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Location Date Tue, 27 April 2010 1272368279 Sat, 24 April 2010 
1272108870
UBON RATCHATHANI, THAILAND. SATURDAY APRIL 24 2010, 1930 HRS. DAY 27.
These days I've spent in Ubon have been the best ones of my journey so far. I haven't seen any Western people here at all, which is great! I really feel I'm in real Thailand now, and I feel I'm learning about the way people in Thailand live and think.
Yesterday I went to the border of Laos in search of that moonshine booze with cobras, other serpents and scorpions inside the bottles (and perhaps their poison mixed in the alcohol as well?) As the stuff is illegal both in Laos and in Thailand, I used my underground connections and finally got two bottles, shipped from Vietnam, and I managed to smuggle the stuff in Thailand… Unfortunately, I got proper f***ed by the officials at the border, and I had to pay a visa for entering (the border of) Laos for two hours… so the positive thing is that now I've officially been to Laos, and at least I got the bottles with me.
So it's time to go out and celebrate this Saturday night with some cobra moonshine straight from the bottle… bottoms up!
- comments
Mody did u eat those animals in the bottles??? I hope---not
Andrew You didn't get proper f***ed, you just followed the rules. The border crossing you mentioned (Chong Mek) has for the last 5 years enforced the need for a Laos Visa to exit Thailand and then return overland.
Tuomas Actually, I didn't need a visa to enter Laos, I just walked in there, and I could have continued my way anywhere in Laos from there. There was no mentioning about a need for a visa, there was no Thai departure card to fill, which I've needed to fill out every single time I've been leaving Thailand. I didn't even know that I had actually crossed the border and that I was in Laos. The way I see it you should be informed somehow that you are leaving a country and entering another country (in English also, not just in Thai.) Ironically, when I was going back to Thailand, I had to fill a card that I was about to leave Thailand (the departure card.) Then I had to fill a card where I say I'm arriving to Laos, when I was actually leaving Laos. Then they mention I have to 'apply' and pay for a visa to enter Laos (again, when I was leaving, not arriving.) Then I had to fill the Thai arrival card, and after that I could get out. Does not sound like the correct order of doing the byrocracy to me. But nevertheless it was my bad, of course these countries make money with tourism etc... I should have been more careful and double and triple check everything, which I didn't.