We just managed to get the last tickets for the VIP bus (188b) from Chaing Mai to Chaing Rai, thanks to the help of a couple of girls we met in the bus station. The trip was good, it was an a/c bus which always helps. The 3.5 hour trip was uneventful, and after having long yet u intelligible conversations with local taxi drivers we went for pot luck and just picked a place and the the nearest gusthouse, Orchid Guesthouse, and and took a room at an expensive 400b. By this time it was evening, so we went off in search if food, and found a very nice food court area, with a Thai entertainment (drag act), surrounded with lots of small food vendor shops. It was super cheap and super tasty — giant shrimps and BBQ fish were great, and we enjoyed ordering random small snacks. After this we headed through the night market to ‘the Cat’ bar, where we met up with the two girls from the bus station and their boyfriends. Turns out the couples were travelling seperately, but have hooked up for a while.
The next morning I has a bit of a grump on, and decided that I wanted to see some jungle, as the elephant trip didn’t really do it for me. We rented a scooter for the day (250b) and headed for Wat Koen Khun, and its nearby waterfall.
The Wat was impressive, in that it was the first modern way that we had seen — brand new buildings (and perhaps renovations) — all in gleaming white, and insides finished with very modern icons — mostly pop culture related. I wondered whether the grim statues and iconography was to emphasise the perils of our time. It certainly made for a different Wat experience, but it felt a bit more like a theme park. Took a few photos to make into HDR, so hopefully thy will turn out well when I get home 🙂
We then pootled off another 20km to the Koen Khun national park and waterfall, and I tricked Laura into to doing our own little trek into the Jungle to find the waterfall. 1.4km into the jungle on a well trodden path, we found the cool wet spray of the falling water, perhaps 50 meter drop into a small pool. It wasn’t great for swimming, but I gave it a go anyway when we were joined by a tour group from Israel who went to it with real gusto!
Satisfied with our adventure, we hopped back on the bike in search of lunch — I has spotted some small places on the road to the park, and we stopped at a quiet place and ordered noodle soup (the only option). We were closely inspected by two cute little Thai girls who eventually worked up the courage to say good afternoon between giggles.
As soon as we got back, we went to the bus station and got the 4pm bus (65b/pp) to Chaing Khong, the Thai side of the Laos border crossing. We were too late to cross the border (which we expected) an stayed at re balanitim guesthouse (350b fan room), overlooking the Mekong River. It was dark when we arrived and we could already hear the music from the Bars across the river on Laos — the Karaoke started soon after…
We are at the guesthouse and chatted with fellow tourists/travellers and ate lovely food. The guesthouse was run by a Thai/Laos lady (maloiwie?) and an American chap (Don) who live there. They happened to meet us at the bus stop — not by chance I think…
This morning we crossed the border I to Laos by longboat, and are currently on he slow boat headed eventually to Luang Prabang, along the Mekong River. It takes two days and stops over in Pak beng.
It has just started raining. It’s going to be a long trip!