I was having a bit of trouble loading some of my photos last night so I wanted to post the one above of just outside the pool looking back to the rear of the hotel and the promenade which is quite nice. To the left is the sandy banks of the mighty Mekong. After a rest in the afternoon Len and I walked down to the sandy foreshores to check out the small cane huts down on the 'beach'.
We came across a lot of young people enjoying themselves in the water, swimming, playing on tire tubes and having plenty of fun. The cane seating areas were full of people drinking and eating and enjoying what was left of the day. No one likes to go to bed early in this part of the world. I did walk into the water up to my ankles just to say, 'I've swam in the mighty Mekong'. Rather impressive don't you think?
There were plenty of huts all over the beach, and as I mentioned yesterday in about 3-4 months they'll be removed or washed away when the rainy season hits this area.
"Today Len and I made our way to the Friendship bridge about 15ks to the north of Nakhom Phanom which leads to Laos. When we got the immigration, filled out some paperwork and had to wait for the bus to take us over the friendship bridge. They wouldn't allow us to ride our bikes across for some reason.
Once on the Laos side we completed immigration and customs, got our bikes off the bus and went back to the immigration arrival counter and handed in the form and was stamped out of the country for 30 dollars. Len didn't have to fill out his form, but he did have to pay 35 dollars.
We waited for over an hour in the heat for the bus to come. It never did. Len went and approached the customs staff and explained to them that we were only 2 old men riding bikes who needed to get back to Thailand now, not later. Eventually with some smooth talking, they told us to go. We quickly got on our bikes and rode back over the bridge. When we got back to Thailand the immigration staff were quite surprised to see us riding our bikes back from Laos as no one is allowed to ride bicycles on the bridge. I thought, 'who cares', just let us back in, I want to go back to the hotel for a swim and get out of this heat.
The temp was again over 100 degrees and the trip was 36kms.
So from the time we hit Thailand immigration and returned with another 15 day visa took all of about 2 hours. Not bad at all.
On our way back I got to take some photos of the Wat's around the town whilst riding the bike back to the hotel. Tomorrow we intend to go back early to get some nice photos which I might just post.
And the photo above is to prove I'm actually in Nakhon Phanom.
We decided to stay another day in this beautiful hotel before we commence the ride north on Wednesday. Tomorrow will be sightseeing and swimming.
Until tomorrow, safe riding.
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