After a few days in Savannakhet everybody was disappearing and it was time for me to make a move too. Customs at the Lao border was lax to say the least, their main concern seemed to be that I pay the departure tax before I scrambled down the riverbank to where all the boats were moored. The ferry that was due to leave looked like a large cargo boat with benches on either side. The packed vessel took about half an hour to cross the mighty Mekong and dock in Mukdahan, Thailand, obviously a very different country. I missed Lao already.

Once the boat was secured everybody rushed up the large steps to where they were all searched and then given the once over by German Shepard’s. Then there were the usual forms to fill in and an arrival tax to pay. Not wanting to hang around I got a tuk-tuk straight to the bus station and bough my ticket to Bangkok. Settling into my reclining seat I was reminded of how different things were here when the stewardess handed me my cola and cake. When I woke up the next morning the bus was pulling into Mo Chit bus station, a place that used to bring on panic attacks but now I knew I was just a short motto ride and skytrain trip away from my favorite guesthouse.

My plan from here was to go to fly to Myanmar as soon as visas and things could be arranged. But I still had doubts because of the whole debate about their human rights record. After a couple of days I was convinced that I should give Burma a skip for now and instead go straight to India. The Indian embassy was just a short walk away and applying for a visa was not a very complicated procedure but because of holidays it took a whole week for it to come through. During this time I booked my on-way flight ticket with Bangladesh Biman Airlines, with a one night stopover in Dhaka, but it was about twenty dollars cheaper than any of the others. I also picked up a second-hand copy of an Indian guidebook, I was set.