Crossing the border

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As expected, the early start was no fun! Up at quarter to five, breakfast at half five then on the bus at six. And I thought I was on holiday……

It’s only a 1 hour flight north to Chiang Rai but according to Phon Si, our guide, it’s an 18 hour drive because the road is good but very slow. So a short flight is a good option and we’ll be taking a few internal flights in Laos as well, for the same reason.

As I mentioned, there are now just 4 of us left on the trip. We got the message from London this morning that the rest of the group can’t travel so their holiday has been cancelled. I’m actually writing this on Tuesday and I can see on the news that Heathrow is still in a mess, so I guess there was no other choice. I met another tour guide in the hotel lobby and she told me that she had just one person joining her tour through Cambodia.

No problems with the flight or luggage this time and we met our minivan driver at the airport for the 2 hour drive to the Mekong and the Thai border. This must be one of the most unusual border crossings in the world where the Mekong is effectively “no mans land”. After clearing Thai border control, it’s a short walk down to the riverside where the motorized narrow boats are lined up. Porters load the luggage then everyone squeezes on board for the 100 yard crossing to Laos. There are two procedures to go through at the Lao border: you have to fill in an entry card, and buy an entry visa. So as you can probably guess it does take a little while to get through the formalities before clambering up the slope to the main street in.
Our hotel for the night was at the far end of town, near the ferry landing. The rooms were simple cabins, made mainly from bamboo and with one of those huge propeller style ceiling fans. After checking in, we took a walk back down the main street towards the centre of town and had a late lunch at a local restaurant. First BeerLao of the holiday – very nice! After lunch the walk changed to a gentle stroll along to the Wat or monastery which overlooks the town. It was fairly quiet up there – just a few of the novice monks in their orange robes.

In the evening we walked in the opposite direction to the river’s edge and a little restaurant next to the ferry landing ramp, I got a sense of déjà vu because that’s where we boarded the ferry for Luang Prabang on my previous visit. A delicious meal of chicken curry, grilled fish, vegetables and rice was washed down with another BeerLao and quickly followed by an early night. There may have been dogs barking and roosters crowing all night – I honestly can’t tell you!

I'm behind with the blog now because connections are few and far between. We're actually 2 days down the road from the border crossing (or should that be up the road cos we headed North?_. Had a good day today after a heavy rain shower in the night. Our tour leader had to doa bit of hasty reorganising because we should have been trekking but it was too muddy. So we've toured round the district (Luang Nantha) . I'll add photos laterm when I can get a better connection.

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