This week’s on this day post comes from the 20th-January-2012, and I’ve finished with China, and I’m now crossing into Laos, country number thirteen, on my ride to Australia. Out of all the borders I’d crossed on this trip, this was the one that worried me the most. It was visa on entry, and the Chinese visa that had taken me so to get in Bangladesh was single entry only. So once I’d left China, that was it. There was no going back. I just had to hope that I’d got the requirements for a Laos visa right. And they’d let me in.
Friday 20th January 2012 – Mengla, China to Na Mo, Laos, 64 miles
Something seems to have gone wrong today! The mountains have disappeared! Well, they haven’t exactly disappeared. It’s just they’ve not been on my road. It’s the first time I’ve had a flat ride since arriving in China!
I must admit that the past week has been the hardest cycling I’ve ever had! Most mountainous areas I’ve cycled in before haven’t been as intense! It’s been none stop up and down here. Usually, I’ll climb a mountain, come down the other side, and that would be it for a while. But here, no sooner had I come down off one climb than I’d be peddling uphill again! There was no flat cycling in between at all! Hopefully, Laos is going to be a bit kinder to me.
I arrived at the Chinese border around midday and went into the customs office to get my exit stamp. I just hoped I was right about Laos being visa-on-entry! There was only one way to find out! And with a loud thud, that was it. The customs officer stamped my passport, and I was no longer welcome in China! I returned to my bike and rode the ten feet or so up to the checkpoint. The border guard looked at my passport and looked at me, then stepped in front of my bike and ordered me to walk the last five feet over the border!
No Going Back
Once out of China and in no man’s land, I got back on my bike. The Laos border was about 500 metres down a slight hill. As I cycled down to the Laos checkpoint, I was scouting the area for somewhere to pitch my tent, just in case they didn’t let me in! I reached the Laos border control office. A long building with several windows. People were already queueing at some of the windows, but not at the window I needed! The visa upon-entry window was free, but nobody was there. So I joined the queue that said entry stamp. I’d already filled out a visa form in Bangladesh while waiting for my flight to China.
Forty-five minutes I waited in that queue! But eventually, I was at the front, standing in front of the customs officer. I handed over my passport, he flicked through it backwards and forwards and eventually said, “visa?” I tried to explain to him that there wasn’t anybody at the visa upon entry window. He told me to go back and wait! After another thirty minutes, somebody turned up. He’d been off having something to eat! And a nap, judging by how long he’d been gone! And to rub salt in, he never even checked my visa application! But what do I care? I’d got my visa! It was then back to the other window where I was duly given an entry stamp, and I was then onto country number thirteen.
Yay, Country Number Thirteen
I’m staying in a guest house tonight, which most villages seem to have. It’s only costing me 50000 Lao Kip, which I think is under ten pounds. I need to work out the exchange rate! Hopefully, I’ll get to a city tomorrow and get some wifi. I don’t seem to have a phone signal either!
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