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vietnam
photo album
Bo Y | Phou Keua | International Checkpoint
| These photos where taken during the afternoon of 29 September 2007. | |||
| Eastward view. From Pleikan, or Plei Kan, Route 40 (former Route 512) approaches on the right. | |||
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| Same eastward view but now I’m standing on Route 40. Inaugurated on 4 July 2006, the new SRV immigration building is behind me. | |||
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| East face of the immigration building at Bo Y. West-bound (Laos-bound) traffic passes on the right. | |||
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| North side of immigration building. | |||
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| Bo Y Supermarket on north side of immigration building. Billboard announces 5 January 2007 opening ceremony. | |||
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| Moneychanger window inside the immigration building. | |||
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| Road to Laos on backside, west side, of the immigration building. My orange bus waits in the distance. Passports are retrieved at the small booth in the center. | |||
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| Passport queue. With passport in hand, I board the bus and ride two kilometers to Lao immigration. | |||
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| Eastward view from top of Lao immigration: looking back toward SRV international checkpoint, now two kilometers away. | |||
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| My bus, which had picked me up in Kontum. Same eastward view. Lao immigration is behind me. | |||
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| Passports are given to Lao immigration officers at the booth. | |||
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| Immigration computers are housed inside these huts, which lean and tilt. Strange as it may seem, we remain on the Vietnamese side of the border: permanent LPDR immigration buildings are to be built a hundred meters straight ahead. | |||
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| Albeit a temporary structure, spick-and-span LPDR checkpoint booth. | |||
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| Names are called; passports are retrieved. | |||
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| Looking east but now standing on the Lao side of the checkpoint booth. | |||
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| Behind me (Jim Michener) is a roadhouse plus temporary housing for construction workers at Ban Phou Keua, literally Village Mountain Salt, or Salt Mountain Village. But the authentic border marker is a bit to the east, making the soil under my feet Vietnamese. | |||
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| Last look at buildings that house LPDR computers. Also last look at LPDR checkpoint booth. | |||
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| Me (Jim Michener) standing at the real Vietnamese-Laotian border. Laos is behind me. | |||
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| Also standing at the border, fellow bus passenger Nghia. | |||
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| I snap the shutter as shouts call out. Nghia and I board the bus. Pakse is seven hours away. | |||
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