Day 55 - Huay Xai
After what has felt like an age in Thailand I am heading for a new country. The ticket lady asks if I want to travel to Chiang Kong on the Thai-Laos border today or tomorrow. Since I am sat on the bus to Chiang Khong the answer would seem to be obvious. Well I assume it's the bus to Chiang Khong though it has another destination on the side and her question unnerves me a bit.
You can never be 100% certain of anything when travelling in these sort of countries, just about everything you do requires a leap of faith of greater or lesser distance. A couple of hours later we make a stop in a town. Is it a disembarkation stop? A rest stop? Short stop? Long stop? These things are never made clear. I'd been apprehensive about this part of the journey because the main road forks here with the route to the north being the one I assumed we'd take to Chiang Khong and the route to the east being the one that would take us to Thung Chiang which is what is on the outside of the bus and is certainly not where I am going. The bus starts moving again. Fuck. We took the road to the east. I'm not sure what to do about this. I can't ask the driver, he's driver-ing. The ticket lady has disappeared into the back somewhere so I'm stuck looking at Google Maps and seeing if there is some chance we're still going to Chiang Khong via some alternate route. There's a motorway that we will come to that goes north and will put us back on track, if we use it. This twist has enlivened an otherwise dull journey at least. I eat my strawberry roll to calm my slight angst. I showed my pre-bought ticket to the person in the ticket office at the station and she directed me to where the bus stopped. I showed my ticket to the driver when it arrived, he nodded and took my luggage. I showed my ticket to the ticket lady on the bus, she put some doubt in my mind with her question but still didn't say "this is the wrong bus chum". The bus departed at near enough the expected time. Right place, right time, ticket checked in triplicate. If this is the wrong bus I've really defied the odds to get it. But still.... The road starts winding up through thick jungle beside towering rock walls. It's not as wild as it first seems though, small-scale agriculture claims any flat land. But soon there is no flatness and the bus slows to a crawl against the increasing gradient. The land drops away to the right and the mountains of the Doi Luang National Park appear through the foliage and haze. It's burning season in Northern Thailand. Farmers set fire to their fields to clear the remnants of the previous year's crops and make them ready for sowing at the start of the rainy season. It cloaks the area in a thick cloud of particulates that makes the air quality amongst the worst in the world.
Shit. My close studies of Google Maps have revealed that there is another place called Chiang Khong. It's south of Thung Chiang and it's very plausible that we could go through it on the way to the place I don't want to go to. I've bought a ticket to the wrong Chiang Khong. So that's why they let me board with this ticket. They, correctly, thought I was going to Chiang Khong while I, incorrectly, thought I was going to Chiang Khong. Why have two places with the same name in the same part of the country? They renamed the River Kwai, rename one of these! We're approaching the motorway and though I feel my fate is sealed, this will be the decisive moment. North and, hurrah!, we're going to Chiang Khong, south and, disaster!, we're going to Chiang Khong. I'll need new plans in the latter case as I'll be 227km south of where I want to be. There's a border crossing north of Thung Chiang which I can use and then another 60km to Pak Beng where I was supposed to spend Sunday night anyway. This could work. I miss the first leg of the boat journey but I don't have to massively backtrack. Approaching the motorway the road divides, left, right and up. We stay left, it's north! Pack up the alternative travel plans, breathe a sigh of relief, there's nothing to see here folks, please move along. We shortly stop in a large town and I buy some Thai coke and a sandwich that was toasted at some point in time though that time was not recently. The bus starts up and I look forward to a relaxing second half of the journey. Shitfuck. We're going south again, back the way we came. I was at peace with the the enforced change to my plans but the relief that things were actually as they should be is now inverted and I feel worse than I did before. I eat my once-toasted sandwich to calm my no-longer-slight angst. Wait, we've turned off the motorway and are now going east. East is better than north but it still keeps both options in play. The next road we choose to take will be the decisive one. Did I say that before? The bus driver pulls over before the junction to increase the suspense. We start moving, he's in the right-hand lane, this doesn't bode well. He doesn't take the turn, it's north! I cannot now fathom any viable route that would take us back south save a U-turn which, if it happens, will cause me to hijack the bus. Now genuinely relaxed I can close my eyes. When I open them an hour later and check the map I find my logic correct and that we've made good progress towards Chiang Khong 1 and the border. We pass a small town with a large temple and row after row of seated people. Does Buddhism have a holy day? I think it's one of the mandatory fields you have to complete when starting a religion so, probably. I fly through Thai border security, find an empty Laos immigration hall and speed through that too and here I am, country 62. Easy.
After what has felt like an age in Thailand I am heading for a new country. The ticket lady asks if I want to travel to Chiang Kong on the Thai-Laos border today or tomorrow. Since I am sat on the bus to Chiang Khong the answer would seem to be obvious. Well I assume it's the bus to Chiang Khong though it has another destination on the side and her question unnerves me a bit.
Shit. My close studies of Google Maps have revealed that there is another place called Chiang Khong. It's south of Thung Chiang and it's very plausible that we could go through it on the way to the place I don't want to go to. I've bought a ticket to the wrong Chiang Khong. So that's why they let me board with this ticket. They, correctly, thought I was going to Chiang Khong while I, incorrectly, thought I was going to Chiang Khong. Why have two places with the same name in the same part of the country? They renamed the River Kwai, rename one of these! We're approaching the motorway and though I feel my fate is sealed, this will be the decisive moment. North and, hurrah!, we're going to Chiang Khong, south and, disaster!, we're going to Chiang Khong. I'll need new plans in the latter case as I'll be 227km south of where I want to be. There's a border crossing north of Thung Chiang which I can use and then another 60km to Pak Beng where I was supposed to spend Sunday night anyway. This could work. I miss the first leg of the boat journey but I don't have to massively backtrack. Approaching the motorway the road divides, left, right and up. We stay left, it's north! Pack up the alternative travel plans, breathe a sigh of relief, there's nothing to see here folks, please move along. We shortly stop in a large town and I buy some Thai coke and a sandwich that was toasted at some point in time though that time was not recently. The bus starts up and I look forward to a relaxing second half of the journey. Shitfuck. We're going south again, back the way we came. I was at peace with the the enforced change to my plans but the relief that things were actually as they should be is now inverted and I feel worse than I did before. I eat my once-toasted sandwich to calm my no-longer-slight angst. Wait, we've turned off the motorway and are now going east. East is better than north but it still keeps both options in play. The next road we choose to take will be the decisive one. Did I say that before? The bus driver pulls over before the junction to increase the suspense. We start moving, he's in the right-hand lane, this doesn't bode well. He doesn't take the turn, it's north! I cannot now fathom any viable route that would take us back south save a U-turn which, if it happens, will cause me to hijack the bus. Now genuinely relaxed I can close my eyes. When I open them an hour later and check the map I find my logic correct and that we've made good progress towards Chiang Khong 1 and the border. We pass a small town with a large temple and row after row of seated people. Does Buddhism have a holy day? I think it's one of the mandatory fields you have to complete when starting a religion so, probably. I fly through Thai border security, find an empty Laos immigration hall and speed through that too and here I am, country 62. Easy.
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