It was a long day. But it was a day with a temple and a bus.
Heading out of Chiang Mai north to Laos, we had a long journey ahead of us. A near 24 hour travel day to Luang Prabang for our fourth and final Indochina country. To get there would be a minivan to the border, and an overnight bus to the interior of the new country.
The minivan was somewhat pleasant. There was room for our feet, which isn’t always an option on these. There was a small rest stop at a roadside café initially, good for a bathroom and croissant, but there was one bigger stop planned for us.
Chiang Rai. The white temple.
This more recent addition to the pagoda’s of Thailand has made international photo albums. An ornate complex of white pagodas and bridges over some man made canals. There were an absurd mount of people there when we arrived, so we decided to hang along the side of it and take photos. We were not getting in and having lunch in our short time at the stop.
Back on the bus we went and onto the border. The crossing into Laos should have been simple. But when your in a minivan with some nonsense, its anything but.
Show up, fill out your visa application form and basic info entry form, they stamp you in, pay $40USD for a visa, and then you get back on whatever minivan you arrived on. Now for some, that’s too hard.
Like the bloke who’s personal info form got rejected three times. He did not know what to put down for his race and when Cam told him his race was white or caucasian, he told her she was being racist. Or the squad who didn’t pay for their visas, then immidietly told on themselves, causing the bus to be delayed half an hour. Or the girl who left her cell phone in Thailand, and couldn’t cross the border to retrieve it. Eventually, everyone and most of their stuff got over the border, and we departed to Huay Xai, the Laotian border town.
Here the group separated. Most were off to a two day slow boat adventure down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. Not a cruise, to be clear. Packed on a boat with a bunch of other people for two days, no food stops, rest at a city in the middle. Future reviews of this experience varied form terrible to alright. I think it depends on your social group on the boat. Lots of reading and card playing goes on.
We decided to save some time and head to Luang Prabang via the overnight bus. We killed a couple hours at the bus station, and had some delicious fried rice from someone’s home across the river for dinner.
The bus was interesting. There were 2 people to a short bunk. For us that was fine, for solo travelers they made new friends. There’s only one bus per night out of Huay Xai, so a lot of locals are on it. A lot. The entire bottom level is full of them crammed in, getting off at their various villages along the way. Throughout the night the bus stopped frequently to let people off and on. Each of these stops looked the exact same to us. Somewhere in the bush, devoid of any sort of infrastructure. Come to learn, that’s how landscape is in Laos.
We arrived in the morning in one piece and good spirits. The bus wasn’t so bad for us. Cramped legs, but that’s all, we slept well. Others were complaining more. But either way, we had two extra days compared to the slow boaters.
On to country 16 of the trip now! See you there!
Your pics of the white pagoda are stunning. I visited Chiang Rai 40 years ago, looks a lot different now! Well done.
Your 16th country!!!!! That is wonderful. I love your people stories. You both have a few differently themed travel books to write when you return to Canada. ‘The people on the bus’ ‘Fried rice from across the river’ ‘Waterfalls for everyone’ ‘The art of travelling with an ingrown toenail’ ‘Swim your way around the world’