The Mighty Mekong

12^th – 13^th February 2016

Goodbye Thailand

After a month in Thailand my visa was nearly up so it was time to move on. I’d seen everything I wanted to see and now it was time for a new adventure in Laos. I could have just taken a bus to Luang Prabang but its not the done thing. Most travellers opt for the two day longboat sail down the mighty Mekong River.

My E.T impression

The first part of the journey was on a draughty local bus from Chiang Rai to the border town of Chiang Khong where I had a bit of a mix up. I thought the current way to cross the border was a small ferry crossing in town but this was old information. Plus it seemed strange that I had to pay more to get off at the new bridge border when it stopped before the town. I mentioned that I didn’t think it was the border to a couple of people on the bus so they stayed on it with me. I felt bad when I realised I was wrong.

Me and my new friends I'd landed in troubles got a tuk tuk back to the border which was, again, a bit of a faff. The man told us it would be 60 baht but when the driver got to the border he told us it was 60 baht each. I had double checked with the man organising the tuk tuk how much it was and refused to pay any more. 240 baht for a 5 minute ride was ridiculous. You wouldn’t even pay that in western countries! I ended up giving him an extra 40 and walked away.

Border control scrum

The border also had its own annoyance. I stood in line of a huge queue for about half an hour before I realised I need to fill out a form before I got to the desk. I managed to grab one from a guy handing them out to his bus load. I gave the man at the counter the form and my passport.

The next part of the process is ridiculous. I had to stand in what can only be described as a scrum of people all trying, to get a view of the tiny window where a woman was holding up passports one by one. There was no queueing system at all and if you missed your name being called then your passport went back to the bottom of the pile. Not that she was handing them out in any kind of order, just whichever passport she decided to pick up.

Familiar Face

I got mine but the people I had made friends with had to wait much longer for no apparent reason. Whilst I waited for them I spotted a familiar face. Daimi from the Ultimate Thailand tour would be joining me on my trip through Laos. She had booked a package deal from Pai so once her passport had been stamped she went off with the rest of her group. I would see her on the boat later.

I spoke to another tour operator whilst I was waiting. He said I could join there group for a discounted price. After the faff I had been having all morning this sounded like a good idea. The girls I had met also joined me. We got taken to a little shop where we had chance to grab some lunch and other snacks. Then a guy told us everything that would happen with the boat before taking us down to the harbour.

The longboat

Busy

I got onto the boat and found myself a car seat. Yes, that’s right. The seats on the boat were all old car seats bolted on to wooden skis that moved around once the boat set off. I saved a seat for Daimi who arrived a little later and, once the boat was full, we set off down the Mekong.

The Friendship Bridge

Down the Mekong

I would see the Mekong River a few times over the next couple of months as its one of the longest rivers in the world and goes through many countries. It starts in China, dips into Myanmar before running along the Thai/Laos border. The river then continues through Laos into Cambodia and out the Mekong Delta in south Vietnam. This marked the old border when the French colonised the area. They had everything east of the river.

Taking in the view

Here come the mountains

The flow rate of the river is quite remarkable. You certainly wouldn’t be able to swim against it. It looked like a quite slow and peaceful when we had crossed over the Friendship Bridge but it wasn’t long before we were met by small rapids. The captain did an amazing job steering the boat through a worrying amount of large boulders and rocky outcrops along the river. Not to mention the other boats coming the other way. It reminded me of doing the Jet Boat in New Zealand.

Small village

The last corner of Thailand

We sailed for over an hour with Laos on the left and Thailand on the right until we got into some mountains. At that point the border slipped away to the south and we were heading further into Laos. The scenery became spectacular as the mountains rose higher on either side. It was a little odd to have the river flowing into a set of mountains but that’s just where the river goes.

Mountains and cows

Epic scenery

Fisherman's huts

I must admit, I thought that two days on a boat would get pretty boring after a while but it didn’t. I really enjoyed watching the Laotian countryside drift past me. The mountains looked amazing, there were cows munching on the grassy banks and locals fishing in the river. Around every bend there was something else to see. I ended up with a lot of pictures!

Bit of rapids

More mountains

Every now then we would stop at a little village where a local person would get on or off. Not all of them seemed to be designated stops just flagged down by a man on a bank.

Awesome

Fisherman

A few hours later the sun was setting and we docked at the small town of Pakbeng where we would spend the night. We walked the plank to get off the boat which was a bit scary carrying big bags. Then we had walk up a lot of steps where we were greeted by many locals trying to sell us a room. I had heard it was best to walk up the hill away from the river to get the best deals so that’s what we did.

We must have got to he last guesthouse before we finally found somewhere. Everywhere seemed to be full which was concerning but we got there in the end. It was a dingy twin room that had spiders on the ceiling but it was a bed. We walked back into the village for some food and then had an early night.

Misty morning

The next morning we were greeted with fog which I thought would ruin my picture taking. We grabbed some food and a lot of snacks. Today we would be on the boat for 9 hours.

Ready to go again

Spooky

Leaving Pakbeng behind

The got back onto the boat and sailed out of Pakbeng. The fog lifted so my excessive photo taking could resume.

Goats

More mountains

Dodging rocks

Our captain once again navigated his way down the river superbly. We later heard a story that the boat the day after us came into a bit of strife. It went over a rock and punctured a hole in the bottom of the boat. The passengers had to help bucket the water out of the boat whilst they tried to repair it. I’m very glad I wasn’t on that boat.

Caves

As we were nearing Luang Prabang we went past the Pak Ou caves that’s filled with Buddha statues. You can take a boat back here on a tour but I felt like I’d seen it now.

Stunning

The last village before town

It was a long day but again the view was awesome so I didn’t get bored. We finally arrived in Luang Prabang late afternoon. Well I say arrived. We had to get off the boat 10km from the town so that they could charge us extra for a tuk tuk into town. This is the accepted scam now and there’s no avoiding it.

Luang Prabang

We got to town and started searching for a place to sleep. I had booked the only thing available online which had some seriously bad reviews so I tried to find somewhere else. I followed Daimi to her hostel, which took a little while to find. They had overbooked and Daimi had to stay at some other random place and there was no room for me. Just I was resigned myself to bad nights sleep I found a place that was cheaper than the one I booked and seemed much better.

Now I was fed and with a bed, I was quite excited to see what the country of Laos had to offer.

Northern Thailand

6^th – 11^th February 2016

I arrived in Chiang Mai not long after the sunrise. I was looking forward to getting away from the heat of Bangkok and I certainly got my wish. I was bloody freezing in the tuk tuk from the station to my hostel. It was 20 degrees but I was actually shivering. I had a hoody on up over my head but I was still in shorts and flip flops. I realise its ridiculous for me to be cold at 20 degrees but this was the coldest temperature I’d experienced since before May of last year.

Arrived in Chiang Mai

I was allowed to check in early which is a rare treat. I had another couple of hours sleep and then went out to explore. The centre of Chiang Mai is a big square with a wall running alongside a moat around the city. The city has since spilled out to the surrounding areas but most of the interesting things to see were in the middle.

On of the gates in the wall

Nice bike decoration

I walked along the wall to one of the main gates where I found a man with an interestingly decorated bike.

Temple

Buddha

Another temple

Japanese Garden

I spent the afternoon wandering around the temples of Chiang Mai. There was a nice wooden one that had a beautiful Japanese Garden behind it.

Big Temple

The temple I wanted to see was the biggest one in the centre of the city. Its an impressive size but I couldn’t see it from a distance. It was tucked away behind a couple of other temples.

Year of the Snake

The place was overrun with Chinese tourists and they are just the worst. They don’t care if you’re trying to take a picture of something. They’ll just barge in with their selfie sticks. They were on holiday as the Chinese New Year was coming up. There was a line of small statues, one for each of the Chinese Zodiac. The idea is that you donate at the symbol for the year that you were born so I went looking for the snake.

Another Buddha

Yet another temple

Fat buddha

The big temple was surrounded by smaller temples and much newer looking buddhas. There was a fat Buddha which is the first I'd seen in Asia. The fat Buddha is actually Chinese with most of South East Asia worshipping skinny buddhas. The story is that a monk gained so much enlightment that he became fat. I think he just ate a lot.

Elephant temple

The other side of the temple had elephants coming out of the wall which I thought looked pretty cool.

Market Day

Flower Festival

Pretty floats

I continued to wander and came across a massive street parade. Well they weren’t exactly parading. There were large floats all the way down the street for a flower festival. It was really busy here. I grabbed a pizza at one of the many street stalls and looked at some of the floats. There were a lot of flowers on them.

Three Kings

The last stop on my self-made walking tour was the Three Kings Statue. It wasn’t too exciting but another sight seen.

Waterfalls

The next morning I hired a scooter for a casual ride to the highest point in Thailand. These bikes are not really designed to be taking on mountain roads so it was a bit slow going on the steep bits. It was an hour and half drive on a highway which was pretty boring but once I got to the mountain road it became a pretty fun drive. I stopped off at a waterfall which was roaring.

Don't go chasing....

....waterfalls

The countryside

I stopped a few times to brake up the journey. In hindsight doing this trip on a scooter might have been a bit ambitious but I loved it. The scenery was amazing and there were very few people around. Only the occasional minivan full of tourists.

Thai lady hard at work

My bike

Cold at the top!

I made my way very slowly to the top and my fingers began to go numb. It was a lot colder at the top of the hill. I had prepared for this but didn’t think about gloves. It was a relief when I finally got to Doi Inthanon.

Pretty at the top

The gardens

This was a stunning temple complex with a fantastic view down the mountains. It looked so clean, bright and new. The gardens around were beautiful too.

Inside one of the pagodas

The view

It was built in 1993 to celebrate the Queens 60^th birthday. There was a statue in each of the two pagaodas that meant something but I cant remember what that was.

Tourist photo

I spent some time here walking around and taking in the view. I had lunch at the little café. Then it was time to jump back on the bike because I still wasn’t at the top of this hill.

The top

I'm not sure which number is metres

A short but slow drive took me to a carpark. From there it was on foot through the jungle to the highest point in Thailand. It was marked by a small shrine and a sign. It was a bit of an anti-climax but the temple was always going to be the highlight of this trip.

I can see all of Thailand, not

HUGE camera

The size of that camera is a bit excessive. Imagine carrying that around on your travels!

The journey back down was much quicker and much more fun. As my hands slowly started to warm up I really started to enjoy myself. I had intended to go to another temple on another big hill that’s closer to Chiang Mai but it had taken me a bit longer than I thought. I was pretty sure the other temple would be closed if I went there so I just went back to town.

Chiang Rai clock tower

The next day I made the journey from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai which is ‘same same but different’. The journey was really uneventful or maybe something major happened and I just can’t remember. I don’t even remember getting the bus but I’m pretty sure I did.

Night Bazaar

I got chatting to some people in the hostel and we went to the night bazaar. Our group seem to triple as various people who knew someone I was with came to join us until there were about 10 of us. We had some drinks before people started to leave. Some people were leaving town early the next morning and didn’t want to hang around too long.

Wat Rong Khun

Wat Rong with that

The next day I caught a local bus to Wat Rong Khun. This mental temple was designed and built by a local artist who has some interesting ideas.

Faces

zombies under ground

The temple is certainly a strange one. To reach the temple you must walk over sea of outstretched hands meant to symbolize unrestrained desire. There’s also a few faces on either side. There quite dark and spooky looking.

Buddha image

Inside the temple

The temple is a visual marvel with the white and silver making it unique. Once you go inside, things get even weirder. You are not supposed to take pictures but I found one on the internet that gives an example of the artwork inside. It’s a combination of Buddhist images mixed with modern influences. I was quite shocked to see his interpretation of the 911 terrorist attack. This seemed to have meaning but a lot of it was just plain odd. There were lots of comic book heroes, star wars characters, cartoon characters and Michael Jackson! The more you look, the more you see.

The toilets

Back outside even the toilets were very grand. Definitely the fanciest looking toilet block I’ve ever seen.

Hanging things

So many hangy things

For a small donation you can get a small medallion thing that you can hang on another thing. It seems that many thousands of people have done this. I didn’t see the point of it so I didn’t bother.

There was an art gallery which was also free to have look round. There were more interesting art works in here too. Again, no photos were allowed. The best one I found was the one about destroying the planet. It showed Earth surrounded be rubbish. There were a few of these sorts of paintings about greed, politics and global destruction. It was very interesting and I’m no art lover.

Chiang Rai "Beach"

Back in the city I found Jess who I had met the night previous and we went to find Chiang Rai “Beach” with a couple of other people from her hostel. Obviously we were a long way from the sea so I wasn’t expecting an actual beach but when we got to the place marked on my map we were a little disappointed. It was just a patch of sand next to the river and a bridge. Not at all what I expected.

The actual Chiang Rai beach

Turns out there two Chiang Rai Beaches. We walked across the bridge to ask some people there if we could get a ride in one of their boats that were moored but they kept wanting to take us further to some cave. We eventually decided to take a tuk tuk to the actually Chiang Rai beach and it was much better.

Small farm on the river

Some friends

It still wasn’t amazing but like I said, we didn’t expect much. We hung out there for a bit as the sun set. Jess got some chicken which was just cartilage. Must be a local thing. It was a great place to sit. It was very relaxing. There were a few groups of locals that kept staring at us. I don’t think many westerners come by here. One group offered us to drink with them but we were already heading back.

Clock did fancy things

Changing colour

That night we went to a restaurant where I was told you could get the best Pad Thai in Thailand by a guy who had been before. There was a group of about 8 of us but I can’t remember anyone's names. I'm going to have to start writing these down. On the way back we walked past the clock tower as it hit 8 o'clock and we were treated to a small light show.

The next morning I took an early bus to the border for my next adventure through Laos.