March 5, 2010 – Day 435 – Vinh, Vietnam

Between the hours of 5am and 6:30am the next morning, we were on a bus. Correction: 2 buses. Crossing the Vietnamese border was pretty much a piece of cake. It was slower than it needed to be because it seemed like the officials were looking to find any possible reason to hold up someone just for the fun of it. Since everyone on our bus was prepared with a proper visa and everything else, there was nothing they could do but sulk. (It’s a universal border official pastime.)

Waiting around for the bus

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February 17, 2010 – Day 419 – Huaxy Xai, Laos

Up at 6:45AM. No breakfast. Tuk tuk to bus station, bus to Chiang Khong. No lunch. Crossed border on foot and boat ferried us across the gentle shallow river. Two minutes later, we bought our Laos visas for US$35 each and were zipping out of immigration. Uphill 20 seconds walking and we are officially “in town.” Welcome to Huaxy Xai, Laos side of the border with Chiang Khong (Thailand).

Crossing the Mekong into Laos

January 28-29, 2010 – Day 399-400 – Koh Tao to Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia

Well, as promised, it was two very long, very tiring travel days right in a row. It was a bummer to leave the lovely Koh Tao but we have an itching to return for sure. The first day we didn’t get to Bangkok til 8:30PM and were pretty well spent. Dinner and bed was the end of that story.

Leaving the islands

January 17, 2010 – Day 388 – Koh Samui, Thailand

At the ripe hour of 7AM we descended upon the city of Ranong intent upon finding the immigration office. We need that exit stamp from Thailand so we can officially leave and come back with a fresh 15 day visa. Gives us plenty of uninterrupted time to “explore” the beaches of southern Thailand. Of course, that mainly hinges on the idea that “explore” means drink beer, go diving and snorkeling, and maybe—if duty calls—some lying on the beach, just to make sure it’s safe for future travellers, of course.

Boats at the Thai side of the border

September 27, 2009 – Day 276 – Gorakhpur, India

So this is it: Today we cross into India. Taking a deep breath we got out of the rickshaw at the border and walked into the dust cloud, chaotic moving mass of our first taste of India. We had taken a local bus from Sauraha to the border and then a rickshaw the remaining 2km to the Nepali immigration office. It was a quick stamp out and we crossed unsteadily beneath the grimy once-white arch bearing the greeting in plain terms, “WELCOME TO INDIA.” Thanks…I think.

Inside the train station

September 13, 2009 – 262 – Kathmandu, Nepal

Not a great start to an already, universally bad kind of day: border crossing day. Our guide overslept by half an hour and our driver had hired a local taxi driver to take us down to the border because he didn’t want to. In the questionable taxi down the mountain that suffered from horn abuse, goat collision, and overheating brakes that were, thoughtfully no doubt, cooled by pouring rainwater collected from the road directly onto the brake pads.

Plays 5 musical notes at ear bursting levels

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July 20-21, 2009 – Day 207 – Shenzhen, China

Due to the impracticalities of crossing the border needlessly, we arrived in Shenzhen via metro to the train station (direct train to LuWu Station from Kowloon, very nice) to find that there are no open spots available on the train to Guilin for today.

In the station

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June 1, 2009 – Day 158 – Aqaba, Jordan

What a difference a border makes! We have only been in Jordan for a matter of hours and we already love it! From the fanatastic guys at the falfel place who were ecstatic to see us as repeat customers to the clean scent-free streets and the shops that we can walk past without a single business owner taking notice of us, not to mention that no one evens seems to notice that we are foreigners or if they do they don`t care to stare at us! Woohoo! It feels so nice to be invisible again and these falfels are the best thing ever!

Yummm.... Falafels

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May 31,2009 – Day 157 – Nuweiba, Egypt

From 9AM until 5PM, we did nothing. We read, drank tea, played cards, and walked and sat and sighed and grumbled and waited some more. When we played cards in a little cafe-restaurant across from the terminal we amassed a highly curious and involved audience who offered (Arabic) advice on how we should play our cards and intently watchful eyes of all ages, from the 5 year old son of the cafe owner to a scraggly old man of about 60.

Street Goat

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Day 118: No man’s land

Well, apparently you just can’t have anything useful in your baggage when you fly these days. In fact, if I can’t leave home without my spare meat cleaver or my cross bow, why, I shouldn’t go anywhere! You should see the pictogram list of restricted items while you wait in the first of 3 security checks at the Bogota airport. As soon as you disembark from your connecting flight (where they check your passport before letting you go down the stairs onto the tarmac), you must queue up for another security checkpoint just to get into the airport when you are scanned and patted down. Read the rest of this entry »