The Lure of Laos…

Hey! The travel tales continue…

The day we left Bangkok coincided with one of the biggest anti government corruption protests the city had ever witnessed. People were out on the streets en masse, blowing their whistles to demand a sea of political change.

There was no violence to be inhaled that day – just huge numbers of the general public who’d had enough, and wanted a breath of fresh political air. None the less, upon arriving at the boat taxi so as to depart, the queues were enormous.

Fortunately, it reached the stage where boat taxis were operating without any serious requirement for even a fare, just to clear people off of the streets. Emma and I tagged along with a French couple who were also anxious to get to Chiang Mai, and when our boat terminated at an unexpected spot, we tailed them to the train station.

Next up, we were on to one of Thailands famous night sleeper trains, and after a couple of beers in our carriage, we headed straight for the restaurant carriage, where we again encountered the surreal atmosphere of techno techno techno, boozing, and permitted smoking.

Once we had been booted out of the restaurant (approx. 1.00AM), we returned to our beds and grabbed forty winks. Come the following morning we returned to the restaurant carriage for coffee, and the next thing we knew, Chiang Mai was upon us!

Chiang Mai is a pretty cool city. We found a reasonable guesthouse and then ventured out to explore. Just around the block is an entire complex of outside bars and cafes, nearly of all which are showcasing reggae and ska music, save for some techno/dance music for young travellers, who are still up for that sort of thing after all these years – Ho Hum.

A photo we saw in a cafe of the King of Thailand and Elvis!!

The young traveller salute!! 🙂

We saw a number of bands showcased in Chiang Mai – perhaps our favourites were Sumvanjai who performed an interesting hip hop/reggae hybrid style, and Civilaization, who played excellent ska reggae covers – certainly the fastest cover of ‘Hotel California’ by The Eagles that I have ever witnessed, and with a good bass skank too!

Sumvanjai

Civilaization

Thereafter, we took a mini bus to Laos. We had hoped to cross the border by water, across the Mekong River, but the Devil was against us, and when we finally arrived, we discovered that a new Thai-Laos bridge had opened a couple of days earlier, and we were obliged to cross the river on that, albeit upon a coach for purpose.

Once we had obtained a visa on arrival, and coughed up a late arrival fee, as we hit the bridge after 16.00, we found ourselves in Laos. An awaiting army of Tuk Tuk drivers were demanding extortionate fares to take us to Huayxai, which was a bit OTT, as had we been able to take the boat taxi as planned, we would have been taken to the town direct.

Fortunately, a group of three French guys befriended us, and were taking no shit when it came to the prices the Tuk Tuk Drivers were asking. Indeed, they were of the “No way, that’s too much – look at your face – you’re lying to us” variety. Thanks to those guys, we paid a reasonable fee to get to our destination – maybe 1000 kip each, if memory serves.

It was pouring with rain, and we had to rapidly take in the state of rapid industrialisation which is evolving on the Laos border – largely funded by the Chinese railroad which is being constructed from Beijing, and will certainly transform Laos from the sleepy idyllic country that it is today, to a tourist mecca in the next couple of years.

Upon arrival to Huay Xai, we followed the French guys into Lonely Planets ‘Top Choice’ guesthouse, but they asked how much it was, and the first thing I heard them say in response was ‘Goodbye’, so we stomped back down the road to a guesthouse called BAP, which was cheap, and reasonably cheerful.

BAP was Great, it was run by an old lady who we nicknamed Yoda.

She would constantly demand you buy food, tickets and beer from her, then look at you with distain if you didn’t!

Huay Xai is a quaint, friendly, small town which will inevitably die a tourist death, now that the new bridge has been constructed. None the less, it’s a nice little place, and we spent a couple of nights walking around, and getting used to the Communist flags which adorn the place, whilst we plotted to book a slow boat down the Mekong to Luang Prabang.

A french baguette at last, we love you Laos! One positive from the French colonial take over!

The slow boats that take people to Luang Prabang. We told ‘Yoda’ we had been there, she said, ‘Many boats, but no one knows which one will go!’

On our second night we bumped into a British guy named Jack, who had bailed the so called ‘Stray Bus’ which tourists frequent, largely because he had hated the package deal nature of their service, and wanted to go it alone on his travels. We ate a meal with Jack at a local restaurant, prior to us all having to get back to our guesthouse prior to the town curfew.