1. I didn’t have a
passport.
 |
| Stamps galore |
Thankfully, this time I could shoulder no blame. Since my arrival in Laos at the end of February I had been crossing the border once a month to renew my visa. Then, in August, I had been granted an official entry visa and the reason I was without my credentials was because I was caught up in bureaucratic limbo waiting to get pasted with my multiple entry visa and temporary stay permit.
Despite the
fact that my placement is in a government organisation it has taken nearly 9
months to get officially recognised. In
that time, I have accrued 7 paper visas, 2 visa extension stamps and 33 cross
border stamps between Laos and Thailand.
That’s a lot of ink! Not to
mention the cost of making the regular crossings. I even know of a man who has lived in Laos
for some years, has a business, wife and child here and still has to make a
monthly trip. I can’t quite work out if
it’s genius or insanity but I certainly know that I’ve enjoyed the regular
excuse to go on a road trip.
I was starting to get nervous when my passport still hadn’t
been returned two days before I was due to travel but after a couple of quick
emails and a trip to the bus station, I finally had it back in my hands with
one day to spare.
The next problem couldn’t be solved by any amount of
nagging.
2. Thailand was
suffering the worst floods seen in decades.
I tried nagging the god of rain and flooding but he was
having none of it (or I was talking to the wrong god) and the waters kept
flowing. I thought about having a quick
nag at Yingluck Shinawatra but she already seemed to be woefully out of her
depth as the Thai authorities presented inadequate and inconsistent information
to a disgruntled population. The stories coming out
of Thailand were horrific, with huge loss of life and massive destruction
throughout 25 provinces.
Despite trawling the internet, the only reliable information
I could find listed details of the Bangkok flooding and there seemed to be confidence in the protection
established around Suvarnabhumi airport.
Therefore, my major worry, as a spoiled and self obsessed international
traveller was my planned initial bus journey to Ubon.
Having checked the UK Foreign Office advice at least three times a day, it continued to state that all
but essential travel to the province should be avoided.
 |
| A drop of rain |
Needless to say, the journey went surprisingly
smoothly. There was evidence of water
encroaching on to normally dry land and lots of road repairs underway but it
wasn’t until I was in the air over Thailand that I was able to see the full
extent of the devastation. Central and
protected areas in Ubon where I spent an evening and at Suvarnabhumi airport in
Bangkok showed no evidence of anything being amiss and tourists and locals
carried on unimpeded. I found it
difficult to decipher whether this was a remarkable act of defiance against the
difficulties the country was facing, or a misuse of resources and skewing of
priorities when so many were suffering enormous hardship. Following the immediate clear-up after the
floods, it will be interesting to see how and in what image Thailand rebuilds,
particularly in its agricultural and industrial areas and where the people are
most susceptible to disasters of this nature.
The impact on Thailand’s neighbours will also be interesting to gauge,
as it could provide both opportunity and impediments to growth in the rest of
the region, which normally relies on a strong outflow of Thai products.
 |
| Hong Kong at night |
