London thru Bangkok to Northern Laos

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So I arrived in Bangkok last Thursday to find that my hotel room had been given away... Not a great start but I found somewhere else which was nice, clean a friendly whichwas all I needed. Flights from London via Abu Dhabi were really grerat (Christopher, you'd have died - I watched take off and landing on my screen..little bit hair-raising at Bangkok!!!) so I was relatively calm until I woke up to realise that I was in Asia alone and hadn't a clue where was safe, who was trying to pull a fast one etc, the language barrier thing is a killer.
I spent my free morning wandering around the city, saw a few temples and an awful lot of shops - I must hab\ve been asked a thousand times if I wanted a tuk-tuk but my fear of being driven away forever kept me walking... I waited til mid afternoon to peruse the Khaosan Road which was, as I'd been told, like San Antonio only with a funny smell.... It was interesting nonetheless and I stopped of there to have a drink with an Aussie girl called Lara who'd arrived at the same time as me but had ended up with far more interesting tales to tell in that short time!!! Matt then called so I hotfooted to my hotel to meet him.
We spent the afternoon wandering around the park, the Grand Palace and Khaosan again before heading to the airport. Things then took a turn for the worse as Matt's 'fresh from exchange desk' wallet was stolen without the equivalent of maybe 400 quid in it. Needless to say the mood was soured a little and the 'know nothing' response from all of the people in the vicinity didn't help. Our flight was due for the off so we decided to catch it regardless. It took just over an hour to get up to Chiang Rai where we stayed at a real 'luxury resort' - it was fabulous, but not in the best taste given the day's events! Still, in the morning we took advantage of the superb pool and went refreshed to the Tourist Police (who were unavailable at the airport the night before) to file a statement which was easy enough as the girl there was studying english, and was very helpful. We had moved to a more affordable hostel, a bamboo hut thing which was cool, and spent the day out and about in town, which was kind of mini Bangkok... Highlight was definitely the night bazaar and a fanatastice prawn tom yam soup. We were beginning to see more of the western man/eastern woman thing and were keen to move on so we had a 2 hour bus ride to Chiag Khong, the border town for entry to Laos. We arranged visas, booked lunch and met some Canadians then took a 5 minute boat ride to leave Siam for the PDR Laos, arriving at Huay Xai. We had changed up about 20 pounds of kip, which came to more than 350 thousand so the maths for this leg was always going to be tough... Found a reasonable guest house in an old french colonial building and went for a wander - the difference is incredible, even at the boarder. We walked the length of the town and there was a real mix of buildings and bamboo huts, and no ryhme or reason for their location. It was obvious that Laos would be a rel eye-opener. We stopped at somewhere for a drink and soent a while talking to an 'extreme traveller' from Belgium (contradictuion in terms or what??) who had some great stories and a grave warning to stay out of Burma. mmm. We then had dinner at the acclaimed BAP guesthouse where the propriteress knows everything - all salesmen could learn cross selling techniques from this woman!!! Anyway, more tomorrow - the town we are now in closes at 11 so I have to go...
Love to all
x
Emma and Matt

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