away from the border when your visa exemption expires, but we made it
work. We had tickets on a bus that left at 8:30am for Chiang Khong,
Thailand, right on the border. We got to the bus station at 8 and
found a tasty looking eatery, much better than the dilapidated shack
we ate at last time we bused out of Chiang Mai. The food was
meat-tastic, but at least it was good meat. We also secured two pad
Thais to-go for lunch. By 8:20, we were happily sitting on our
air-conditioned bus in the first row of seats. I love getting tickets
before we need them, you always get to pick your seats! It seems like
we have come a long way from where we started, anxious and
I'll-prepared for our travel days.
The bus ride wasn't anything special, just six plus hours on a bus. We
listened to music, read, wrote, slept - Robert just slept - and ate,
lots of eating. The bus service provided us with water and a pack of
whole wheat Rosy (fake Ritz) crackers each. The bus attendant starts
at the back of the bus where her supply closet is when distributing
snacks, meaning the first rows get the bottom of the barrel of snacks.
We, however, got giant packs of Rosy crackers; the row across from us
got comparatively little - I think the woman right across the aisle
got three oreo cookies. She stared daggers at our Rosy crackers and I
felt bad. I never know if we get better or worse treatment because of
our status as farangs, perhaps sometimes better and sometimes worse or
perhaps we get treated normally, thais get lucky too I suppose.
Regardless, I almost surrendered my Rosy crackers across the
aisle...almost.
Besides the crackers, we ate: a small bag of potato snacks, a sweet
mango, two pad Thais, five green apples. Needless to say, when we got
to Chiang Khong, we were not hungry.
Notes from the bus ride
Bern, you told us to only ride in buses with smart drivers. I
translated this into drivers who have smart uniforms, which I concede
is not quite what you meant, but I have been noticing our drivers'
uniforms. I am happy to report that this driver had both epaulettes on
his uniform and paperclips securing his collar in place, four to be
exact. I think it was an alternative to having his collar ironed in
place, but I didn't inquire, just gawked. It seemed to show that he
was a stickler for details, a quality I presume he carried into his
driving. In fact, the steering wheel remained firmly attached
throughout the trip, but we did drive 0 km/h according to the
speedometer.
Intermittently throughout the drive and beyond, it misted. Not too
much, but a steady misting. I'm not sure if it is related, but we
passed at least four cars that had recently crashed, flipped into the
ditch! The first one startled us because we only rarely see accidents
here, despite the crazy driving. The second, third and fourth
accidents were unsettling. Again, only speculation, but we think the
rain was a contributing factor as this road was no more dangerous than
other mountain roads we have experienced here. Hopefully no one was
injured too badly, but that seems unlikely given the magnitude of the
damage to most of the cars.
Finally, I noticed more string. This is the third incidence in two
days, so I thought I would mention it. In Tham Lod (the cave), there
was a long string tied throughout the cave. I thought it was a hold
out from when the cave was first explored as string is often used to
mark the way out, but even this explanation seemed unlikely - it was a
lot of string. Next, we visited a temple in Chiang Mai (Wat Chiang
Man), and one giant Buddha statue had string tied around his hand,
which then continued across a courtyard to be tied to a nearby chedi
(pointy religious structure). Then today, one long string followed the
road for quite a ways, tied to trees and such along the way. Clearly
we are missing something, but I'm not sure what. Also, both of our
recent buses have had string tied around their steering wheels
(decorative, not structural). The only explained use of string I know
of is in Laos, where string is tied around the wrists when traveling
to keep the spirits of the body from getting lost during your travel
and we saw an example of this when we stopped for coffee and a
bathroom in Chiang Khong. I'll keep my eyes open for more string or
explanations of it's use.
Chiang Khong
Misty rain accompanied our trek through this border town. We arrived
at three with three hours to cross into Laos before overstaying our
visa exemption. We chose to walk rather than get a 30B tuk-tuk; when
you walk you get to see more of the place and allow yourself to be
affected by your destination more so than speeding through it in a
tuk-tuk. You do have to carry your bag and we did just procure six
bottles of 5B water for 25B (that's right, 5B water for less than
5B!!), so the backpack was a bit heavier than normal. Robot carried
that though :) For our trouble, we got rained on, accompanied by dogs,
greeted by a friend from the bus ride, and served good espresso - much
better than riding. Eventually, we found the river crossing, stamped
out of Thailand and zipped across the Mekong in a skinny wooden boat.
Huay Xia, Laos
On the other side of the river is Huay Xia, but we had to cross
immigration first. A few forms, one passport photo and $36 US later,
we got our 30-day Lao visas pasted into our passports, which by the
way is starting to look a little ragged seeing as it lives in my money
belt these days. I'm so proud! Normally a Lao visa is only $35 US, but
today is a Sunday and we had to pay a one dollar overtime fee. Amusing
little details.
Shopping for Accommodation
Next we had to find a place to sleep. We decided against a dedicated
Laos guidebook, so we don't have a map. This was more disorienting
than we had expected, but really this baby border town is arranged
linearly along the Mekong and one main street. We soon found all three
of the guest houses that Robert had scouted on TravelFish. I think I
have referenced our mandatory shop-around policy for selecting
lodging, but I think I have neglected to explain the awkwardness that
results. We want to look at several places, but we don't have the
words in Thai or now Lao to explain this. I imagine that we are not
unique in this policy, but the person showing us the room typically
seems to expect us to accept the room. Robert is much more business
oriented than I and isn't bothered by repeatedly turning down rooms,
but I am, to an extent. I'm not going to be socially bullied into
taking a room I am not sure that I want, but I want a more explicative
phrase than "no thanks."
In this instance, we turned down three rooms before returning to the
second place we rejected. The place is called Sabaydee Guesthouse,
which translates as "hello/i'm fine/goodbye" in Lao. We are learning
that Lao and Thai are very similar and our simple Thai phrases would
most likely be understood here, but I'm sure Laos would appreciate us
trying to use their language, so we shall. We paid 340B (as opposed to
90,000 kip, which is the local currency, but most places will take
bahts as well) for our room, which has twin beds, a hot shower (set up
for a midget!) and an annoying TV. The exchange is about 8,000 kip for
one US. Robert loves all the conversions, but my brain is getting a
workout!
We walked the main drag a few times, looking for the places mentioned
in the mammoth guidebook, never found most of them and eventually
settled on Nab Phob Restaurant for minced pork (larb), mushroom and
pork soup and fried morning glory, and some Beer Lao, which tastes
strikingly like Chang beer to me.
Tomorrow we plan on taking a slow boat down the Mekong River to Luang
Prabang. The ride is supposed to be gorgeous, but since it has become
very popular, the boats have become notoriously crowded. It is still
the best way to get to Luang Prabang since the mountain roads in Laos
are also notoriously unkept. The ride takes two days with a stopover
in Pak Beng for the night. We failed in securing a ticket tonight, so
we plan to just show up at the dock in the morning and hope for the
best.
Parting thought: a question that I have been kicking around is "why
are we here?" By which I mean both in Southeast Asia and not in the
States. Why are we traveling? Why do others travel? Why did we come
here? What goal are we accomplishing with our travel? Do we need a
goal? etc. No solid answers as of yet. Do you have any based on your
own experiences?
----- I just tapped the screen and my message totally disappeared. For
thirty scary seconds, I thought this entire post had vaporized. Alas,
it had magically transmuted into my outbox. Phew.
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