Day 21 ... heading to the Laos border

A Thai tractor .. its more like a lawn mower!!

Today was the start of our long slow ... But supposedly relaxing journey from Thailand to Laos. The first part of the journey was a 5 hour bus journey to Chang Krong on a nice air conditioned minibus. The road scenery was fabulous, continuous rolling hills, lovely mountains as we left Chang Mai towards Chang Rai and then from then to Chang Krong the land flattened a little and opened up into more farmland with many rice fields and farms on both sides of the roads.

We had several stops along the way to stretch our legs and most of them were at little markets equipped with all sorts of food and other nik-naks. I did manage to buy a cheap mini SD card though so I was happy enough.

We pulled into Chang Krong a little later than expected at about 6 and arrived at our guesthouse where we were to spend the night before getting on the slow boat that would take us to Pak Beng (Laos) for the first night and then to Luang Prabang(Laos) on the second evening.

The guesthouse was basic but adequate. It had a lovely setting though overlooking the Giant Meekong River that was to be our path for the trip. We had dinner, breakfast and a lunch (to take with us) included in the package so we were happy enough overall with the guesthouse. Dinner that night consisted of a buffet style dinner with noodles, fried rice and salad and went down well with everyone.

After dinner we headed to bed, preparing for the start of our 2 day boat trip into the heart of Laos.