Long day in a minibus

Day 44 (13/05/08): Chiang Khong, Thailand

I had a very early start to the day, I have been having a lot of those recently. My minibus left at 8:30 in the morning and as I walked down the streets of Pai at this time, there was no one else to be seen. The minibus left about ten minutes late, and it was a very windy three hour trip back to Chiang Mai. Luckily, having driven most of the New Zealand, I am pretty used to windy mountain roads and spent most of my time reading my book, while some of the other passengers looked very green. I had a half hour layover in Chiang Mai before my next minibus left. In quite a coincidence, the travel agent I was dropped off at, was next door to the guest house I had stayed in, so I knew the area pretty well. I spent the time quickly sending off an important email to confirm my booking at the Gibbon Experience, and then getting some lunch.

The minibus to Chiang Mai was pretty packed, and we had bags down the aisles. I was last to be picked up, and sat next to a young english guy who had just started his travels. We chatted for a little while, and then settled down for the 5-6 hour trip to Chiang Mai. Once again I spent most of the time reading my book, occaisonally looking out the window to see all the barren rice paddies or small villages. The minibus stopped a couple of times, and so it was nice to get out and stretch legs and buy some snacks. The minibus also had a tendency to bounce a lot whenever it went over a bump, something that was quite annoying but sent a bunch of Austrians into fits of giggles whenever it happened.

At about 6pm we pulled into the small border town of Chiang Khong, with the country of Laos just across the Mekong river. Most people on the minibus had bought a package that included their night's accomodation at a guest house. I instead walked down the road, and at the suggestion of another couple on the bus, found a very nice little guest house overlooking the river. I had my own little bamboo hut again, although this one was a bit more modern with more solid walls and a lino floor. Once again the bed was just a mattress on the floor with a mosquito net. The bed was suprisingly comfortable though.

With not much of the evening left, and tired from a whole day of travel, I relaxed on the deck and looked over the Mekong river to Laos. It was the first time I had seen the Mekong, a river which I will be following for the next few weeks through Laos, Cambodia and finally Vietnam. For dinner I joined an Irish guy who was sitting by himself. He is working in Laos at a bear conservation project, and has to pop back to Thailand every month to get another visa. He works closely with the Gibbon Experience people, and so I will probably see him there. We went an explored the 'Tee Pee Bar' after dinner. Literally a wooden and thatch teepee hut on the side of the road. We had a few beers there, and then were joined by a large group of Irish guys. We shared a few beers, as I struggled to understand a whole bunch of Irish talking in heavy accents. I left before them, only to get a lot of ribbing about Kiwis from the collected Irish, but after such a long day I was ready for sleep.