Transfer to Thailand

Thursday, November 4, 2010

I’m pleased to say we made it to Thailand.  We were all in the hotel lobby by 5:30 this morning, but our driver didn’t end up showing until 6 to take us to the airport.  The flight was just over an hour and we had to pass through immigration before getting in our van to the border.  Tachileik was a bigger town than I expected and the border was fairly busy.  Our local guide took care of our Myanmar exit so we just waited, on the bridge watching the cars change from driving on the right side in Myanmar to the left side in Thailand. 

With our exit stamps, we walked to the Thai border, got our passport stamps and hung around waiting for our bus.  The contrast was striking, back to 7-elevens, McDonald’s and modern restaurants.  I forgot to mention in my first Thailand post, but there are 7-elevens everywhere!  When I first arrived in Bangkok and walked 12 minutes to the Myanmar embassy I passed five.  Eve small towns seem to have at least one.

Our driver from Mae Sai to Chiang Khong was a maniac and the roads curved the entire way, but he got us there is less than two hours.  After dropping off our bags, we went for lunch where I had a delicious green curry with chicken while overlooking the Mekong.  I walked around Chiang Khong for a bit, but was anxious to get back to the hotel to get online.  I spent the entire afternoon updating my blog, uploading photos and writing emails.  Extremely productive. 

We ate dinner at the same restaurant (ordered the Thai noodles with prawns), since J.P. says it’s the best and most trips only have one meal in Chiang Khong (like we should have if we’d arrived yesterday).  The funniest thing happened at dinner.  Ros was being her usual self and going on about the food and analyzing the difference between hers and Jaceks.  She kept saying the same thing over and over and finally J.P. started laughing.  Well, once he started, I started and I couldn't stop.  The two of us just kept laughing.  J.P. started imitating her.  To me, I was laughing at the past week and a half.  It just cumulated to a point where I couldn't stop.  Eventually I was able to calm down.  It was hysterical.

Have been online again tonight.  It’s been mostly a wasted day in terms of sightseeing but at least we made it out of Myanmar.  Tomorrow morning we take a boat across to Laos and start our two-day slow boat trip to Luang Prabang.