Keo Oudom Phone Hotel Huay Xai

Our wake up call was at 7am and the two Canadian guys we met on the bus, Mark and Josh, seemed to prefer their beds more than anything else so we left without them. They eventually caught us up at immigration which wasn't surprising as it took forever. We got a small boat over to Laos and then from there we need to go to immigration to get our visas. We then had to go to the next booth and get stamped in and then walk up the hill ...

After another rough track ride in the back of the pick-up back to Chiang Rai we left on the local bus to Chiang Khong to cross the border to Laos. We made it in plenty of time to catch a ferry boat across the Mekong River and buy our “visa on arrival”. The little town of Huay Xai was our first taste of Laos. We booked into a nice guest house with a balcony that overlooked the Mekong and watched the sun set with a Laos beer in hand – nice!

... of these restaurants. The first time was in Japan. The food was good, and I had a C&C Classic to drink which tasted like a liquid lime jello with alcohol in it, lol.

After dinner, we went to the Night Bazaar for some more shopping. Unfortunately, we only had about 30 minutes there. Although, admittedly, we were all so tired that we all fell asleep in the van on the way back to the hotel. So I guess it was just as well. I know I sacked out that night.

... nous avons eu la chance d'entendre et meme de voir des gibbons. Leur chant est tout simplement extraordinaire (pour l'entendre, allez voir les echantillons sur cette adresse, http://www.gibbons.de/main/sound/06pil. html).
Nos maisons etaient tout ce qu'il y a de plus simples mais quel sentiment extraordinaire que de prendre sa douche avec la jungle laotienne a ses pieds :-). Le ...

... the canopies of the trees. Its ****ING amazing...breathtaking and terrifying. It was set up to protect the jungle from being logged and thus ruining the habitat of the endangered and elusive gibbons. Even though its called the gibbon experience they say not to expect to see one in the wild. You definitely get to feel what its like to be gibboning around the forest when you are on one of the zip lines ...

... To get to the gibbon experience we started with an hour in a pick-up along roads out into the countryside, then a short (literally 10 metres) boat ride across a river and then another hour in a 4x4 along a muddy, hilly, jungle track, then just a quick wade across another river (or maybe even the same one) and an hour trekking up into the mountains and we were there! It is an amazing setup - a bunch of tree-houses way out in the remote Lao ...

... and predictably there were was a huge reception crowd at the port (mud bank) touting everything from food to lodgings, tickets to taxis!! I had written down three hotels/guest houses and as soon as someone mention one of them I jumped at them and went rarrrrrrrrrrrrr like a monster…actually I didn’t, but I thought it was funny! In a very British way I indicated that I ‘might’ be interested in a habitation for the e’en. The blighters ...

... yes! Wet? No I don't think I would! The dry season is, I imagine, very different. If you intending to make this trip make sure you get ALL the details about the travel arrangement etc first. Take the very, very bare minimum with you and be prepared to do some extremely hard walking...and to move Huts at some point. It's not for the faint hearted, the unfit or the elderly but if only for the views, sounds of the forest and zipping I 'think' I'd recommend it...I think!

... seats in the cab and we were packed onto the back with the bags and packs...that was slightly irritating but how were they to know that we’d bee hanging around for ages!

A couple of hours later, and after a rather pleasant journey, though at times a little bumpy and hairy, we arrive at a village on the main road. A couple of shops and a few houses nothing more. We wait here for ten minutes or so and then are told to walk up the road to meet ...

Arrival in Laos

There's nothing special un Huay Xai, except that this is one the main crossing point from Thailand to Laos. After booking a package trip from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang, I took the minibus that will lead me to the Thai border. After a 4h trip we arrived at a guesthouse and spent the night there.

The border crossing was scheduled to the next morning, early. But on the ...