After our stay at The Bamboo Nest, we were dropped back into Chiang Rai at midday for one night before continuing our journey northward the next day to the Thai/Laos border. We stayed in a simple guesthouse close to the Clock Tower and walked up toward the market just as the clock struck 7pm and did a little light show! Some things in Asia are so kitch and we often feel we have been transported back to the eighties; the music, the clothes in the market, I even saw a t-shirt with a rubics cube on it! What the?

This bus was classified as a ‘local bus’, so no bookings are necessary as they depart every hour on the hour.  Rickety old buses are becoming the norm now the more away from the major routes we get. Open windows, open doors and great views.

We left on the 1pm bus for the two hour trip to Chiang Khong which is essentially a border town on the Thailand side of the Mekong.

Original plans were to overnight in Chiang Khong and take the small cross-river boat to Houay Xai on the Lao side early the next morning, then head straight to the slow boat for an 11am departure. The slow boats take two days for the downriver voyage to Luang Prabang, arriving late afternoon on the second day.

The selection of Guesthouses in Chaing Khong though left a lot to be desired. The tuk-tuk driver dropped us at a hotel and we proceeded to inspect a few others close by, but decided that staying over the other side of the river in Laos couldn’t be any worse so pressed on, as it was now close to 4.30pm.  We headed down the street pulling our bags to the Thai Immigration to get stamped out, paid our 40b ticket to cross the Mekong, and loaded us and our bags in a little longtail ‘ferry’ boat that crosses where the two towns face each other across the Mekong.  The girls found it weird that once we cross the river we would be in another country.  If Baht at 30:1 was confusing to explain the value of try Kip at 8000:1!

After the two minute trip we then hauled the bags back up the other boat ramp to Lao immigration.  Filling out paperwork and relieving us of US$124 ($30 visa fee p/p plus a $1 extra being a Sunday!) took close to 30 minutes.

After filing up the ramp we found ourselves in the main street of Houay Xai, looking for a bed for the night.  Things looked instantly more promising; cleaner and less run down. While the girls and I stayed with the bags, Dave did the run around checking some of the guesthouses.  We decided on the Gateway Hotel, literally at the top of the boat ramp where we arrived, and paid 189 000 kip (about $20) for a triple room including breakfast, air-con, great water pressure and it was very clean – what more do you need?  Our first night in Laos, another new country for us all – we celebrated by having Lao style noodles and a couple of bottles of BeerLao, well Dave and I did, the girls had lemon shakes.