I have officially been in Laos for two days now. I can hardly believe that this leg of the journey is already here. Back in May and June it seemed like it was years away! And man, did we take the long way to get here! Back at the end of July when we were booking our plane tickets out of Myanmar, we weren't entirely sure where we were going to be going or what we were doing during our time in Laos. In order to give us more options and to save money, we booked a flight to Bangkok and planned to do a border crossing from Thailand of some sort.
Our friend from Myanmar, Jenna, was also flying to Bangkok so we made arrangements to meet her at the hostel she was staying at and book bus tickets to Chiang Mai from there. Well plans got changed, Danna had an interview and I was to lazy to go to the bus station on my own to book a ticket. On the plus side, Danna's interview went well and she already has one job offer! Hooray! My being too lazy to go to the bus station worked out in my benefit because I met some awesome people at Bodega, the hostel we were staying at. It's actually owned by a trio of brothers from Wisconsin. (At least I don't have grandiose plans to get Alicia in on an overseas business, Mom and Dad!)
Our night in Bangkok, was spent getting caught in a torrential downpour on our way back from dinner and hanging out with all the other backpackers staying at Bodega. The next day, a big group of us went to the nearby mega mall and caught 22 Jump Street as movie theaters in Bangkok offer 100 Baht movies on Wednesdays. (Just over $3.) I didn't know what to expect going into the movie as I haven't seen the first one, but I loved it and laughed harder than what I anticipated. The rest of the day was spent lazying around Bodega and saying goodbye as everyone we met was also leaving.
Getting to our night bus almost threw me into a panic at one point because after getting off the BTS (metro line) we couldn't find a taxi or motorbike to take us the rest of the way to the bus station. After what seemed like an eternity of pleaing and most likely harrasing civilians and police alike, we finally got two motorbike taxis to agree to take us to the station. Thank goodness those taxis turned us down! With the crazy Bangkok traffic, we never would have made it in time.
And the night bus! What a gem! There was so much leg room that I almost didn't know what to do with myself! The seats reclined like a lazy-boy and even had a foot rest. There was a bus attendant who spent 20 minutes passing out various snacks and drinks. At first I thought I was crazy for shelling out 30 bucks for this bus but it was well worth it!
After arriving in Chiang Mai, we hopped on the next bus to Chiang Rai after waiting only 45 minutes. As it turned out, this was the longest we had to wait for any of our modes of transportation. Again, this bus had an attendant passing out snacks and drinks. We arrived in Chiang Rai at 11:23 and the next bus for Chiang Khong (the border) left at 11:30. We hopped on and were dropped off right at the tuk-tuk station to take us to the border and immigration office. We crossed the friendship bridge, which is apparently quite new as I had read in Lonely Planet that we would need a boat to cross the Mekong River. Immigration on the Laos side was a breeze and it less than 24 hours after leaving Bangkok, we traveled 1,026 kilometers and made it to our final destination with only one minor hiccup and panic moment!
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