Let's hope it's newbie staff and not policy. If not, it just got 30-42usd more expensive. It still seems weird that they would care. What if Laos didn't let you in for some unforseen reason. China would strand you on that road? Nice enough road though, lots of shrubbery.
@Napoleon. Read his prior post. It's Vietnam he is referring too.
The China exit and reentry are in different buildings. Just exit and walk to the reentry building and see what they say, cause that's all that matters. If they let you back in, without the Laos stamps, then that's that. Asking the China officials at the exit building is pointless. After exiting wait 30min to an hour. Might take sometime to log your exit into their system.
@laofengzi. Yeah, air quality is great but getting splashed with sewer backflow not so great haha.
There is severe flooding in Myanmar, India, and Pakistan this year. Luckily, we are at the tail end of the monsoons. Definetely going to be more rainy for us, but so far liviable.
Regarding the roads, my impression was the opposite. I left Vientiane for VV via bus and found the road ok. From VV to Luang Prabang the road was quite miserable.
Nothing better than floating down the river with some of your friends; however, avoid the bar with the giant concrete slide. A Swiss guy drowned last year after using the slide, and it's cause innumerable other injuries to party-goers. Also, the tube doesn't make up for not being a good swimmer.
Very happy that poor kids are getting a free meal at school...Very sad they are forced to eat spoiled food at times.
I think the children should be given 3rmb food vouchers to be spent with the local chefs and vendors outside the school. No more troubles for the schools to operate a kitchen, and the children can decide with their pocketbook (aka vouchers) which vendors food tastes best. If no food vendors can make decent food for 3rmb per child, then the gov't knows why the schools are forced to use rotten stuff at times.
Never gotten sick once at Sals. Their food is TexMex, so yeah, not authentic Mexican food, but pretty authentic as TexMex goes. Burrito wrap has improved a lot. Like the draft beer option now.
If you haven't had dairy products in a while, and do eat here, best forgo the sour cream. Nothing wrong with it, in fact it's the best sour cream in Kunming, but if you've eaten Chinese for month or months with no dairy intake, your system will react to sour cream or probably any liquid dairy product not so well. Maybe that's what happened with nailer and tallamerican.
It's now 5 working days for regular processing. So I submitted my application a bit before 5pm on a Friday and was told to pick it up next week Friday after 5pm.
Cost is now 400rmb for a single 30 day entry. Or that was what I was charged anyways. There are no posted prices and its cash only with no receipt except for your passport pickup. That's like $65 USD.
You can pay another 150rmb for 2 day or 100rmb for 3 day processing. For 400rmb, they should process it in three days like they used to before, but now you'd pay 500rmb. The office is still like deserted most of the time, so why does it take longer now and cost extra. If you opted for 2 day, thats like $90 usd. All other neighboring countries charge like $25usd.
The rest of and cope review is still good for hours and location.
Snapshot: Grand Canyon of the East
Posted byI think you guys went back for the food! Man that last picture is making me hungry.
Getting Away: Vang Vieng
Posted byRegarding the roads, my impression was the opposite. I left Vientiane for VV via bus and found the road ok. From VV to Luang Prabang the road was quite miserable.
Nothing better than floating down the river with some of your friends; however, avoid the bar with the giant concrete slide. A Swiss guy drowned last year after using the slide, and it's cause innumerable other injuries to party-goers. Also, the tube doesn't make up for not being a good swimmer.
Safety concerns plague national school lunch program
Posted byVery happy that poor kids are getting a free meal at school...Very sad they are forced to eat spoiled food at times.
I think the children should be given 3rmb food vouchers to be spent with the local chefs and vendors outside the school. No more troubles for the schools to operate a kitchen, and the children can decide with their pocketbook (aka vouchers) which vendors food tastes best. If no food vendors can make decent food for 3rmb per child, then the gov't knows why the schools are forced to use rotten stuff at times.
First-hand account: Setting up a guesthouse in Xishuangbanna
Posted byHas The Balcony Guesthouse opened for business? Would be very curious if there was an update to the article, which was excellent reading.