March 2010: Bangkok, Thailand to Thanaleng, Laos

"Why not go all the way to China?" -- Alice, Alice in Wonderland, 3D...IMAX

Does it get curiouser than this. So here I was, with the sleeper ticket from Bangkok to Nong Khai in northeast Thailand, and an afternoon to while away in Bangkok. The plan was to get to Nong Khai the next morning, cross over the border to Laos, and onward overland to Yunnan in China.
It was a hot afternoon, and Alice in Wonderland was openning. Slipping into the theatre sounds like a plan. So, the theatre darkens, and the show starts with Alice's father suggesting the setting up of trading posts in Bangkok to his biz associates. By the end of the movie, Alice, with a map of Asia rolled open, was suggesting to her late father's asociate: "why not go all the way to China?"
Thailand to Laos (or, more precisely, Nong Khai to Thanaleng, all 3.5km of it) is a small step for a trip from BKK all the way to China.














Starts by taking the northeastern line of Thailand railway all the way to the border town of Nong
Khai. A weeks from now, masses of 'red-shirts' would travel the opposite direction to BKK.
The Mekong River serves as the border between Laos and Thailand. The Friendship Bridge crosses the river and the railway runs on it. In the middle of the bridge, as the train crosses, there you will find the Laos and Thai flag on either sides. But forget about the "Mighty" Mekong. Hot weather and (prossibly) Chinese dams upstream means the river don't look that mighty this year.
The train arrived at Nong Khai late the next morning. But the Laos train, scheduled to have left, was waiting on the track. That's seems reasonable, since it looks like the sole purpose of the Laos railway (still in its 'infancy') was to pick up passengers from the Thai train to Thanaleng (currently the only station.)
But at least it is a start, a good start. Especially when it doesn't look like the Thai-Cambodia railway is going nowhere.
The Laos immigration at Thanaleng looks 'easy', there isn't even a baggage check machine.
Onwards to Vietienne, on the pickup taxi.