Laos to Northern Thailand - Chiang Mai

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Laos to Chiang Mai

14/01/11 - 18/01/11

The journey from Luang Prabang to Chiang Mai was a long one taking approx 22 hours in total.

Border crossing

We booked a night VIP bus (normal seats) from LP to Houyxai on the Lao/Thai border. This part of the journey took 12 hours. We arrived at Houyxai at about 7am (there were only 3 other western travellers) and took one of the waiting shared tuk tuks (20000kip per person) to the border crossing down a small alley way towards the water in the centre if town. 
You have to stamp out on the Cambodia side. Any leftover money can be changed here into Baht. If you leave Laos with kip you may as well use it as toilet paper as no one will take it!

Then you take a boat for 10,000 kip (if you've got a bag, 8,000 without) across the river to the Thai border (chiang Khong). There you stamp in and fill in an arrival card at immigration. Then walk up the hill to the tuk tuks where you will get offered a VIP minibus to Chiang Mai for 250 Baht leaving at 10:40 or you could go local and do what we did!

So we thought we may be able to get it cheaper by going to the bus station. So the tuk tuk dropped us off at a random location (for 30 baht each) which was supposed to be the bus station, where a random person who was very rushed ran over to tell us the bus was about to leave and we had to run. We were trying to elucidate where this bus went to and asked "chiang mai?" the answer was to say "chiang Rai, chiang mai" and grabbed our bags on the bus so we got on. The local bus was just going to chiang Rai for 35 baht each so we found out so we had to change!

It was 2 hrs to CR and then we bought a bus ticket to CM at CR station for 170 baht each. First though we were told had to get to the 'New Bus Station' where the bus departs from. This was possible using a local shared tuk tuk which surprisingly cost only 10 baht each - found on platform 1.

So after spending in total more than the VIP minibus would have been from Chiang Khong (damn) we arrived in Chiang mai (1 hour earlier than the VIP bus) bus station. From there we had to get a shared minivan to our hotel. We chose Na Inn (650 baht) on the internet as it got good reviews and didn't try to rip you off. Unfortunately it was full so we walked a few buildings back down towards the gate to Grace Boutique Hotel (350baht) There was nothing boutique about this place as far as we were concerned but the rooms were comfortable & clean albeit small but good value for the price. Our TV didn't work so Duncan complained and we got a discount of 50 baht per night even though we did not even expect a TV!

Chiang Mai is very touristy with a lot of seedy bars. The old town is surrounded by a moat with an impressive entrance gate near the main streets and lots of temples to see. We didn't go to any of the temples as we had seen so many in Cambodia and Laos. It is not an attractive place but then we have been spoiled with Laos scenery especially Luang Prabang. People say if you are going to CM and Laos, go to CM first for this reason.

We loved however, 'Bubbles Live' restaurant for breakfast and lunch. After the trekking we did stay 1 night at Na Inn which was nice.

Trekking in Chiang Mai

The problem with booking a trek in CM is that there are literally hundreds of travel agencies which offer a wide variety of tours.

As it turns out however, the majority of tours are run by 2 main companies - Panda Tours and TIC. TIC run the 2 day 1 night trekking tours with elephant riding, White water rafting and bamboo rafting in the Mae Tang area. Panda do a similar tour in the same area (do not stay in the same village) but also do a 'trekking only' tour and similar trips to other areas. We were told by 2 different travel agencies that Panda tours do not get great reviews - but they could have been biased?

As the tours are all largely run by 2 companies- you may as well book with them directly as all other agencies booking their tours are obviously on commission and charge from 200-400 baht more for the same thing. We got charged 1200 baht each for our tour, and booked direct with TIC- but we did think afterwards we should have negotiated this price (even though it was the cheapest quoted after going to 5 different agencies). 

We were not really interested in elephant riding as we had just spent two days in Laos riding them but all tours seem to include it with little exception. Walking only tours are rare, Panda did one but it was more expensive at 1800 baht and we were told that you basically walk the same way but a less direct route. There appeared to be 3-4 areas you can trek within, but the beauty of these areas depend on the season you travel apparently. As there are a limited number of trekking areas it is hard to get off the beaten track but we didn't really see many other tourists the whole time.

As for the tour...

We got picked up at 9am and picked up everyone from their hotels. The drove about 30 minutes to go to an orchid and butterfly farm (not sure why but it was ok), then it was another 30 minutes to the elephant riding.

You get to ride for about 1 hr on the elephants back on a chair. They obviously didn't travel a great distance as they just walk them really slow and keep stopping to make the hour!!

From there we started our trek. 3 hours of initially quite a moderate hike which turned into more serious climbing and a bit of scrambling over rocks and babbling brooks! Once you get up to the top of the hills there are stunning views of the surrounding hills and valleys. 

At around 5pm we arrived at  Lahu village where we had a large bamboo hut to stay in. We were the only group there. The view from the bamboo verandah is great and so we sat there for the evening (after a freezing shower / hosepipe) around a campfire.

The hut consists of multiple thin mattresses on the floor with 1 sheet, 3 blankets and a mossie net. They advised us not to take a sleeping bag as it was apparently not cold enough but believe me we were freezing despite wearing all our clothes. However it would have been a pain to trek with the sleeping bag aswell.

One girl didn't bring any long trousers - they are definitely required for the evening and night!! Good walking shoes / trainers are also needed as you could tell those without struggled a little bit!

The next day we walked downhill for about 1 hour to a waterfall for swimming and then walked another hour to the white water rafting. At this time of year the rapids are grade 2 apparently, it was good fun but it only lasted an hour. After WW rafting we transferred onto a 4 person bamboo raft for the final 20mins. We then drove back to Chiang Mai.

The next day we had an evening flight to India.....

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