After the action packed 2 days in Chiang Mai, it was time to get on the road again--- this time a comfortable van ride to the border of Thailand and Laos. We stopped along the way to see the famous Wat Rong Kuh, aka the "White Temple".
As you can see, *not* Gold! This is actually a contemporary Buddhist and Hindu temple, designed by Chalermchai Kositpipat. It's actually a work in progress- as we were there, workers were still painting and gluing little mirrors to it. The all white temple is meant to signify the purity of Buddha. On the inside, the front of the temple looks pretty typical. However the back wall displays a huge mural depicting current political and pop culture references such as Osama bin Laden, the Twin Towers, George W, Spiderman, and Michael Jackson. Definitely a comtemporary temple!
The equally amazing reason to visit the White Temple are its Toilets.
Cheeeeck these babies out!
Somewhere these were voted some of the nicest toilets in the WORLD!
The insides are fairly normal, but nice and clean. It's the outside that's majorly impressive.
Next up was driving to the border. We spent the night at a small border town called Huay Xai, not much going on there. The border between Thailand and Laos here (and in several other places too), is the Mekong River. Apparently there are giant catfish in this river that measure up to 3 meters in length and can weigh up to 300 kg. They hold the Guinness Record for world's largest freshwater fish. Dang! (Note to self- NOT swimming in *this* river!). To embrace the local cuisine, I had a catfish soup for dinner in Huay Xai. It was pretty good.
The next morning it was time to cross the border into Laos!
Thailand up front, Laos on the other side of the river.
The way to cross was to pay a few Baht for a literally 10 minute longboat ride across the river.
Boom! Welcome to Laos!
Of course, there was a brief immigration/customs portion, but nothing too fierce. All they really want is about 40 US dollars and to see your passport, then they'll let you in.
Next up was a slow boat ride down the Mekong. It was the wet season, so the river was plenty full. Roads often get flooded in the wet season, so boat was the most preferred method of travel for the time of year.
Below are the boats docked up, just waiting for passengers to take down the Mekong.
The mighty, muddy Mekong River.
It's the 12th largest river in the world, and flows through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Apparently in years prior, you had to sit on the hard wooden floor of these boats. (The journey each day is 6 or more hours, by the way). Which led to sore bums. Now, for tourist comfort, they've installed seats that look like they were once in a train or van or something. A little more comfortable (but still a long trip!)
It was a looooong journey, and most of the ride was a lot of nothing, but occasionally there were sights to see along the river bed.
Like these fancy stairs to a temple...
Some remote village huts...
And the occasional water buffalo!
After 6 hours of the loooongboat ride, we reached our nighttime destination, the small town of Pak Beng.
Tourism has helped this tiny town so much. The town didn't have electricity until 2 years ago, when all the longboats started stopping here overnight and bringing $$ to the town!
Once we got to Laos, a local Lao guy joined our tourgroup to help us out with the language/culture/etc. His name was Noy. He was a wealth of knowledge! I sat next to him at dinner that first night and asked him all about living in Laos. Oh, and also asked him what to order for dinner. He recommended this:
It's called "lap". It's the national food dish of Laos, this version is beef. Basically it's meat and herbs mixed together into a salad. And LOTS of chili peppers! Delicious. A nice change from all the fried rice/fried noodles I was eating in Thailand.
So, there you have it- a highlight of the first portion of Laos, travelling down the Mighty Mekong.
Stayed tuned for more Laos adventures!
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