all the documents were submitted, we headed for Mongkol Hotel http://www.vientiane-hotel-link.com/Mongkol_Hotel at the recommendation of the taxi driver. It’s on the river about a 20-minute drive from the embassy. The view from the hotel road is pretty awe inspiring as it looks over the Mekong rive onto the Thai side and the sunsets are pretty spectacular.

As I was the main Thai speaker, I negotiated three rooms all for 800 baht each. This included 2 doubles and a twin. I took the twin. After a quick wash and brush up, we went off to sample some of the local ‘amber nectar in’ the form of Beer Laos. Several bottles later we hit the hay.

The next day we had the hotel breakfast which is available between 7-10 am (included in the 800 baht price) which was really nice and consisted of the usual and ubiquitous American breakfast delights: eggs, ham, bacon, salad, fruit, orange juice, toast and coffee. To look at, the coffee is like treacle though, but tastes ok.
After that, we went for a walk and toured the local scenery along the main arterial road that brought us to the hotel the day before. We then stopped and had some snacks in a nearby ‘ran ahan-cum-noodle shop’. The great thing about Laos is that everyone speaks Thai so if you have a smidgeon of the language it goes a long way in Vientiane.
At about midday we headed back to the embassy and as it was not open till 1pm, we imbibed a few drinks in the little ‘ran deum’ shop across the street from the embassy. At about 1:15 the embassy gates opened (apparently the rumour was that the chubby Princess was visiting that day hence the delay).
The process for reclaiming your passport complete with stamp is that you get a laminated card with a number on it from the guard just inside the embassy gates. There were about 100+ of these cards given out so that should give you an indication of a normal day’s traffic there to collect passports.
I’d say it took about 30-40 minutes to get my passport back, but I was one of the later ones to join the queue. If you want it faster, then get there early is probably the best bet. I wasn’t in any hurry as I was planning to stay another night in the hotel.
I said goodbye to the English guys I had met and headed back to the hotel. The following morning I arranged for a taxi to the border by talking to the tuk tuk guys outside the hotel. If you book a taxi from the airport, they’ll charge you 400 baht irrespective of whether there is one person or 4 so take the tuk tuks outside. I got mine for just over US$7 (about 250 baht). We then headed for the border again which took exactly 45 minutes and was pleasant drive with a strong morning breeze.

At the border, I filled out the exit/departure card for Laos and submitted it. Then it was just a matter of paying 10 baht to cross over the bridge again to the Thai side which took about half an hour in total. I then filled out the arrival’s card for the Thai immigration. Make sure you have one of these if you can as they don’t leave them out and you have to find the right person to give you one. This is on top of trying to regain your position in the queue, which is pretty long. Fortunately for me, I had helped a girl with her bag to get into the bus and she returned the favour by moving my bag up a place whilst I ran around looking for the arrival’s card giver-outer!

From there I got the single entry stamp as expected, which gave me 90 days. I crossed over no problem onto the Thai side and had an annoying pick up driver trying to badger me to taking a 700 baht trip in his truck. I had to be rude just to get rid of him. The best way is to take a tuk tuk outside the Nong Khai border. They come every few mins, fill up quickly and take you to TESCO lotus in Nong Khai. The cost is only 50 baht each person.

From there you can walk through the TESCO car park, then across the main road opposite and wait for the blue, inter city ‘rot tooa’ coaches which go by pretty frequently. I got one to Udon Thani in about 20 minutes and arrived in Udon about an hour later after picking everyone along the way except for a few camels!

The bus then rolled in to Udon Thani bus station and I took an 80-baht taxi to the town center (‘klang muang’) on the recommendation of a local ran ahan lady owner and her son who recommended Udon hotel.

The hotel was cheaper and nicer than the hotel in Laos. It was 520 baht including a nice breakfast. There are nicer facilities too like three Riley snooker tables at 80 baht per hour and there’s a great spa place on the second floor where you can be entertained by 4 ladies chatting throughout the foot massage. The foot massage was 200 baht but the bellboy told me earlier that it was actually only 150 baht but I didn’t query it given the cheapness of the price.

That night I slept like a baby. The room was clean and had a huge bath tub as well which I took advantage of after my massage. I had the fabulous breakfast and took a tuk tuk outside the hotel again for 80 baht. The airport is only about 6 kms from the hotel or so the reception staff told me. The driver wanted 120 baht to start with but I bargained him down and gave him the 80 baht plus a 10 baht tip.

One thing I will say about Air Asia though is that if you wanted to check in your bags early, you can’t as the check in desk doesn’t open till two hours before your flight which means you have to check out of your hotel before 12 and hang around for a few hours. Still, I didn’t mind and knocked a few balls around on a snooker table to kill an hour.

The return flight was as easy and relaxed as the original one and the airline staff were friendly and chatty.

All in all I would fully recommend this trip to anyone intent on getting a new visa as I have been to Cambodia and Penang and neither compare with how easy this trip was for me.

Good luck. Do post your comments and questions on my blog if you have any or need further clarification. And feel free to check out other photos, which I have put on Photobucket. See the link below.

Bon voyage!

Laos visa run pictures - March 4-7th, 2009

Photobucket Album

Crimespree Magazine: Colin Cotterill From Issue 15 -Nov/Dec 2006

Crimespree Magazine: Colin Cotterill From Issue 15 -Nov/Dec 2006

If it looks like a duck…

I recently lamented the state of the nation and with the product of so many of the UK’s schools: kids turning out with little respect for others, less themselves. (http://www.speakwithoutinterruption.com/site/2009/02/anonymous-arrogance/comment-page-1/#comment-99") We have produced a youth of today that finds it much easier to deliberately diss the efforts of others, where young people get seem to get some kind of Schadenfreude joy. I think it’s sad but true. So let’s call it what it is and not duck the issue.

Yet there are those in the education sector who believe that all is well with the system and that no child has been ‘left behind’. Too much testing, a rigorous ‘teach-for-the-test’ approach, a rigid, failsafe way to produce results not smart, creative individuals, is what’s at the heart of the British system, but it is not the only problem.

If you read the report that came out recently about youngsters in the UK being the unhappiest in the developed world, you’ll know what I mean. Here’s the headline - ‘Childhood ruined by ‘me-first’ society, landmark report claims - Children’s lives are being blighted by Britain’s selfish society, a landmark report has concluded.’ Here’s the URL if you’re interested (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/4435100/Childhood-ruined-by-me-first-society-landmark-report-claims.html)

As the author of the article says,

‘The Good Childhood Inquiry claims that almost all of the problems now facing young people stem from the culture of “excessive individualism” that has developed in recent decades. It says the “me-first” attitude of adults is causing family breakdowns, competition in education, a growing gap between rich and poor, unkindness among teenagers and premature sexualisation by advertisers. The pioneering two-year investigation, backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and based on interviews with 35,000 children, parents and professionals, claims British children are less happy than those in almost any other developed country.’

How strange then to read in The Daily Telegraph this morning that the root cause of so much of this misery is connected to the recruitment system. We learnt today for example that Almost 7,000 criminals 'applied to be teachers' last year’. The convictions were uncovered in a Freedom of Information request to the Criminal Records Bureau. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/4787846/Almost-7000-criminals-applied-to-be-teachers-last-year.html)

Is it any wonder with these problems that today’s kids are turning out with a ‘me me me’ attitude with absolutely zero respect for the world they find themselves in? If 7,000 were criminals were detected, it’s more than possible that twice that number applied and are now teaching in schools up and down the country. Is it any wonder then that the kids grow up full of resentment given these problems? When the morals they learn at school play a big part in defining who the will become as adults?

A spokesman for the The Department for Children, Schools and Families said, ‘It's important to remember that these figures are for people who applied for a job in teaching and do not refer to those who were appointed. These figures show the system is effective in blocking those who should not be working with children. And since 2007, tough new regulations provide that all those convicted or cautioned of sex offences against children are automatically barred from working with them.’

Somehow I do not feel reassured by these words.

Too much monkey business?

Last Sunday, I wrote a blog in which I castigated the money men, the kind of people who've been around for aeons; the kind that Jesus kicked out of the temples for usury. No, I'm not talking about the Jews of that time but today's equivalents: the corporate titans, the Wall Street shakers and movers who single-handedly destroyed the American and world economies with their insatiable greed.

I compared their behaviour to the new study that suggests that monkeys cooperate better when they are threatened by an external force, in the case I mentioned with real monkeys, the Ice Age and the dominance of Alpha males who try to hoard all the food supplies.

Now it appears that there is a right royal row going on in America about equating the American president, Obama, as a monkey that has been shot. That's what the cartoon was about in The New York Post and which caused a few people to raise their eyebrows, most notably the Reverend Al Sharpton who demonstrated against it calling ti a clear case of racism.

Am I missing something here? Are we not allowed to joke anymore? Are we not allowed to indulge in that age old practice of satire? Of being able to lampoon those whose task it is to protect and serve us? Our politicians? Our policemen? Our journalists?

The creator of the cartoon, Col Allan, stands by the cartoon and is on record as having meant the following only to be interpreted from the cartoon:

'The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy.'

Is Mr. Sharpton trying to jump on a political bandwagon here? Trying some political posturing or jousting? Trying to stir up racial hatred? It does seem to me that he has blown it out of proportion in tandem with whatever hidden agenda he is currently following?

The Huffington Post says, 'At its most benign, the cartoon suggest that the stimulus bill was so bad, monkeys may well have written it. Others believe it compares the president to a roabid chimp.'

I'd be really interested to know what other people think.

Quit monkeying around...

I read with interest that the origin of our very human sense of morality is not something handed down by God as in the Ten Commandments, but in something much more mundane and organic.


According to the study done on primates by Professor Frans de Waal, who led the study at Emory University in Georgia, monkeys and apes can make judgements about fairness, offer sympathy and comfort and help and remember obligations.

This occurred because at some point in the past, probably through a perceived threat from Alpha males who hogged all the food supplies, or because of the Ice Age where food was scarce, cooperation was vital for survival, and this sense of a shared morality came about.

One wonders then about the wise monkeys in the finance sectors e.g. those corporate titans on Wall Street and elsewhere who caused the world recession. Was that why they were so greedy? Because there was no major external threat to their activities and therefore they didn't need to act morally? They didn't need to cooperate other than when it ensured a decent plunder of the financial system?


So are these people corporate monkeys or corporate flunkeys?