Three countries, two days.

One of the wonderful things about travelling, as I have mentioned in the past, is that there are many other solo travellers. Although it's a ton of fun meeting new people every night in hostels, there is also something nice about travelling with the same person or people for a few days or week, especially when getting off the "banana pancake trail", as the typical route in SE Asia is known. For this reason, I've been travelling with an American named Brandon, and on and off with my dutch friend Elise for close to a week. This definitely makes some of the longer bus rides and stays in isolated guest houses a lot more enjoyable!

Chiang Rai markets

After Pai, the next stop was Chiang Rai, another northern Thai city. Many backpackers buy travel packages from their hostels or guesthouses that take them from Chiang Mai (in Thailand) to Luang Prabang, (in Laos), passing right through Chaing Rai. The typical travelling strategy for backpackers in SE Asia is to pad on down to your hostel front desk in the morning, buy a handwritten ticket to where you want to go, and a few hours later be picked up from your hostel/guesthouse, be on a bus and on your way. This makes travel incredibly easy and convenient, but we wanted to get off the path a bit and see a few of more towns instead of passing through them. We also wanted to save a bit of money, so our solution was the public bus system. Instead of taking an air conditioned bus filled with other backpackers, we opted for a bus where few people, if any, spoke english, where tires may or may not need frequent stops for more air, and where asking the driver to pull over for a pee-break on the side of the road is perfectly acceptable. Chickens in the aisles optional. Needless to say, public busses are much more fun, and bring you to towns where locals far outnumber tourists, instead of the other way around!

Myanmar temple

Chiang Rai was enjoyable, athough quiet, and it was interesting to be in a city where there were so few tourists. I found it to be a lot of fun to go out at night with all the Thai young people -at one point, we were out dancing at a disco packed with a couple hundred young Thais, and not a single other traveller. What a lot of fun!

Ducks in the bus

While reading about activities nearby in our Lonely Planet we realized there was a little used land border crossing to Myanmar about an hour away. Never ones to turn down a new passport stamp, Brandon and I decided to take a public bus to Mae Sae and cross over to Myanmar, just to say we did. We were granted a one day visa, but when we asked for a longer one we were granted a 15 day visa, no questions asked. We originally wanted to stay a night and travel around a bit but Tachilek, the Myanmar border town, had very few attractions and was just incredibly hot -enough to inspire us to return to Thailand to visit some caves we had heard about. We walked through a local market where I got the feeling that we were the biggest oddity in the place, went to a couple temples and statues, and then returned to Thailand, albeit with a new stamp in our passport!

Country number three in two days, was Laos, the next stop on our travels. Brandon and I took a local bus to the border and after crossing over to Laos, decided to (surprise, surpise) crack the Lonely Planet and decide right then what city we should go to. After doing a bit of reading, we decided on Luang Namtha, and more northern and less travelled city that was known for its caves, ethnic minority villages and trekking. However, when we tried to buy a ticket we were told that they were not yet sure if the 5:00 bus that evening would go to Luang Namtha or Luang Prabang. I guess it hadn't been decided yet? We were told to come back at 4:00 when they would know for sure. I'm not sure how it was decided, but when we came back at 4 we were informed that it would indeed go to Luang Namtha like we wanted, so we took it. Sometimes I'm not sure how things run in this country -does the driver just kind of guess what city he'll drive to that day? Yet another thing that reminds me that I'm not in Canada any longer....

 

 

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