01/20/14 - 02/04/14

One aspect of long-term travel that can be a bit of a pain is acquiring visas. As an American, I can pretty much get a visa for anywhere in the world. A few places can be very difficult, such as, say North Korea, but some are very easy. Americans don't need any visas to travel through Europe, as long they don't stay longer than 3 months, so that makes it pretty easy. However, for my trip through Asia, I needed to get visas for most of the countries that I was visiting.

I had acquired my Russian and Chinese visas before I left on this trip. They weren't difficult to get, but they did take a few hoops to jump through and they were quite expensive. I probably paid nearly $500 to get both. The rest of my visas I would have to get on the road, because otherwise their validity would have expired before I could enter the countries. For Mongolia and Thailand, I did not need a visa for stays over 30 days, so I was good there. For Cambodia and Laos, I could just get a visa on the border. The Cambodia visa was $20, while the Laos visa was $35. For Vietnam, Myanmar and India, I would need to get one in advance and so I had to plan out where and when I was going to do that.

The Vietnam visa was easy. I got it in Sihanoukville, Cambodia for $60. I showed up at the consulate and walked out with a new visa in 45 minutes! My Myanmar and India visas, however, took a little planning and time. The reason for this, is because I wouldn't be able to just drop in and get them in one day. For them, India in particular, it could take several days. I had originally planned to get them both in Bangkok, but after some research I found that I would have to spent over a week in Bangkok in order to do that. And since, I've already been to Bangkok, I didn't want to spend a whole week there and wanted to spend those extra days somewhere else. So, I decided that since I was going to Vientiane, Laos, anyway, that I might as well get them there and save some time.

Vientiane is the capital city of Laos. It lies on the Mekong River and is fairly quiet, as capital cities go. The bus to Vientiane from Hanoi was nearly 24 hours and since I didn't want to sit on an uncomfortable bus for that long, I decided to fly. An hour flight certainly beats 24 hours on the bus, even if it is a lot more expensive!

On my first day in Vientiane, I got everything together to get an Indian visa. I did a little research and found out everything I needed. First of all, I had to fill out an online application, which including uploading a digital passport photo. Part of the application asks for a reference person not only in India, but also in Laos. This was easily done by using my hostel or hotel address as a reference, however it also required that I book a hotel in India! Then I had to print out the application in color and bring it to the embassy. I also needed to provide 2 more passport photos, a color photocopy of my passport and my Lao visa, and a copy of my flights in and out of India, which is a catch-22, since they recommend not buying a flight until after you receive your visa. Oh well, it's true bureaucracy at work. I had to provide information like this for Russia and China, as well, but strangely those countries were not as strict as India. It took me several hours to fill out the application, book the flights and hotel and gather all the information. And then, I realized that I forgot to upload the passport photo, so I had to start the application all over again! Finally, I got everything I needed and made my way to the embassy. There, the clerk looked over all my paperwork, had me pay $120 and then gave me a receipt. She then told me that it would take 5 days to process the visa.

Instead of waiting in Vientiane, I decided to go up to Luang Prabang. I stayed there for 4 days and then made my way back to Vientiane to pick up my passport. I came back specifically on a Monday, so that I could pick up my passport in the afternoon and then on Tuesday morning take it to the Myanmar embassy. However, when I showed up to get my passport, I was told that it was an Indian holiday, so I couldn't pick up until Tuesday morning! It was a little annoying, but it still worked out alright, because on Tuesday morning, I just went straight from the Indian embassy to the Myanmar embassy.

I wasn't able to pick up my passport until Wednesday afternoon and I was leaving on Saturday for Bangkok. Due to the extremely slow and erratic nature of buses in Laos, I didn't have time to go anywhere else, so I was stuck in Vientiane until then. There wasn't a whole lot do in Vientiane, but I found some things to take up my time.

I did find a couple of interesting things to see, though, such as the Golden Stupa, that is the symbol of the country. There is also nice little night market along the river and there are few interesting temples to see. One of the more interesting sights in the city is an amputee clinic. They have a little museum, called the CORE, that tells about all of the unexploded bombs that are scattered throughout the country. Laos is one of the most heavily bombed country in the world, courtesy of the U.S. During the Laotian Civil War or the Secret War, the country was bombed, on average, every 8 minutes! A lot of the bombs fell to earth and never exploded. Unfortunately, local farmers and even children find these unexploded bombs (UXOs) and the bombs will explode. If they are lucky, the will only lose a limb. The amputee clinic treats a lot of victims of UXOs and fits them with prosthesis.

The rest of the time, I just kind of lazed around a bit. I walked around the city some, hung out at a few cafes and even went to a park outside of town called the Buddha Park. The park was interesting with a bunch of statues of Buddhist gods and I was even able to talk with a monk there, but it only took up a couple of hours of my time. My time in Vientiane was actually relaxing. I didn't really have anything to do, while I waited, so I just didn't do all that much.

Eventually, I got my passport back with a shiny new Myanmar and Indian visa in them. It really isn't that hard to get visa while on the road, but it does take some time and little bit of legwork and money. Travel in Myanmar and India are definitely worth the extra effort!