At the Lao border

I have to say I've never crossed an international boundary by foot. It seems ungainly to be doing this towing luggage on wheels, a little like Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone with her $400 pumps in the jungle. Anyhow, sure enough, my $30 ride from Ubon Ratchathani to the border town of Chong Mek drops me off at what seems to be like a nice truck stop. I wonder how I'll figure this out- not much is written in english, and frankly, at this point, the Lao writing looks a lot like the Thai writing, a fact that doesn't help of course.

Anyhow, I make through departure, then head over to do VOA (Visa on Arrival).

Cool thing happens- a woman next to me- I glance at her passport- Myanmar! She comes to me as I finish filling out my form, which is in English and Lao, and asks me to help her- she doesn't read either. So I try to get info from her- her occupation, how long she's staying, where all the fields that we have to fill out. We don't understand ea. other- at least she speaks a few words of english, more than I can say about Burmese.

But luckily- I asked her to wait- luckily, I'm able to pull out my Burmese phrase book. "You going to Burma too?" Yes, I smile back, to Yangon and Bagan. "Very beautiful," she says of the latter.

So anyhow, we try our best to fill the form out, which, on second thought, won't be understood by the Lao border folks anyhow. So she's seems to be able to get through no problem.

My ride shows up from KingFisher lodge. And we head to the market!