Visa Run to Laos

My first visa run to Laos which means I have to go to the friendship bridge which crosses the Mekong River from Nong Khai in Thailand to Vientiane in Laos.

I have to admit this isn't my picture as it was quite difficult to get my own picture but as I didn't get any this border crossing I wanted to at least include one.

The whole journey their and back ended up taking about 1.5 days which was a lot more than I originally thought. During the border cross to Laos, Moni had forgotten her passport in the room but as I knew it should only take about 30mins I left her waiting for me at the Thai side of the bridge. I headed through to Laos which was quite easy and quick to do. Then its a quick bus ride over the bridge followed by some forms to fill in to apply for a Laos visa and paying a small fee £30-40 I think. Then what you are suppose to do is turn around and go back over the bridge but as this was my first time I ended up getting on a bus and heading into the Vientiane center which is about 40 mins away. About half way there I had realised my mistake but by this time it was too late so I had to stay on and then jump on another bus back once there. Well this didn't really go as planned either as once I was there I needed to get some local currency to get the bus back so I headed off to a ATM. During that time I missed the bus and would of had to wait an hour to get the bus back so instead I took a tuktuk back and in the end poor Moni must of been waiting to close on 3 hours at the bridge with no money to even get a drink.
On the bus journey back I took my laptop on and watched a film and read some emails using my 3G internet connection but unfortunately I lost my 3G Aircard so I have to purchase a new one and cancel the old one. Cancelling mobile phone contracts or in my case the 3G contract you have to visit a main shop so required a few hundred kilometer journey yet again another pain in the bum.

Buying snacks for our shop

Me and Moni normally head off to Nong Bua Daeng (22km away from our shop) to get snacks from a cash and carry type place to sell in our shop and we do this on our scooter which I posted about previously but this limits the amount of stuff we can buy. Well I decided to bite the bullet and invest a little more money and get Moni's father scooter modified to do this snack trip instead. Here the pic of her father's scooter now:

This little side cart set me back £70-80 to have made and attached to the bike. Here's a pic from the side cart by Moni of me driving it.

A couple of pics of the cash and Carry style place we shop at.

Trouble in paradise

Okay so this is not everyone's idea of paradise but still.
One day after getting home Dab (Moni's family dog), Bamboo (my dog) and Mango (a chicken) had been in a fight as they were all injured. Dab was limping around, Bamboo had a few cuts and grazes and Mango had a broken leg.

Most days they all play together, well i say play together Dab and Bamboo do and then when Bamboo realises he cant get the better of Dab he chases Mango around until he can bite (playfully) his bum or wing. Mango is a chicken whose mum was killed at an early age so was brought up by Moni's mother so she's a little tame and by that I mean she always hangs around the family at a safe distance and like to sleep with and groom the dogs. Well she was already a little tame so I started feeding her a bit and got her to let me pick her up eventually.

I named the chicken Mango after my favourite fruit :) mainly because once you name an animal it has character and becomes a pet instead of a meal.
One fine day I was devouring my dinner Moni's mum had prepared and I realised I hadn't seen Mango all day so I asked if anyone had seen him to which Moni's mum laughed and said something to Moni which she translated to me as "your eating him". :(
I miss you Mango and your in a better place now sorry for eating you but you were DELICIOUS! All those dinner side treats I threw to you really paid off. Apparently Mango had become too tame and kept jumping on tables, chairs and things that the chickens around here don't normally jump on and wherever the chickens jump they also poop so Moni's mum got tired of clearing his mess off things.

One final pic of Mango and dogs invading my house:

Watch Building the Dream series 1 episode 2

Okay not strictly about me as such but I think its worth a mention on my blog.

The episode shows my boss Bill Jenkins building his house.

Series 1 Episode 2

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/building-the-dream/4od

My Thai home project continues

This was a couple of months ago and I had just been working 1 month so decided with my first pay check to do some more work on the house. So in comes the delivery of sand, cement and stones.

Tiles for our floor

They apply water to the wall to wet it first and then apply a rough coat of plaster which they then smooth out to a nice finish.

That was the first day of plastering after which it took 2 more days to complete but I had to do a visa run to Laos so I left them to it with Boonkhan family (Moni's mum and dad) to supervise.

So 2 days away to Laos and back and here is the finished project. The cost of materials for plastering and tiling I paid about £150 and the labour cost about £110 both of which I could of got cheaper because we had some materials left over and the labour was a professional that works internationally (I believe he is working in sweden now) building and not just a Thai builder.

My Absense

Just to let you know I haven't posted any blogs for a while because 1 week I was on holiday in Laos whilst doing a visa run. The week after I was ill and when I wasn't ill I was busy and then this week has been very busy with a couple of trips to the main town of this province Chaiyaphum and some other stuff which I will post about later when I finally start catching up to the current date with my blog.

So from now on unless some big stuff come up I will try to post more blogs posts for a few weeks in hope to catch up with the present day.