A Thai-iring journey
Chiang Rai, Thailand: Hello once again from Thailand (except this time much further north)! We are quite happy to be back after a grueling two and a half day trip from Luang Prabang. For those interested in a rough breakdown, here is how it went:
- Put on large backpacks and smaller backpacks; shlep other large bags with gifts we’ve acquired over the past two months to the boat
- Pick-up breakfast, lunch, and snacks to-go at a local coffee shop
- Take “8-hour” (more like 11 hour) slow boat from Luang Prabang to Pakbeng; get to the boat an hour early to ensure we get “soft seats” (e.g., minivan seats fastened to the floor of the boat) and not “hard seats” (e.g., wooden benches)
- Help console Ash when she opens up her chicken and cheese sandwich for lunch and finds only chicken
- Put on large backpacks and smaller backpacks; shlep other large bags with gifts we’ve acquired over the past two months off the boat
- Stay overnight in Pakbeng, a small town on the Mekong River that exists purely for the slowboat stops and whose electricity turns off at 10:30pm
- Put on large backpacks and smaller backpacks; shlep other large bags with gifts we’ve acquired over the past two months to the boat
- Take “8-hour” (more like 12 hours) slow boat from Pakbeng to Huay Xi, the border town in Laos where we can cross over to Thailand
- Realize we’ve gotten there too late and immigration is closed for the night
- Put on large backpacks and smaller backpacks; shlep other large bags with gifts we’ve acquired over the past two months off the boat
- Stay overnight in Hauy Xi, a town we had never even heard of until that day; find an adorable guesthouse named Arimid’s run by the sweetest man ever (Mr. Arimid)
- Wake up early so we don’t have to wait in line at immigration
- Put on large backpacks and smaller backpacks; shlep other large bags with gifts we’ve acquired over the past two months to immigration
- Go through immigration on the Laos side
- Walk to the passenger ferry that takes people across the Mekong to the Thai side (Chiang Kong)
- Make sure we still have our bags
- Go through immigration on the Thai side
- Walk to the tuk-tuk stand and take tuk-tuk from immigration to the Chiang Kong bus station
- Breath a sigh of relief when we give our bags to the bus driver to put under the bus
- Take 3 hour bus from Chiang Kong to Chiang Rai
- Have Zach put on large backpacks and smaller backpacks and shlep other large bags with gifts we’ve acquired over the past two months off the bus because Ash really has to go to the bathroom and can’t hold it anymore
- Take tuk-tuk from Chiang Rai bus station to guesthouse in Chiang Rai
- Arrive at our guesthouse in Chiang Rai
- Take best nap ever
- Wake up from nap and, while getting changed to go to dinner, realize we still have the key to our room at Mr. Arimid’s in Zach’s pocket. Oops
More pictures and other goodies later…
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