We could have flown. That would have been much easier than the 24 hours of travel time it took to get from Siem Reap to Vientiane. Flying would have also been much (much) more expensive than our tuk tuk, bus, train adventure. In case you haven't figured it out by now with the expense reports at the end of each post, we're trying to keep to a budget mostly so we can afford this whole year of adventures. The lower the daily average, the more likely we'll last until Thanksgiving of 2013. So deciding between a $250 (at the absolute lowest) flight and a $25 (roughly) day of transit, we chose the latter. Aside from the three hour wait at the Thai side of the border, the day really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Andrew says the three hour wait (it was ridiculously hot) was the worst part of our trip so far… but he wasn't sick on an overnight Vietnamese bus, so I can't agree.
9:00 AM mini-bus ride to Poipet (Cambodia/Thai border)…$5.00
12:00 PM border crossing (longest border crossing of my life by the way)
3:00 PM tuk tuk to Aranyathapet, Thailand for a bus to Khorat…$1.30
6:00 PM bus to Khorat (also known as Nakhon Ratchasima)…$6.86
10:00 PM tuk tuk to Khorat train station…$0.98
11:30 PM train to Nong Khai, Thailand (Thai/Laos border)…$12.02
7:00 AM tuk tuk to Thai/Laos border…$0.98
8:30 AM bus across Mekong River to Laos side…$0.65
9:00 AM bus to downtown Vientiane…$0.75
9:30 AM tuk tuk to coffee shop in Vientiane to call/meet Hans…$0.62
(Unfortunately it seems as though Lightroom lost (or, more accurately, while trying to import my images in an organized fashion I lost) tonight's picture of us trying to sleep in a bright florescent lit (all night long folks) over air-conditioned train car. Sorry, I'm sure this annoys you as much as it does me.)