Border crossing into Laos

After a brisk ride to the Friendship bridge from Udon Thani we arrived at Nong Khai at about 10am. Upon arrival we realised that the luggage rack on David's bike had snapped leaving  the top box held on by a couple of bolts. Being that we were alot closer to Vientiane we decided to engage Macguyver mode so out came the bungee cords to save the day. After adding some support, securing the box to the bike we very cautiously headed through the Thai border crossing and over the bridge into Vientiane.

Upon arrival at the Laos border, everything seemed to be going well until it came time to head to Room 105 {The Laos Customs officials} to finalise and stamp the export papers for the bikes. It was at this stage that the official pointed out that part of the paperwork had not been completed by Amarin specifying who was authorised to take the bikes out of Thailand. (The only form completely in Thai}. As such the official advised we would need to return to Thailand to have this completed by the registered owner before we could proceed across the border.

As you can imagine we were somewhat frustrated at this point and attempted to contact Amarin back in Thailand to see if he could fill out and fax new papers to the Laos border to permit us to pass. Whilst waiting for s response from Amarin we got talking to the officials and explained we do this every year and exactly what we were coming to Laos to do {Good causes etc}. Once this was established and it was clear from our passports that this was a regular thing for us, he decided to go and speak to the head of immigration and customs who very kindly authorised our crossing with incomplete paperwork. With a sigh of relief and many Kop Jai Lai Lai's we were on our way into Laos.

Amarin organised with a good man Fuark in Vientiane to replace the luggage rack on David's bike while we were here before heading north. A fun ride through Vientiane and it's immensely insane traffic  and we arrived at the Leuxay Hotel, our favourite stop in VT.  Back into air conditioning to cool down before we headed out for some well deserved lunch at Joma Bakery in town for a nice sandwich and cold drinks. That hit the spot!

We headed to the local Mini mart to purchase our Laos Unitel simcards and then back to the hotel to escape the heat and get us back online. Tomorrow morning we will be heading to Fuark's shop to get the rack replaced which we hope is the last motorcycle related issue for the trip. Touch wood!

Tomorrow we will be heading for the EDF Laos offices to pick up our book order and then meeting up with Vongsamays daughter to arrange transport of the books to the Sainamhai resort for the Ban Oh village book party in just over a week.

Currently eating dinner at Kop Chai Deu Restaurant, another favourite in VT and our food has now arrived so time to push the button.

All in all a long but good day and happy to be in Laos once again.