Bangkok - Chiang Rai - Chiang Khong

"The river is wide,
I gotta get to the other side."

The River Is Wide - Nick D'Virgilio

After having bend myself in all kinds of crazy angles in an attempt to get some sleep (I don't think I will ever get the hang of sleeping on airplanes) we were served a fine breakfast at 2:30 AM destination time. At 5:00 AM we arrived in Bangkok. Our connecting flight to Chang Rai had originally been at 7:00 AM, but taking into account possible delays our travel agent had suggested that we should take the next flight instead. In such cases you'll always find yourself arriving early for a change. Early enough to easily catch the next flight. Well, Bangkok Airport isn't the worst place to kill time and after taking a cup of coffee and a snack at Starbucks we checked in for Chang Rai and went to get a Singha beer.

While in Thailand, Singha is an absolute vital necessity. ;-)

At 11:45 we finally left for Chang Rai with budget airliner Asian Air, arriving in the north of Thailand around one o'clock. This being a domestic flight there was no necessity for custom checks and within 10 minutes we were in the van of the travel agent's representative that had come to pick us up. A drive of slightly more than 90 minutes, past rice fields and houses with their typical spirit houses (believed to accommodate the past inhabitants of the house which receive daily food offerings from the current inhabitants), brought us to the border town of Chiang Khong. The main function of this small town of 9.000 inhabitants is the official border crossing with Laos. A ferry runs between Chiang Khong and Huay Xai at the east bank of the Mekong river.

After dropping our bags in our rooms at the Namkhong Riverside Hotel we took a cold beer at our balconies, viewing the destination of the coming three weeks at the other side of the river. After a long 25 hours of travelling Laos was finally within our reach! We decided to check out the Tha Reua Bak pier where we would leave Thailand tomorrow, talking to a trucker about his enormous cargo of pears from China along the way when passing the cargo pier. After the procedures of tomorrow's crossing were clear we took a stroll through the small town which obviously seemed to thrive on the cargo and tourism traffic passing through.

At the end of the afternoon, while the sun was setting, we sat down at a restaurant overlooking the Mekong for another cold Singha.

We had some fun with the staff that hardly spoke any English and decided to prolong the enjoyment by having dinner here. As I've done several times in the past with Ad and Mieke we ordered 6 to 8 different dishes, sharing them among the four of us. The food was delicious and consisted of fried shrimps, fried rice with seafood, green chicken curry, spring rolls and fried pork, all accompanied by tasty sauces. These are the moments that I want to stay here forever !

After a last Singha at the hotel's restaurant, where a Thai was playing hard-to-identify pop songs on his guitar, we decided to call it a night around 10 PM. With the few hours of sleep in the airplane we'd had little sleep in the past 34 hours, so we'd better hit the sack so we'd be in good shape for the adventures to come.