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We got a bus from Pakse to cross the border back into Thailand. The bus driver was very helpful with locals making sure they had their passports and immigration cards but were not so helpful to the Westeners, we repeatedly ask him for Immigration cards and he ignored us, but eventually gave in as we got nearer to the border. Again the border crossing was just chaos with no organisation what so ever. Considering its suppose to be a very important requirement they are really not bothered with how they deal with such important documents. We received our passports back all stamped and ok for us to enter back into Thailand. There was a large group of us all on the same bus and Lee and I went to the loo before we crossed the border. When we came out it was like everyone had disappeared, even the bus had gone. So we just guessed what direction everyone had walked and passed through immigration back into Thailand, the land of smiles. We got back on the bus and made our to way Ubon Ratchathani. Ubon is a city in Southern Issan referred to as Ubon and there is very much Lao influence in the architectural structure of some of the city's buildings. We had a short tuk tuk ride and arrived at a lovely little hotel tucked away down a side street. The staff came out and carried our luggage and we was soon checked in and taken to our room which we was really pleased with as the hotel was new. We freshened up and decided to go for a walk to get something eat. When we drove in by tuk tuk it seemed like there was plenty of places to eat but once we started walking we realised that it was just the odd food stalls and nothing written in English so we realised that we had entered into a bit of unknown territory as it seemed Ubon was not that open to tourists. Although it was still Thai they have their own dialect and we heard very little of the sawadee or kop kun kar which we love to hear in Thai. I did remember a pizza place on our way in so we tried to find that, after about an hour of walking we gave up but then just happened to catch a glimpse of the road it was on as we was walking back to the hotel. So we ended up in a little Italian place and had a nice meal and went back to our hotel. All seemed well until about an hour after we was asleep doors started banging and lots of noise was going on along the corridor. We opened the door and the room next to us it seemed was having a party. We tried to settle down then somebody tried our hotel door so we started to freak out a little bit and not sure what to do. It did quieten down and we managed to get some sleep. The next day we went for breakfast and the staff were just lovely friendly, they spoke very little English but went out of there way to make sure we was ok and enjoyed our breakfast. One of the girls just had the most beautiful smile and you know why Thailand is called the land of smiles because all though they can't always speak to you a smile says it all.
We wasn't ready to give on Ubon yet but decided we would move hotels and found a hotel nearer the city centre. We checked out and booked a taxi to our next hotel. It was a bit run down and was probably a bit grand in its earlier days and the room was a bit dated but it was comfortable and clean so we decided to leave the hotel and go for a walk. We found a tourist information centre and picked up a map ready to explore this city but apart from a few temples and the candle festival there was nothing happening. So we went back to the hotel went on the Internet and decided to move on, so out next stop was going to be Nakon Ratchisma.
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