Chiang Rai and Chiang Khong

---

We were a bit sick of Thailand now, and hearing so many great things about Laos, we steamed through our last 2 stops Chiang Rai and Chiang Khong.

We had heard nice things about Chiang Rai, apparently the more chilled out version of Chiang Mai, but when we got there it seemed like any generic tourist town in Thailand, night markets, western food restaurants and as we soon noticed a particularly large number of old western men with Thai brides!

It was supposed to be very beautiful in the surrounding areas but we had had enough of organised treks for a while so decided to give it a miss and move on the next morning to Chiang Khong, the border town with Laos. We definitly knew we had made the right decision to move on the next day when we went to bed and found out that our room overlooked the "red light district" of the town!

Chiang Khong was a much nicer experience. It seemed that the only people that came here were those wanting to cross the border to Laos and so was a much quiter laid back place, consisting of one long road set by the Mekong River. The river acts as the border between the 2 countries so you can sit and have dinner on the thailand side and look over to the Laos side only 100 metres away!

We stayed in a big wooden hotel just outside of town with a view of the river and ate lunch, dinner and breakfast the next day at one of the nicest restaurants i've been to in Thailand, called the Easy Cafe where you choose dvd's to watch while you ate and they had amazing food! The town also has a brilliant friday market which we caught in the morning with all sorts of clothes for a few quid, Primark eat your heart out!

The next afternoon we stopped by at immigration to get our exit stamps for thailand then paid the 45p for the longboat to take us the 3 minute journey across the river to the town of Houayxai in Laos.

---

Comments

[Sally]

Laos
Just wondering how you got from Chang Rai to Chiang Khong? Am planning a trip to laos in March and really want to do the gibbon experience. Did you do that? Regards Sally

[adnria]

Hi, it's really easy to get between the two places providing you can get yourself to the correct bus station in Chiang Rai. There are two both outside of the city. Once there you have a choice of buses, cheap public bus or more expensive "luxury" bus. We did the public bus and it was well worth it. Tickets are easy to come by and priced up at the various ticket counters. We didn't do the gibbon experience as it is so popular that you can only do it by booking in advance. We have heard that it is fantastic and well worth the money though. Best of luck, safe journeys :)

[adnria]

Sorry, ignore the last comment
I just re-read and saw you are going from Chiang Rai, not Chiang Mai. Even easier. The bus station is right in the centre of town. Just jump on the bus or buy your ticket at the counter before you travel. They are the big green buses and stand out from the rest of the ones at the station. They leave every hour starting really early, until 2pm (I think). Unlike other journeys we pretty much had this bus all to ourselves.

[rik]

this website is weird, ive just been emailed your 'latest' blog entry about your christmas eve, even though that was nearly three months ago, and ive been sent other ones since. how strange. anyway sounds like you had a good crimbo. merry christmas. hope your both good. by the way, the new car is mint