Traveling. I'm in TAK!

I've had a long few days. On Sunday I had a 12 hour bus trip from Bangkok to Laos to get my non-immigrant B work visa. We stayed in Vientiane, which is right on the boarder. The whole town seems like it survives on boarder/visa runs. I didn't like the town that much. It was just as expensive if not more than Phuket. The Laos currency, kip, is out of control. The exchange rate is $1 = 8900 kip or 1 baht (Thai money) = 250 kip. I paid 47,000 kip for a pizza. On the plus side Laos has really good Italian and French food thanks to colonization. That pizza was the first good cheese I've had sense I've been here. I left my hotel in Laos on Wednesday at noon. Waited at the embassy for a couple of hours to pickup my passport with my work visa then we drove back to Thailand to Nong Khai. It took about 2 hours to cross the boarder. So many people trying to get into Thailand. From Nong Khai I took a bus to Udon Thani, then to Phitsanulo and finally to Tak. I got to Tak around 8:30am. Long day of traveling. The head of the English department at my school picked me up, but my apartment wasn't ready so I spend a few hours at school. I finally got to my apartment around noon.

So far I've walked around Tak for a few hours and saw one white family and no bars. This is going to be much different than anywhere else I've been in Thailand. Welcome to the real Thailand!