280707 Udon Thani to Friendship Bridge

'Airing the butt' of a ชัยภูมิ Chaiyaphum-หนองคาย Nong Khai bus to cool its insides - common sight in bus stations across Thailand:


Long overdue gratuitous public transport vehicle photo for the author of the Thai Mass Transport blog who has been a help to the cat :)

All the cat knows about Chaiyaphum is that the guy who runs Thai Noodle House along Coronation Rd in Singapore comes from that province.

Random pic of Udon Thani city #1 - first time seeing a temple with red walls:



Random pic of Udon Thani city #2 - a scene out of anywhere in provincial Thailand (with farm tractor advert banner):



The Thai-Lao international bus from Udon Thani to Khua Din bus station in Vientiane:


Gratuitous public transport vehicle photo for the author of the Thai Mass Transport blog

This service uses buses from both Transport Co. (Thai company) & a Lao company, the difference is easily seen from the side of the bus on which the doors & driver's seats are located. Once in a while Thai passengers will walk to the wrong side of a Lao bus & Lao passengers will walk to the wrong side of a Thai bus to hunt for the door :P On board with the Project Metta Heart 3 guys & us was a Lao guy who works as a guide bringing rich Vientiane residents on tours to Singapore.

How times have changed - even nagas have to cross via the Friendship Bridge instead of swimming across the Mekong :P



Photos taken on 03 Aug 2007

The muddy Mekong:



This was the cat's first time entering Laos by road, & first time seeing how the lanes crossed on the Lao side so that vehicles could switch between driving on the left hand side of the road in Thailand & on the right hand side in Laos.

On the Lao side of the Friendship Bridge, after clearing immigration:



Photos by K-san

The guys running the immigration form-filling service/business had appropriated all available immigration arrival cards...had to squeeze to the front of the immigration queues to ask for the cards. The cat had no idea that there was a 'bridge fee' to be paid. It walked straight past the fee collection counters & was waved through into Laos by some immigration officer whose duty was to check that the 'bridge fee' had been paid...only then it turned back to look for the Project Metta Heart 3 guys, & saw them queueing (at what it had thought were additional immigration counters) to pay the fee...sometimes it's good to be a blur cat :P

280707 SIN > UTH

First time in Changi's Budget Terminal:


Photo by K-san

Let's just say the cat thinks it a wise move by AirAsia to stick to Terminal 1. & the cat shall stick to AirAsia.

First time to Udon Thani by Tiger Airway's short-lived SIN-UTH route:



Photos by K-san

UTH became an international airport while this route lasted:


Photo by K-san

Fellow passengers were overwhelmingly male - many Isaan guys working in Singapore (mainly in the construction sector) + a few Singaporean uncles with pockets deeper than those who can only afford to venture as far as Tanjung Pinang to be potential 'weekend husbands'. So much so that the immigration officer asked the cat what on earth had brought it to Udon - apparently he doesn't get to stamp many passports belonging to female foreigners... Months later Tiger would scrap this route, & UTH would revert to domestic airport status until Lao Airlines started UTH-LPQ flights.

Within the UTH arrival hall, coupons are sold for shared van rides into Udon Thani city, & also to the Friendship bridge at Nong Khai. Transpired that a few of the Isaan guys on board our van had left for Singapore via Bangkok years ago & had never been to Udon Thani before... We ended up stopping at all 3 of Udon Thani's bus stations (one for buses to Nong Bua Lamphu, Loei & Chiangmai, another for buses to Nong Khai, & the central one for buses to everywhere else) for the guys to ask at each if there were buses to their home villages in tambon (subdistrict) somewhere of amphoe (district) anywhere...their joy & excitement on finally returning home was palpable, all that was missing was ลูกทุ่ง luuk thung music playing on the van's radio to complete the scene :)

Thai-Lao international bus ticket counter at Udon Thani central bus station:



Staff wanted to see the red singkapor passports before selling us bus tickets to Vientiane (5 baht extra for weekends).

Met 2 Singaporean guys of the non-uncle variety who'd been on the same flight & were going to take the same bus (& would return on the same flight too!). One of them was returning to visit his YEP project site in Vientiane, with a big fat poster board of project participant photos as a gift for his Lao hosts :)

Always good to trust fellow Singaporeans' makan recommendations - Mr YEP knew of a place with decent บะหมี่เกี๊ยวน้ำหมูแดง baa mii giao nam moo daeng (char siew wanton mee soup...somehow Thais like theirs in soup, whereas everyone in Singapore eats wanton mee & anything else containing char siew dry) & ข้าวหมูแดง khao moo daeng (char siew bpeung aka. char siew rice). It's just opposite the bus station, a few doors left of Silver Reef B&B. The cat was happy to be back in Thailand where it can indulge in the endless supply of crushed roasted peanuts on every noodle soup stall table: