Long Day of Travel

I decided to bring my time in Vientiane to an end and make the long trip home to Pattaya. I hopped in a Tuk Tuk early in the morning and started my journey. The Tuk Tuk took me to the bus station in the center of town where I caught a city bus to the Friendship bridge which goes over the Mae Khong River to Thailand.

I got something to eat and drink on the Lao side of the river and then changed my Lao Kip for Thai Baht trying to keep enough Kip to pay for the bus to get over the bridge. Immigration for leaving Laos was painless and then I bought my buss ticket. You can not walk over the bridge and the bus is 15,000 Kip or a little less than $1 US. Following is a shot video of the crossing.



Made it through Thai immigration with only a little bit of confusion and was in Nong Khai Thailand. I had planned on taking a minibus to the Udon Thani airport which was about an hour away but was offered a taxi for 600 Thai Baht. I don't think it was a real taxi but rather a guy that needed to go to Udon Thani and took me along to make a little bit of cash on his drive. The minibus cost 200 Baht so only about $13 US more to travel in style and save over an hour in waiting for the minibus.

I did something in Udon Thani that I have never done before in all my travels. I walked up to a ticket counter and said I want a ticket on your next flight. Really I asked how much is a ticket on your next flight to Bangkok but it sounds more decadent to not care about the cost. I handed over the cash and was on the plane a little over an hour later.

I arrived in Don Mueang airport on the north side of Bangkok. I had to decide how to get from there to Pattaya. I picked taking a bus from the Ekkamai terminal in the center of the city. To get to the terminal I took a bus to the BTS (Bangkok Sky Train) station and the train to Ekkamai.

It was an enjoyable bus ride setting next to an Australian that said he stopped working about 10 years ago and has been traveling the past 10 years. We exchanged travel stories on the 2 and a half hour bus ride.

Once in Pattaya I figured I could easily catch a Taxi to travel the remaining 4 miles to home via a phone app. The app kept searching for a driver and then would say no drivers available. I just started walking in the direction of home. The app finally found a driver that was 15 minutes away. I found a seat and wait until the driver showed up and took me home.

I made the trip home in about 13 hours and covered a distance of about 600 kilometer or 375 miles using 5 different types of transport. A good day of travel but was really happy to be home.