myrainasia

Could talk about the bus ride from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai- 3 hours on a hot, sweaty bus that looked like it was held together with chewing gum and seats were fashioned wherever you could find a place (thank god the Thai people are small), and one tourist told me this was a major upgrade from buses in China, and the bus driver was clearly Type A who didn’t like following anybody- but I won’t because I got there in one piece and it was sort of fun in retrospect, and I’m in Laos now and want to get to writing about Laos.  (Just realized that the bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai was air conditioned and quite pleasant and the bus ride I describe above was the ride from Chiang Rai to Chiang Khong.  I’m leaving it this way because I am sure that any attempt I make to fix the error will only screw me up and result in the need to retype the whole thing.)

Should also write about Chiang Rai because it was probably my second favorite city in Thailand (after Mae Hong Son)- stayed in a really nice guesthouse, had a wonderful tour day with Tony and Dominique and our guide Nok (toured in an actual car- a first for me in Thailand)- saw some more hilltribe villages, had a great time at the monkey caves, ate lunch in Mae Sai on the border with Myanmar (after lunch I shopped while Tony and Dominique went into Myanmar to extend their Thai visas), loved the Golden Triangle (intersection of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand) even though the guidebooks say it’s a hokey tourist stop (tell that to all of the Thai tourists who were also there),  tasted fresh strawberry and mulberry wine at a roadside stand (and shared a bottle later with Tony and Dominique over dinner), and all in all, had a terrific time.  Bought 2 new pairs of flip flops at the day market to replace the 1 pair that was stolen in Pai and had fun wandering through the night market my first night in town- not much wandering the next 2 nights when the rain washed out the outdoor dining and entertainment at the night market.  And before leaving Chiang Rai I must add a heartfelt thanks to Tony and Dominique for the Benadryl that saved my life the day of our tour- somewhere between Mae Hong Son and Chiang Rai the mosquitoes feasted on the backs of my thighs and ass- granted this would be the most appetizing location of my body to a mosquito, but not a socially acceptable place for nonstop scratching.

As predicted by Nok, Chiang Khong has nothing to recommend it- that I could see.  It’s a place you go to solely to book your trip to Laos and spend the night until taking off.  I picked the wrong room in the wrong guesthouse, but it was my fault competely because I took the first place that had a room- I really needed a shower and could not wait another moment.

The piece de resistance of this blog entry has got to be the boat trip to Luang Prabang, Laos.  I hesitate to begin because it would be tragic to not find the right words to give this trip true justice.  (Deep breath here.)

The day started simply enough.  I was sitting in the restaurant of my guest house, drinking coffee and waiting for my guide to pick me up.  He said he would be there between 8 and 8:30 and showed up around 8:35 on his motorbike which could have transported me to the border, but not my suitcase.  So he called for a tuk tuk and we made it to the Thai immigration office without incident.  Since I had not overstayed my 30-day visa, checkout from Thailand went smoothly.  Then Pan found me again and helped me down to the river where we boarded a little ferry that takes you across the river to the Laos side.  (Please note the following- any time I talk about “boarding”a boat- erase any image you might have of a pier or dock- we’re talking climbing from or onto some type of dirt hillside utilizing a small wooden plank that looks like it would hold up to 30 or 40 lbs. max.  Now imagine me trying to do this with a 40 lb. suitcase and wearing clogs- got the picture?)

Pan (my guide) stayed with me through the disembarkation on the Laos side (which was, in itself, amusing because I kept thinking he was finished and shaking his hand and saying thank you, and he kept telling me “not yet”.)  After getting off the ferry someone grabbed my suitcase (you quickly stop worrying where your stuff is going and assume you will find it eventually).   Immediately taken aside by a Lao official who brought me to a shady verandah seating area and began to fill out my Laotian visa.  He then told me to sit and subsequently returned with my visa.  All that was left was to go into the Lao immigration office and pay the $35 fee.  Amazingly, there was method to this madness and this went smoothly.

Visa in hand I was now on the Laos side and time to find my suitcase.  Apparently Pan had already passed me on to my next handler because I found my suitcase, along with the woman who told me where to wait for the next part.  Used the 3 minutes she gave me to buy lunch for the trip.  (Now needed to understand Lao money which I am still working on- with the aid of a self made crib sheet that converts Laotian kip to Thai baht (where my brain is stuck) to US dollars (which I vaguely remember, but at the rate the dollar is doing, might just as well forget).

Then we were herded on to yet another tuk tuk to get to the long boats for the slow trip down the Mekong.  Notwithstanding how we were rushed on, the tourists kept arriving on tuk tuks and we didn’t leave for at least another half hour.  Thanks to the strong young Israelis, my suitcase made it onto the boat with me.

The hard wooden benches left something to be desired for the next 8 hours but the scenery was fantastic and the company was diverse and interesting.

Day 1 ended at Pak Beng, a bustling little town that exists, in large part, to service the tourists taking the boat between Chiang Khong and Luang Prabang.  Service includes rooms for sleeping, food to eat, apparently much weed (of no interest to me whatsoever but someone approached me with an offer to sell every time I left my room) and providing sherpa service from the boats to the town located quite a bit above the river.  (There were multiple sets of steps from the river to the town, but because of the boats already docked, or out of sheer perversity, or simply to provide business to the locals who meet the boats to carry the luggage and/or the tourists,  our boat docked next to a cliff with no path in sight.)  As I stood on the boat, sweating and wondering how I would ever make it to the longed for shower, this local hopped onto the boat and grabbed my suitcase and I simply followed with blind faith.  He continued scooting up the hillside until he realized I was stuck, unmoving, several feet below, at which point he came back down, grabbed my hand and hauled me up to town.  I did not look right or left and simply followed his flip flops to safety.  Best 100 bahts ($3 plus) I ever spent.

My prebooked room was fine.  No A/C (none in Pak Beng anywhere except for the resort located slightly before the town) but fan and no hot water.  The town has electricity for 4 hours a day, from 6 to 10 pm.  (Realized after a while that that meant the fan wasn’t going to be of much use during the night- Duh!)  Room came candle equipped.  Cold water shower felt good after the boat.  Knew it would feel slightly less good in the am.

Found dinner and took a sleeping pill in order to go to bed at 9:30- thought I’d beat the onset of darkness by being asleep.   Also wanted to get up early to get to the boat early to try and get one of the more comfortable back seats- recycled car seats.  Managed to do all, no thanks to my hotel keeper who never gave the 6:30 wake up knock.  Hired a local for the trip back down.  This turned out not to be as necessary, since the boat was actually docked at the bottom of a staircase.  Still, made life easier for me, and a little happier for the guy who carried my suitcase.

Day 2 was much of the same.  Magnificent scenery, really friendly since now we all knew each other, but still boring after 8 hours.

The arrival in Luang Prabang seemed anticlimactic after the arrival in Pak Beng.  Jumped into a tuk tuk with some others, found a guesthouse with A/C and a hot shower, then went for dinner (saw a restaurant across the street with a lot of locals eating and figured it had to be good- it was) and then went to sleep in the blessedly cool room.

Have now blogged way too long and am ready to explore Luang Prabang in the sweltering heat.  From the little I’ve seen so far, I think I’m going to love it here.

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