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Published: April 29th 2007
It's my third time lucky updating this blog entry...the internet connections haven't been super reliable here, and I have lost my entries a couple of times.
We caught the bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai..I've lost track of days, so can't tell you when. Australian and NZ bus services could learn a lot about bus service from these guys. We were the only Farang (white people) on the bus, but they had movies (Thai), complimentary snacks, water, and freshener towels. My heart almost stopped when the police stormed on for a passport cheque (we were kindly informed by a guy across the isle with limited english). The police officer said a lot in Thai, then to my great relief (but probably not his) dragged off the guy sitting next to me...the joys of entering the golden triangle I guess. The trip up was so scenic through mountains, and bright green rice fields.
We stayed a guest house a wee way out of town. Walking into town was awesome, in the non-tourist areas. People just stared at you, but were really nice despite the lack of english. All the eateries has much more western style service (no empty water glasses for us), but had a lot more Thai actualy eating in them. We visited the hill tribe museum, and night markets, which were so much nicer than any we had been to before. Entertainment, variety, and a lack of hassling. One rain drop fell and the whole place erupted into a swarm of activity, like an ants nest which had been kicked. 5 minutes later we realised why as the sky opened up to heavy rain.
The next day we caught the oldest bus I have ever seen to Chiang Kong. Instead of green rice fields we passed harvested ones, some of which were being burnt off. When we got off the bus, we headed down a side road instead of the main road. The locals thought we were the strangest site, with our packs, and took photos of us, and wai'd us. We decided to head across the Mekong to the Huayxai, and get our whole border crossing thing over and done with. Our first overland border crossing had us pretty nervous. Instead of being a scary experience it was fast, and quite funny with the officials cracking the odd joke. For us NZ'ers it was really strange changing countries with just a 3 minute boat ride. The afternoon was spent sipping drinks at a resturant overlooking the Mekong...very nice.
The next morning I was up early and checked out a few of the local sites, including the temple. Then we hurried off to our friendly travel agent (a desk in a shed) who took us to the port where our slow boat left from. We were told to be there by 9am, however when we arrived we discovered the boat did no leave until 12pm. We therefore had several hours to soak up the port atmosphere, and have a second breakfast at the local resturant. In the meantime, hundreds (it seemed) of white people crawled out of the woodwork, and joined our boat. I had no idea there were so many travellers! We purchased some cushions to make the straight wooden plank seats a bit more comfy for the 2 day journy, and squezzed onto the boat with all the other farang (white people), chickens, motorbikes, and produce3.
The sun was shining, the fisherman were out in their canoes setting nets and fishing. Locals tended their crops on the banks of the river...pretty awesome stuff. We secured a spot on the bow of the boat which was a bit more comfortable than the seats, and definately had better viewing. Had a great day. Arrived at our stop for the night (will update the name when I remember it). We had our first negative expereince when a couple of local guys grabbed our packs off the boat. They wanted us to go to their guest house, and/or carry our bags but Lou has already sorted one out, and we wanted to carry our own bags. It took a lot of coxing to get one of the bags, and then teh guy wanted payment for it, following us all the way back to our guesthouse and into our room. After we freaked out he either gave up, or our guesthouse owner sent him away. That freaked us out heaps, but our other expereinces there were great. The family at the guesthouse (we splashed out compared to most of the other travellers on the boat, and by all accounts in the morning, it was money well spent) cooked the most terrific food. They randomly gave Fiona their baby when she was sitting on her own...she thinks they felt sorry for her. However the little girl scarily took a liking to me, crying when they tried to take her away when my meal came, and in the morning boosting over in her walker, and holding her arms up. In the morning Fiona and I went for a walk around the village and were invited into the local temple by some english speaking monks. The next day on the river was overcast, which was nice as it made it a bit cooler, but a lot of people were over the boat ride. The scenery changed a lot though, with steper cliffs on the side.
We arrived in Luang Prabang that night, found a guesthouse and went out for a nice meal. The next day we explored the town, including several of the temples, and the royal palace museum, which contains a lot of the recently demolished monarcharys belongings. It was the most beautiful mueseum I have ever been into. Of course there was also the numerous textile shops with silk, and jewlery...so many beautiful things.
This morning I was walking down the street and ran into James and Catherine Kerr from Forestry School, it seems they were on the boat the day before us, and have been travelling around asia for a couple of months. Today we have enjoyed a reflexology massage, and a bit more shopping (have never been into shopping so much before). Lou and I are booked in to do a 3 day silk weaving class, and Fiona is going to learn Lao cooking. We have been LOOOOOVEing the Laos food. I thought the Thai food was good, but the Lao food has been even better. Eating takes up a major chunk of each of our days.
If you have managed to read all of this..good on you!
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Will
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Wicked Blog Dels
Hey Dels Awesome blog. It seems like you're having a great time. Keep us posted.