There always has to be one. In an adventure of this length you are bound to come across a day you wish you could go back and change. Traveling from Chiang Mai to Laos was that day.
We had everything planned out as we went to bed. Get up early, go to the bus station, buy the nicer bus ticket and sit back and relax for the six hour drive. What we had read made this seem so easy! Turns out everyone really wants that bus even in the low season. As we asked the woman at the bus station counter for two seats she immediately responded with a confused look and a quick sorry. "You don't have your tickets already?" Uhhhhh crap. So instead we had to aim for a city in the middle and try from there. We were on a tight schedule to make it to our treehouse on time.
So an hour later we hop on a decent bus and sit for the three hours or so to Chiang Rai. Now here is where the fun really begins. There is a local bus that goes to the border of Thailand and Laos, but it makes a lot of stops, has no air conditioning and is pretty packed. So Rebecca checks Uber, because why not! Although it will be more we decide to try. We wander around the parking lot bus station trying to find our driver, he's around the corner but his English is limited. Our Thai consists of about four words, so we are screwed. Trying to figure out if he will really drive the few hours to the border goes back and forth, he finally says yes and gives us a price, we start to get in the car and he looks confused too. We hop out and decide the bus sounds like a better choice now.
Back to the dusty parking lot we go. We see signs for the bus we want but the lady outside of it sends us to another bus. This one doesn't leave for an hour and we are nervous. To top that the bus she wants us to get on seemed to be stuck in its spot. The driver tries to reverse and four people run up to push the bus back so he can face forward. Great sign! Luckily another English speaking traveler is heading in the same direction as us. He says we are on the right track and we will be having a local experience this way. We climb on board and immediately the sweat drips down my back. The bus has all the windows open and a fan at the top, there are baby chicks on board somewhere making cute little chirps. More and more people arrive and we squeeze in together. Finally we set off on the road and I'm sure this bus won't make it. The driver has to fight with the gears to get anything to happen. Multiple times the clunks and clangs feel as if we are dropping parts along the road as we slowly trudge along. The door stays propped open the whole time with the street just feet away. Luckily the breeze is coming in the window and our new traveling companion is sharing stories and travel tips to keep us distracted. At one point an older gentleman sitting in front of me falls off his seat and is inches from the open door. Let me just say this was not a calming situation. After what felt like forever we reached the stop that would lead us to the border! People had told us all different times for crossing so our race continued.
Our bags were thrown into a tuk tuk and across the bridge we went. As I hopped out of the tuk tuk I felt like something was wrong, I knew my clothes were sweaty but they didn't feel right. I was just about to ask Rebecca to check for me when she informed me that my very expensive ($6) elephant pants had caught on something and now my butt was out for the world to see. Great timing as I was entering a new country. I tied Rebecca's cardigan around my waist and we continued on!
I was in a bit of a frantic state so when the guard asked for my exit ticket and I looked in all the normal places and didn't see it I was at a loss. He said I could pay an extra fee so I pretty much threw money his way and didn't attempt to find it. Of course it was in my bag just at my feet, safely put away for easy access. Figures. The visa process was surprisingly easy and a bus was waiting to take us to the city. I even had time to change my pants! I sat down thinking everything would be better now. Then I opened my purse. Sitting there was a bar of forgotten chocolate I bought the night before. Seeing as it's deathly hot here of course it melted all over. I guess it was time for a good purse cleaning anyway.
All I can say is I'm glad we made it in one piece. The day was definitely not my favorite to look back on, but it sure was one to learn from. Fingers crossed not many more will be like this.
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