Joey and I were a bit sad to leave Laos because of the friendly people and the small scale of tourism. We said good bye to Luang Namtha and caught the local bus to Huaxai which is a border town with Chiang Kong in Thailand.
We've had our fair share of crazy buses in Laos, but for surely this took the cake. The bus was an old a/c bus that didn't have opening windows. The only air flow was from the front passenger door that didn't close properly. Locals were sitting on children's plastic stools in the aisle. The air was hot, stagnant and humid. Joey and I were very thankful to our fellow Canadian travel who gave us some of her motion sickness pills. They worked wonders and I'm so glad that I wasn't the puking white girl on the bus. In reality, the locals were the ones puking. We were fortunate enough to be sitting in the front seat so we didn't have to witness such a sight. According to our fellow traveller from California, "there was a puke pile." The one time we got prime seats on a bus, and I'm very glad.
The bus is whipping down the road. I don't know how fast because the speedometer didn't work. (Such a common thing here) The roads are complete chaos. Nice smooth asphalt one second, huge potholes and gravel piles the next. Not to mention the occasional herd of cows or dog crossing the street. The driver was weaving back and forth to get the "good" piece of the road which often put our lives at risk because of oncoming traffic.
We stopped in the middle of nowhere for a break. Not thinking of the women aboard, there was no toilet, and also no privacy especially for travelers due to the curiousity of village kids. What I thought was really a tell tale sign I was still in Laos, was the fact I saw the bus driver doing shots of Lao Lao (Lao Whiskey that is 100 proof) during the break. That ought to make the ride more enjoyable... for him, not for the pukers in the back.
About 12 kms a way from our destination all of the gears on the bus break down. The driver only has 2nd gear to work with. With still a couple of hills to go, the bus driver is gunning it through villages at phenomenal speed without a working horn to alert the villages. It was as if the bus was on fire, that's the look we were getting from villagers running out of the way. He was going fast because we still had a few hills to make it up. He needed to get a running start. Even one of the passengers needed to get off because it was his stop, but the driver didn't care. The passenger would have to wait til we were at the top of a hill so the driver could roll down the hill to kickstart it. Oh joy.
At last we finally arrived at the bus station. It was nice to touch solid ground! The rest of the border crossing was rather uneventful and smooth running. Only 3 hours later we were in Chiang Rai. We arrived with enough daylight to find a guesthouse.
Chiang Rai is a northern city with not much charm. I thought it would be a good idea to see a town that isn't so touristy. What we really did in this town was relax in the comforts of the modern world. Working internet, hot shower and eating food that wouldn't kill us. This was the life. We spent most of our day lounging around.
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