..where did I leave off.. oh right, night market in Chiang Mai.. wonderful place full of wonderful things. Louise (one of my tour mates) is probably one of the best marketplace bargainers I have ever seen. She got the price of a hangbag down from 9200 baht (about $300) to 5200 (about $175). It was truly amazing.
Oh yeah, and I finally had a ride in a Thai tuk-tuk, three-wheeled motorcycle taxi thing, brightly painted, some with lots of colourful lights. Was sooo fun. :)
Next morning, up at an obscene hour (5:30) for breakfast and off by 6:30 to catch the first of our two buses. This one was quite nice, air-conditioned, comfortable, better seats than Greyhound. We travelled three hours north to Chiang Rai, where I actually thought we were going to have a look around for an hour or two. We had a lunch/pee break and a bus change and that was it! Next bus.. old, rickety, much less comfortable, full to the rafters, not air-con.. but it soon emptied out and we had lots of room to spread out. Three hours on this bus as well, to Chiang Khong, where our lovely tour leader Ju bid us adieu as we were crossing the Mekong river, leaving Thailand and entering Laos, and Gecko's Adventures keeps their tour leaders local to each country.
We did Thai exit immigration procedures, and our new tour leader for Laos, Soun, was there to greet us and accompany us across the river. Super nice bloke, born in Laos, grew up in the states, moved back about 12 years ago. Off we went across the Mekong, got our visas at Laos immigration. Interesting fact here... each of the three nationalities represented in our tour group had a different fee, the Aussies at US$31, Brits US$36, and me, US$43. What the hell?? Should be those Aussies paying the most! LOL.
After completing border formalities (entering a small town called Bakeo), we walked to our guesthouse for the night, and set out for a look around town, including climbing about 150 steps up to a Buddhist temple, which offered lovely views of the river and town. Walked up and down the main drag before meeting back at the guesthouse to head out for dinner, where I tried the national Laos dish, which I can't remember the name of at this time but was very delicious! Laos beer, very yummy, simply called: Beerlao. Off to bed soon after dinner.
Up early-ish to start our boat cruise down the Mekong river... in a Laos longtail boat. Such a good way to see the countryside and be lazy at the same time! Our destination tonight is Pakbeng, a small town on the side of the Mekong. Along the way we had a delicious buffet on board the ship, stopped at a small 'middle-Laos' village (where people live a bit more traditionally), saw some amazing scenery, and got to Pakbeng about 430pm. Small little riverside town, like I mentioned earlier, haha. Quite quiet here, our guesthouse only has electricity from 6pm-10pm, so we dropped our stuff and went on a brief walking tour of the down, including the market, and a temple. All temples are Buddhist unless otherwise stated! Back to the guesthouse in time for beer and dinner with the bugs, and here I am writing away now. Off to bed before the 1000pm power cut off, so I have the fan to keep cool until I fall asleep!
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