Travelingbug.org

Boarder Crossing from Chiang Khong, Thailand to Houei Xai, Laos

The boarder crossing from Thailand to Laos is a very easy process.  To enter into Thailand for 90 days you don't need a visa, but to enter into Laos you do need a visa. When I got into the small boarder town of Chiang Khong, Thailand I paid a guest house I was staying with 1650 baht (about $50 US) to get my visa before I got to the boarder.  I gave it to the guest house the night I got to Chiang khong, and by the morning I had my passport back.  The other option that I had was to get my visa at customs in Laos, but I never like to leave it to the last minute because things at the boarder are sometimes crazy.

At this point in time I was traveling with about 8 other people to catch the slow boat through Laos.  We all left the guest house early in the morning and arrived at the Thai customs.  It is basically a building that has two rooms with a customs agent sitting in a window.  We all waited in line for a couple of minutes until they started stamping out passports.  As I got to the window the guy took my passport and then pointed to a sign saying that I owed him 5 baht (which is like 7 cents), but I was a little caught off guard.  Nobody told me about having to pay to get out of Thailand.  So I handed him the money and my passport got the exit stamp out of Thailand.

Once my friends all got their passports stamped, we headed down a hill to cross over the Mekong River.  We all reached the river and there was a person sitting at a table in front of these skinny boats.  I assumed they took us over for free.  I was wrong.  They charged us each 10 baht (30 cents) to cross the river.  Its all about the money.  ( I know that it sounds funny that i was shocked to pay a total of 35 cents at the boarder, but when you are used to living off the baht it seems like a lot of money).

 

The worst bus ride in the World - Siem Reap,Cambodia to Bangkok, Thailand

While I was traveling through SE Asia, I had made it to Angkor Wat which is located in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  These ancient temples are some of the coolest things that I have ever seen.  After spending a couple of days in Siem Reap I was starting to run out of time in SE Asia, and needed to make it back to Bangkok, Thailand to catch my flight to Hong Kong.  So I went to a local travel agency, and talked to them about my options.  I basically had two options to get out of Siem Reap:

1. Airplane
2. Bus (which I had heard horror stories from other travelers telling me it was the worst ever)

The first option (airplane) is definitely the fastest and most comfortable way to leave Siem Reap, but it is also more expensive. There is only a couple airlines that is fly in and out of Siem Reap, and one of them is Siem Reap Airways.  They have 5 daily flights that leave Siem Reap, and go direct to Bangkok.  The total of a flight with taxes is $172 US Dollars.  (Siem Reap Airways also flies to Hong Kong, Phuket, and Pakse) 

Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep- Chiang Mai, Thailand

While I was traveling with Howard in Chiang Mai, Thailand for Songkran, we decided to head to the main temple in Chiang Mai that is called Wat Phrathat.  This is one of the most famous temples in Thailand.  It is located on top of a mountain that over looks the whole city.  There is no way that you can walk to this temple.  So instead of hiring a tuk tuk or a taxi to take us to the Temple we decided there was no better way to go than scooters (the locals way to travel!)

We lined up the scooters through Julie's Guest House.  They make it too easy to do things in Chiang Mai.  So a rental company delivered 2 scooters for us to use for the whole day.  (I think it was only about $6 to rent for the whole day).   We took off without any problems.  It was a lot of fun on these things.  There are so many scooters on the street that we just blended in with all the locals.  The only bad thing is the pollution that comes from the trucks that pass you or wait next to you at lights.  I ended up having to put a shirt over my face so that I wasn't sucking down straight pollution out of the tail pipe next to me.

Chiang Mai, Thailand - 1 day trek

When I was staying at Julie's Guest House I decided to do a 1 day trek that went around to surrounding areas by Chiang Mai.  Julie's Guest House makes it so easy to do things around Chiang Mai, because they have a travel agency located in the guest house.  They also tell you the truth on what is good to do and what you could possibly do without.  There was an option between a 1 day trek and a 3 day trek, and I can guarantee you that I made the right decision...I talked to people that returned from the 3 day trek and said they wished they only did the one day!  I honestly can't remember how much it cost to do the 1 day trek, but it was pretty inexpensive.

So the next day at about 8 am a van came to the guest house and picked me up along with a couple other travelers.  The guides spoke English very well and were pretty funny.  They put you in this little truck that they put seats and a cover in the back part.  We also had to stop by a couple other guest house's to pick up other travelers.  In all, there was 7 of us that were going on the trip together.  Everybody turned out to be pretty cool.  There were two people from Spain, 2 people from Germany, and then a guy from Italy.

After we had picked up everybody we headed about an hour outside of Chiang Mai.  We went to a refugee village called Ahay Village (I think).  This village was started because of people fleeing  Burma (also known as Myanmar).   I thought the village would have nothing...which it didn't have a lot of things, but as I was walking through the village I saw a couple of the homes with satellite dishes coming off of the houses.  I couldn't believe it.  Even though they don't have a lot of things they still have TV coming in their home.  After walking around the village for about 45 minutes they make you walk through an area that they sell their goods, and look at you and ask you to buy everything.  This is the only part of the whole day I didn't like.  It is hard for me to say no, and they take you to this village so that you see it and then buy things.  It was kind of messed up, but what can you do?

Thai New Year - Songkran

One of the highlights of my whole world trip was while I was traveling around the world was Songkran (Thai New Year).  Songkran is when the Thai people celebrate their New Year.  The New Year festival is from April 12-15, and is not the typical new year's party that you are used too.   I personally don't think that anybody in Thailand works for 3 or 4 days.  The Thai people and tourist celebrate Songkran by having a huge water fight for 4 days in every city throughout the whole country.  The most famous spot in Thailand for Songkran is Chiang Mai (located in Northern Thailand).

It is hard to describe in words what it is like in Chiang Mai during Songkran.  It made me feel like I was a little kid playing with squirt guns.  This small city is basically transformed into one big party!  There is a huge wall and moat that surrounds the old part of the city on all four sides.  On the inside of the walls, the locals have squirt guns and buckets of water outside of the their houses  They wait outside their house to drench  innocent victims.  They drench tourists, tuk tuks, and mopeds that are driving/walking by.  They will not discriminate against getting you wet if you have nothing in your hands or if you are carrying your travel backpack!

On the outside of the old city walls there is a moat that goes all the way around the walls.  People line up and down the streets around the moat.  The moat is the main source of the water for this festival.  The city supposidely cleans the water before the festival, but I have heard stories that people get really sick, because they end up drinking some of the water when they get water thrown on them.  Be careful not to drink the water when it is thrown on you!

Tuk tuk (rikshaw) ride in Bangkok, Thailand -Video of the week

On my 1st day in Bangkok, I hired a Tuk Tuk to drive me to the Royal Palace.  This video is when I was riding in the back of the tuk tuk.  On his windshield he had a 50 Cent sticker...too funny.  I had to bargain with him on the price of how much it was going to be for the ride.  I ended up paying 9 Baht (over $0.50) for the ride with 1 stop.  The drivers try and get tourist to stop at clothing stores in order to get money from the store owners.  Enjoy the video!