From C to D...

To get from Chaing Mai to the Thai/Laos border at Chaing Khong I decided to travel by tourist minibus. I usually try to avoid being shuttled around in minibuses with other westerners, preferring instead to take the cheaper and more authentic local buses, but as they can be unreliable and I had to cross the border that day to avoid overstaying my visa, I decided it would be better to travel the tourist way... and what a great decision that turned out to be!

Unbeknown to me, tourist minibuses sometimes make sight-seeing stops on route to their destination; and to my surprise our bus was stopping at the 'White Temple' in Chaing Rai.  I'd heard a lot about the 'White Temple' and was keen to visit but I hadn't had the chance to before my visa ran out, so i was thrilled that we were stopping by. Wat Rong Khun or the 'White Temple' has got to be one of the most beautiful temples in Thailand, it is the very unique and contemporary creation of Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipatas and is a living work of art. The temple is completely white to represent Buddha's purity and is decorated with a mosaic of mirrors that sparkle in the sun . To get into the temple (heaven), you have to cross a bridge over a pit of hell with protruding sculptures of outstretched hands. Inside the temple, the four walls are painted with a FANTASTIC mural (I wasn't allowed to take photos) combining traditional Buddhist motifs with modern themes. The back wall has images of 'defilements and temptations', including the devil, George Bush, and other familiar images such as Batman, the Terminator and The Twin Towers. The two middle walls show images of Thai people floating on Lotus leaves away from such temptations towards the front wall which has a fabulous mural of Buddha. I was so very impressed by the temple and could have spent hours admiring it's beauty, but we had a journey to make, and so we all piled back into the minibus and headed to the border.

After a few hours, we arrived at the border town of Chiang Khong where I was due to get off the bus, and make my own way across the border and onto my next destination of Luang Prabang. Everyone else had paid to travel all the way to Luang Prabang via boat the next morning or a night bus. I hadn't decided what I was going to do, but the solution soon presented itself when through general confusion and incompetence I got mistaken for having paid for the entire bus journey to Luang Prabang. Not wishing to correct this mistake, I let people give me the tickets I needed for a free ride all the way to Luang Prabang. Now, I realise this is dishonest... but I'm on a budget, and I thought 'why not?!'.

The crossing from Thailand to Laos was, as ever, unique. The border between the two is created by the huge Mekong river, and in order to enter Laos I got into a flimsy little boat with my huge backpack on, and was ferried across the river! It was a short but beautiful ride, and it was very cool to see Thailand on one river bank and Laos on the other.

Once I passed through border control, I was ushered into a sangthew (taxi) and then onto the bus bound for Luang Prabang.  I was lucky to get a seat on the bus -especially as I hadn't paid- because when the seats ran out, people had to sit on small plastic stools in the aisle! One guy found this arrangement so uncomfortable (it was a 12 hour journey) that he eventually gave up on the stool and slept on the floor. The poor passengers in the aisle also had to share the space with a motorbike that was being transported to Luang Prabang in the bus. This proved a ridiculous arrangement when people had to clamber over it to get on/off the bus. Stranger still, during the night the bus conductor decided that the bike would make a good bed, and so he slept stretched out on the bike with a pillow in between the handle bars!

For me, sleeping was difficult, and patchy. The roads wound their way through the mountains and I regularly got woken up as I slid into the people next to me, or because the driver kept slamming on the breaks to avoid hitting other vehicles.

But, the journey was free, and on time! We arrived into Luang Prabang at 6 AM, 22 hours after I had left Thailand; I was thoroughly exhausted and in desperate need for sleep, but I was very excited to be in beautiful Laos.