Em & Tola's Travel Blog

After almost 4 months it became time to start our long trip out of South East Asia. It started by leaving Luang Prabang on a smaller boat going upstream on the Mekong. The views from the boat were amazing. Untouched forests, small villages, waving village children, gracing buffaloes, limestone cliffs, tree covered mountain tops, fishermen and a clear blue sky were some of the things I spotted from the Mekong. If you were lucky you could apparently see wild elephants in the jungle from the boat, but sadly we were not. Even in these surroundings we got bored quite quickly. The fact that Emily caught a fever did not help, so when we reached the small city of Pakbeng after 11 hours, we were ready to get off the boat.


The plan had been to just spend one night in Pakbeng and get back on the boat in the morning, but Emily still had a fever, so we decided to stay and rest up for one more day.

The next day we took the bull by the horns and did the second leg of the boat trip to the Thai border. This one was pretty much the same as the first one. It was supposed to be a few hours shorter, but it ended up being 11 hours as well. We reached the city of Huay Xai and we had to stay the night because the border was closed until the next day. At dinner we met an older American couple that have been sailing the world for 7 years. Emily and I both agreed that this is something we definitely could not do.

Early the next day we crossed the border into Thailand. To do that we jumped on a boat and just crossed the river to the other side. We hadn't crossed a border by boat before. We could immediately feel like we were back in Thailand and it felt strangely comfortable (even more so when you consider what is happening in the country right now). We did not see anything that pointed to a future civil war aside from the occasional red or yellow flag.

Once in Thailand we quickly got on a bus and 3 hours later we were in Chiang Rai. We found a room and rested up for yet another long trip the next day, one more 11 hour bus ride to Bangkok. When we got on the bus we were pleasantly surprised. There was a steward that went around serving drinks, we got wet towels, and lunch was included. We also had a TV that showed some new American movies. They were dubbed to Thai, but it was nonetheless a very comfortable bus. The ride itself turned out not to be very comfortable though. It turned out to be 13 hours and during the last few hours, the constant traveling had really begun to affect us. When we were finally back in Bangkok my dad picked us up and it did not take long to fall asleep at my dad's apartment.

The last full day we spent in Bangkok, we went to my uncle's restaurant for lunch. Apparently I had not seen him for close to 20 years. Their Vietnamese restaurant seemed to be doing well, and their special dipping sauce is quite famous. The meal we had was one of the best ones on the trip so far. By coincidence another of my uncles (the oldest one) came to the restaurant for a meal when we were there, and it was good to see some relatives I had not seen for a long, long time.

Driving around in Bangkok, we did not expect to find it as calm as we did. We did not see any kind of disturbance anywhere, aside from a man selling ski masks. People just seemed to be living their lives as they normally do. We have a feeling that the media has blown the whole situation out of proportion. My dad told me that even though there has been some incidences, the general population do not really seem to care that much.

The evening was spent with my uncle Bon, his wife, my dad and Beng. It was a good farewell to Thailand and this part of the trip.

When we went to the airport the next morning both Emily and I felt nervous and tense, like you do when you leave home for a different country. After 4 months, South East Asia has really been our home, and we will miss it.

Books read on the trip so far:
Freakonomics
The girl in the picture
Superfreakonomics
High Fidelity
The Beach
Holy Cow
How to be good