Why you have to go and make things so complicated?

Before arriving to Vientiane, I was worried about the numerous arrangement I had to do before going ahead to Vietnam: Extend my Laos visa because I'm stretching my time, get a Vietnam visa and book a flight as one world traveller told me the bus ride to Hanoi was a nightmare.

I guess I was used to the rest of Laos, and not to Vientiane (read the previous post), because in less than five minutes, a flick of a wrist holding my magical golden plastic card and the last two were taken care of. Extending my visa took about ten minutes at the immigration office, some money and an hour of their work to take care of the first.

So now I have a flight to Hanoi, Vietnam (114USD + 3% extra charge for using magic in public + 10USD expected departure tax) and I have to wait three working days for my visa (45USD), plus one spare day I took just in case. So my flight is on my original last day in Laos, before extending it a bit to be on the safe side. On a second thought, maybe it was worth paying more for a one day visa procedure, saving the guest house and food costs for two more days. Too late...