It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been in Thailand now for around ninety days. During this time, I’ve adjusted to the new culture, learned some of the language, and built some incredible relationships. It’s truly been a remarkable experience. However, unfortunately for me, ninety days is also the duration of my visa. I’m not quite ready to come home yet, so this meant I had to embark on a visa run to Laos in the hope of applying for and receiving another visa. Please fasten your seatbelts because this week was such a wild ride.

Immigration and the Visa Process

My visa was set to expire on December 5, and overstaying it wasn’t an option, as it can lead to fines, jail time, and even deportation. Needless to say, I didn’t want to take that risk, so I left Thailand with a week’s buffer in hopes of acquiring a new visa. In theory, the process was simple enough: exit Thailand and enter Laos, apply for and receive a visa from the Thai Embassy, and head back into Thailand. Boy, was that wishful thinking! This process was the most frustrating thing I’ve had to do on my trip thus far. Honestly, it might even be in the running for the most stressful thing I’ve had to do in my life.

Thailand and Laos are separated by the Mekong River, so I had to enter into Laos via the First Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge. Getting into Laos was the easiest part of this whole process. Pa Lam dropped me off at the Thai immigration checkpoint, I stamped out of the country, and I boarded the bus across the bridge. It was a short five-minute ride across the river until I reached the Laos checkpoint. Here, all I had to do was complete my visa on arrival form, pay the $40 fee, and hand them my passport. Within fifteen minutes, I was granted a thirty-day tourist visa and was stamped into Laos. I then hopped on the green bus #14 and headed to my hotel.

The next day, I headed to the Thai Embassy in order to submit my application. This is where the unpleasantness begins. I was told that I could pay a fee for the embassy to make a copy of my passport and take my headshot; however, this wasn’t the case. There was a group of guys under a tarp across the road who were making copies and taking photos. I ended up having to pay their inflated price so I could actually complete the application. Once I reached the counter, I presented the immigration officer with my paperwork. I was extremely confident that I had everything I needed as, I had triple-checked everything. However, to my dismay, I was told that I was missing a copy of the ID from a school director who had written me an endorsement letter.

As I’m sure you can imagine, this is when panic ensued. After all, I only had an hour and a half to get a copy of his ID. I quickly ran to my hotel and called Pa Lam. She went to work on trying to send me a scan of the ID. After an excruciating fifty-minute wait, I was finally sent the picture and was able to get the hotel to print it for me. I then ran back to the embassy, turned in my paperwork, and paid the fee. This whole experience undoubtedly shaved some years off my life.

Online, the embassy said turnover time was one day, but in actuality, I was told it was two days. As a result, I had to go back to my hotel (see a common theme here?) and extend my stay another night. Once my two days were up, I headed back to the embassy. While waiting in line, I met a Brit named John. We really hit it off and exchanged some stories. I learned that he’d lived in Thailand for around ten years and works as a scuba instructor. Grumbling to each other about the ridiculousness of the immigration process was quite the catharsis for my visa blues. After queuing for a short while, John and I were both given our passports. To our surprise, we were both granted visas. We decided to split a cab together and immediately headed to the Friendship Bridge.

Once at the Friendship Bridge, we jumped out of the cab and ran to the bus station. We paid our fare, hopped onto the bus, and rode across the bridge. Neither John nor I particularly loved Vientiane, so we were ecstatic to be leaving. When the bus stopped at the Thai checkpoint, we quickly exited and filled out our arrival and departure forms. We then got in line and waited to cross into Thailand. John reached immigration first, and I could tell he was having some issues. He was sent away and pulled me out of line. It turns out that in our frenzy to leave Laos, we forgot to actually stamp out of the country. We were physically outside of the country, but legally, we were still inside. Essentially, this left us in No Man’s Land, and there was nothing Thai immigration could do.

Once again, immediate panic ensued. John and I hopped on another bus and headed back across the Mekong into Laos. Once at the Laos checkpoint, we had to cross the road and head through the departure booth. It turns out, we previously ran behind the booth instead of through it. This time, we went through the proper channels and got officially stamped out of Laos. For the third time, we once again hopped on a bus and crossed the river. We were then able to make it through Thai immigration without any problems. It felt good to finally be back in Thailand.

As I’m sure you can imagine, this visa process was a nightmare. For one, it disrupted my life back in Plaboo. I ended up missing a week of school and fell quite behind in grading papers. Additionally, it seemed like the process was intentionally complicated for no reason. This made everything so stressful, as I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to return to TBA. Luckily, everything worked out in the end, and I was granted another ninety-day visa—which is good as it’ll take that long to emotionally recover. Additionally, I suppose this is the best time to officially announce that I’m planning to extend my stay here until the end of February. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but I ultimately felt like I owed it to my students to finish out the semester.

Navigating Vientiane

Vientiane is the capital of Laos and a relatively small city, but at first, navigating it proved to be a bit of a challenge. For one, my phone was nothing more than a glorified paperweight. My Thai SIM card obviously only works in Thailand, and I refused to waste money on a Laotian SIM card when I was only planning to stay for a few days. Ultimately, this meant that I couldn’t rely on using my GPS for getting around the city. Instead, I used a map at the hotel to familiarize myself with the area and mentally plot out my routes before I embarked on any excursions. I also quickly learned that the tuk-tuk drivers were trouble, so I opted to take the public bus and walk as much as possible.

Perhaps my favorite story about navigating the city isn’t particularly interesting, but I’m quite proud of it. I decided that it was finally time for a haircut and a shave, so I set off on a twenty-minute walk to a barber shop. Once I arrived, they told me that they couldn’t squeeze me in until the next hour, so I went back to walking. I found a local coffee shop that just happened to be in the Christmas spirit. The walls were decorated with wreaths and garland, and they had Christmas music playing on the speakers. It was the perfect place to kill time before my appointment.

After getting my haircut, I began the trek back to the hotel. On the way, I decided to stop at a street food/outside restaurant for lunch. This was clearly a local hole in the wall, as there weren’t any foreigners in sight. To my disbelief, I managed to convey my dietary restrictions to the waitstaff, order food, and pay for the bill while only speaking Thai. Sure, it wasn’t eloquent, and I had to repeat myself a few times, but this was a confidence booster for my language learning. Ultimately, I’m just proud that I was able to navigate Vientiane without needing to rely on my phone or English.