Christmas Eve at Chong Mek

My other objective in visiting Khong Chiam was to go to the Chong Mek checkpoint. I had heard that illegal wild orchids were sold there as well as other trafficked wildlife goods particularly on the Lao side. Thanks again to Yao I was able to go.

Also thanks to Yao I also got into Lao. Don't ask me how. My passport was in my backpack in the car and she said, you just walk on through, don't look up and I will come after you. I am guessing that it was because she has a business visa or something that it wasn't a problem, I also suspect a bit of bribing was going on. Even according to the Lao Embassy website you can't get a visa at the border and the reason I didn't bother to apply for one is that I didn't have the free page required to get it in my passport, I knew I needed to keep the last one free for the Cambodian visa.

So we went to Lao and I got to check out the market a bit there Yao didn't seem to interested in the market, but more in the shops that were more fancy. I didn't want to kick up a fuss and drag her back to the market so I didn't actually observe too much. I hadn't planned on going there anyway so I didn't see it as a loss. We had lunch in Lao and then headed back to Thailand. I trusted Yao but I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to get back into Thailand, fortunately it all worked out.

Here is the ugly-as-sin-lavender-building on the Thai side at Chong Mek.
















Here is the crossing for people and bicycles.





















We headed back to Khong Chiam and then I got a 3 pm bus to Phibun this time where I transferred to a rickety truck-bus sort of contraption with benches in the back and air conditioning au natural, the faster he drove the cooler the ride! Eventually, I got back to Ubon and to the Ratchathani Hotel. Whew! What a weekend!