Day 130 – Bangkok shopping.

Chrissy’s alarm went off at 5.30am as her shuttle to the airport was leaving at 6. I woke up with her of course, to say goodbye. I then fell back asleep and woke up at about 10. I chilled out in the room for a bit before heading out to find some food. I got in a taxi to the MBK shopping centre, there are so many big places to shop in Bangkok I wasn’t quite sure which one to go to. I realized as I got to MBK it was the first of about 6 shopping centres on that road, which was great news for me! Unfortunately I didn’t find anything I wanted in any of them and most of the high street shops were the same prices or more expensive than at home. Just like the last time I was in Bangkok before a flight home I made my way to Tesco. I know it’s a weird thing to do but everything is cheap there and it’s a great place to get the last few things to take home along with finding somewhere to eat for dinner.

I got in another taxi to take me back to my hotel. The guy said he knew where it was, which is clearly a lie as he had to ring the hotel and ask some questions, he then went a slightly longer way than last time. He pulled up at the hotel and said I owed him 500B, this was not the case. He had put the metre on and turned it off as we arrived. I knew it said 260 and I had to pay for the tolls, which only made it up to 320. He said ‘Oh ok, 400B’. No. I gave him 520 and told him he needed to give me 200 back. Anyway, I stood my ground, wasted his time, got reception involved and actually came out 20B up after about 10minutes. Some may say it wasn’t worth it but it’s the principal and I’m not some dumb tourist who doesn’t know the difference.

I’ve packed up all my stuff and it’s not actually THAT heavy…well lighter than I was expecting anyway. I’m also impressed I managed to fit it all in the 2 bags I brought away with me. So that’s it, it’s 11.56pm and I’m about to head to bed, see you for the last post tomorrow!

Day 129 – Chiang Rai to Bangkok.

One last free breakfast at the early hour of 7.30am, well early for us anyway! We got a taxi to the airport and once again the guy wanted to charge us X amount for the journey but we made him put the metre on and guess what? It was cheaper! We were flying from Chiang Rai down to Bangkok as it was cheap and only takes an hour compared to a 10 hour bus ride and we all know it would be waaaay longer than that. Our flight was with Bangkok Airways and what a fantastic airline. We checked in with no hassle and as we walked through to sit by the gate we were given complimentary drinks and snacks, I’m pretty sure we could go back more than once too! As well as this we were given a snack on our plane, it makes me laugh when they give you food for such a small journey. The time from when the seatbelt sign goes off to back on again is so short you don’t feel like you have time to do anything.

I booked us into a hotel that is a short drive from the airport to make it easier for us. I ended up booking a place with a rooftop pool and complimentary shuttle bus to the airport, great deals! We arrived and could check in straight away, which was awesome. We dumped our bags, chilled out for a little bit and then went upstairs to chill by the pool and catch some rays on Chissy’s last day. Her flight got changed a few weeks ago so she leaves tomorrow morning instead of the same day as me, which is why we are in Bangkok a day earlier, it’s worked out for the best though.

We didn’t really do much else apart from chill out at the hotel and walk down to 7eleven on the corner for some snacks.

Day 126 – Arriving in Chiang Rai.

We stopped 5 minutes from the border for 20minutes for no reason. We eventually arrived at the border about 9am and were told we had to pay to leave Laos… I paid $35 to get in, I’m not paying to leave as well, we told them we had no money and walked through anyway. They had already stamped our passports and it worked! To get to our next destination, Chiang Rai, it took about a 2 and a half hours.

FINALLY we have made it! To bus terminal 2, which was no help. I knew from terminal 1 it was a 5 minute walk to our hostel but had no idea where we were from 2. Chrissy and I walked over to the tuk tuk drivers because I thought we might be able to negotiate a deal, they wanted 100B and no way were we paying that, so we walked over to the taxi driver who said 100B too. We decided to go with him but made him put the meter on. What a surprise, we turned up to our hostel and it cost 52B! You can’t make money out of me just because I’m a tourist!

We were absolutely knackered from the journey but finding some food and a drink was more important than having a nap right now. We made it part way down the road before collapsing in an air-conditioned café. I think it was called the Golden Triangle and it was an awesome choice, exactly what we needed! We then walked back to the hostel and chilled out. I decided not to nap so I’d sleep really well later. We didn’t really do a lot and ended up having dinner in the hostel too because we were too lazy to go anywhere else. We are staying in Fun-D hostel and it has been the most welcoming in a long time. I really do love Thailand!

Day 125 – Luang Prabang to Chiang Rai, THAILAND BOUND!

The only thing on today’s agenda was to book our bus to Thailand. When we went asking the other day we discovered most buses were in the evening but found one place that did a day bus so we went on the hunt to refind that shop. We were unsuccessful, well we are pretty sure we went in the right shop and they said evening so we think we were given duff information the other day, which isn’t surprising! So we had two options, do we leave today or tomorrow? As you already know from the title we went with today. We grabbed a quick lunch and went back to our hostel. I was all ready to haggle our way out of paying for a whole night because we were checking out now instead of tomorrow but the guy didn’t seem fussed and checked the book and said ‘2 nights?!’ I said yes and that was it. We only paid for 2 even though we didn’t check out until 2pm… sweet deals!

We were originally told we were going to be picked up at 6pm and then someone turned up and said it would be 5. Either way we were staying in the hostel until our pick up so it made no difference. 6.15pm and still no one has turned up… we got someone to ring them and eventually someone appeared. They didn’t seem happy we were late but it wasn’t exactly our fault! I already feel like this journey is going to be terrible…

There were only about 10 people on this bus but we knew from previous experience it would stop a million times, pick up and drop off random people (probably family/friends) and just take forever to get anywhere. We were handed a snack, which was a surprise and it was alright. Chrissy and I watched a few random things on my laptop and then decided to try and get some sleep about 11pm, so I moved a few seats so we had two each. This journey was suppose to take 12 hours, it took 18. Some guy decided to sleep on the floor behind my seat (I was at the back) and open the windows and generally just be rude and annoying (he was the man who was angry at the station too). I couldn’t find a good way to sleep and overall I was just very happy it was our last bus and we were finally leaving Laos!

Day 124 – Luang Prabang Waterfall.

Free breakfast! The best thing a hostel can do is free breakfast because it actually makes people get up and out of bed to make the most of the day and when you’re trying to organise 10 people it becomes very helpful. Some people from our room along with some others we met last night decided that today we would go and visit the Kuang Si Falls, which are located just south of Luang Prabang.

The weather wasn’t great and as we were waiting for a couple of people to get drinks and things the weather turned and started to chuck it down. We were told it was dry season… I think you’ll find we are in monsoon season with the amount of storms we have encountered recently! We were trapped under a tent for a good 40minutes before it stopped. We decided, as it was a couple of people’s last days that we would go to the waterfall. Chrissy and I debated about going tomorrow instead but the more people you go with in a tuk tuk the cheaper it is so we gave in and went anyway. It took about 20 minutes to drive there and the views were stunning.

On arrival we paid £1.50 to enter the park and the first place we got taken to was to see the bears. The bear sanctuary looks after 23 Asiatic Black bears and they have been brought here by the Laos government to save them from being tortured in a bile farm. Apparently they are kept in small cages and there bile is sold because it is used in traditional Chinese medicines.

Kuang Si Falls has a 60m cascade and is collected in various pools along the path until you reach the top. This place would have looked amazing in the sun but just seeing it was good enough. Within minutes of reaching the waterfall the rain started again. Chrissy and I made shelter in a café whilst some of the others went swimming. We got the tuk tuk back to town after the rain had stopped and I was very excited to have a warm shower and put on my joggers. Four of us went out to explore the market and get some cheap street food for dinner. We found a street off the market that had these buffet stands. You pay 10,000 kip (75p) to fill your plate as much as you can. It was a cheap and satisfying dinner!