User profile: kmting

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > Lao land border crossing

Just to follow up. You do not need a visa in advance but the worker in Kunming station is lazy and will try to make you go away if you don't have a visa. Complain and persist!

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > Lao land border crossing

Thanks for the info. It is true that you must have an evisa for Laos before buying a train ticket at the station(not sure why if you can buy one on trip.com without a visa). Small queues but both times I've been there are agents buying 50-100 tickets a time.

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > Lao land border crossing

Thanks for the info. It is true that you must have an evisa for Laos before buying a train ticket at the station(not sure why if you can buy one on trip.com without a visa). Small queues but both times I've been there are agents buying 50-100 tickets a time.

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > Lao land border crossing

Has anyone done the Laos border crossing by fast train recently (since it started going straight over the border)and how long one needs to book tickets in advance. I.e. is it as in demand as mainland train tickets are?

And can one book online or only at the Kunming station? I'm presuming the Laos visa is made by hopping off the train then boarding again.

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > Lao land border crossing

I did it two days ago. It was a bit off a nightmare because the visa centre can't handle the thousands of chinese tourists coming every day. After a week or two it may calm down though.

If you do go it's quite likely you may miss the 3pm fast train from boten so prepare for it (I'd recommend a taxi/shared car to luang nam tha which is infinitely nicer than boten which is a hell hole,.and you can take the fast train the next day around 12.30) you could make the earlier 12.15 fast train from boten but you'd need to stay a night in xishuangbanna to make it.

Visa fees are cheaper and easier in US dollars which can be easily changed in Kunming. Also best to have a passport photo for the form or you'll be charged more to scan your passport.

If you are trying to make the 3pm train don't take the 5yuan bus from the Mohan station. Take a taxi directly. It saves crucial minutes to avoid the big queue that may be awaiting. Queue (read scrample) for booth 1. Booth 2 is only for collection. You have to go to booth 1 first. It's very chaotic. A couple of fights nearly broke out. Good times. Boten has almost zero facilities. No toilet. Dust. Dust. And more dust. There are a couple of hotels but really better to go straight to luang nam tha where there is no dust and cheaper and better guesthouses and food.

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Visited yesterday. The atmosphere was a little frosty towards foreigners after covid. But still some lovely people there. Sadly the figures guarding the monk's tomb were stolen two years ago. One of the tombs was prised open so I presume both were looted. It's the furthest site to walk to from the town as well so maybe not worth it :(

I have no problem with cutting back the trees for better growth but the trees on my street and many in Wuhua are now being dug up (roots cut off i.e killed) and bags of earth left for the tree that will replace it. These are tree that have new shoots. Seems very illogical and money/time-wasting. Surely either a big mistake in management or someone is making a big profit on the new trees at the people's expense

I am no expert on plants and trees but it's fairly common that things die in winter and magically grow back in spring. I was very surprised to see the extent of the cutting back of the trees. But now all is clear.

Today i saw some of the remaining trees in the centre being not only cut back, but then uprooted and taken away. The irony is that they spent such a long time messing round with the trees after the winter and now Spring has arrived most remaining trees are sprouting new shoots. By Summer they'd be fine.

However when someone sees an opportunity to waste funds and fill their own pockets contracts for new trees are drawn up quickly.

Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions but I see no other reason why this is being done.

1 - normal bus journey
2 - normal bus journey+unnecessary air-con
3 - normal bus journey+unnecessary air-con+unnecessary Wi-fi

No real difference to most foreigners/well-off Chinese but the average worker really gets screwed.

Year of the Monkey

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I've never met a Chinese person who knows the 'animal race' story. Is it just a Western reinterpretation of the story? If not., why do very few Chinese people know it?

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