So we get up on the 3rd looking to see the monks receiving alms at about 5:45 am. The procession was very interesting and really could have been something really special except for some western tourists killing the mood. Basically the monks are not allowed to cook for themselves and so go arou
nd every morning and receive alms from faithful Buddhists in the form of sticky rice and other similar morsels. People not participating are supposed to respectfully keep their distance and not use flash photography. Presently, however, the monks have to walk through throngs of tourists who walk straight up to them and take flash pictures right up in their face (I equate it to a tour bus of Asian tourists going into a Catholic mass and taking pictures). Still, it was really interesting to see and definitely worth the early wake-up call. After monk-watching, we headed to the riverside for some breakfast (noodle soup, fried banana pastries, and coffee). After munching we headed over to the boat station and got there at around 7:15 to buy tickets. People kept telling us that someone would be there soon but at 7:30 we didn't have our bags and decided to head back to the hostel to check out, get our bags, and take one last poop before boarding the boat. Chores done we got back to the dock a little after 8am and bought tickets to Pakbeng for 100,000 kip each. The boat ride itself was largely uneventful and we spent most of the time reading (each of us finishing a book!). The scenery as we went by was really nice though and the ride itself was quite relaxing. We arrived at Pakbeng around 5pm-ish and found a guest house with our new friends Dominik and Claudia (the Swiss couple). After settling in we had dinner with them and headed back to the guesthouse for some sleep. The next day we woke up around 7am, ate breakfast, bought snacks, and got on the boat. We had a little trouble finding the boat (it wasn't the same one as the day before) but eventually found it (120,000 kip each from Pakbeng to Houayxai). There was a little drama this morning with some of the other passengers on the boat. They day before Steph and I were both pretty oblivious, since we were far in the back of the boat and intently reading our books (one about zombies, the other about nanoparticles taking over the world), but apparently 3 English girls were getting drunk and being loud the entire ride. Today this German guy was pissed because they were sitting right in front of him (again) and he didn't want to deal with their noise for 9 hours (again). He started yelling and gesticulating wildly, indicating that they needed to switch seats and move farther away from him and his wife. Of course they refused to move. Luckily, they ended up sleeping most of the trip (hm, perhaps they were hungover???) so any further drama was avoided. Anyway, today we sat with the Dominik and Claudia and played Spongebob Squarepants Uno with them for nearly two hours. After this awesome Uno session (I won soooo many times! hahahaha) the normal slowboat activity of reading and sightseeing commenced. At around 6pm we arrived at the docks of Houayxai, found a guest house, ate some do-it-yourself barbecue and headed to sleep.Dec 5- Chiang Kong to Chiang Rai to the Akha Hill House (Thailand)
Today we got up around 8ish and grabbed some noodle soup before heading to find a boat. Once at the docks we "exited" Laos and hopped on a boat in order to cross the Mekong River into Thailand (about a 2 min ride). Once we got our Thai stamp on our Visa, we hired a taxi to the bus station and caught a bus to Chiang Rai just as it was about to leave. By pure coincidence we ended up on the same bus as our Swiss friends (yay!). Once we got to Chiang Rai a guy handed us a pamphlet for the Akha Hill House (aka jungle bungalows among the Akha hill tribe) which was convincing enough for us to want to stay there. We left our baggage in his truck and decided to check out Chiang Rai for a few hours before we had to be back (truck leaves to the hill house at 4:30 pm). Chiang Rai is a pretty small town so we decided to check out one a couple of its temples. Along the way we stopped at this really great coffee shop and indulged in some hot (Steph) and iced (Phil) lattes and free internet. They were awesome. I don't know if its because we've been drinking the local coffee for the last 2 months or so, but espresso and steamed milk really hit the spot. A
fter the espresso we went out in search of food and temples, found both, and eventually found ourselves at a really awesome book exchange. We traded World War Z (great condition=250 baht credit) and ended up walking away with 3 new books. After we met up at the bus station we hopped on back of the pick-up and eventually started to make our way up to the Hill House. The hill house is about 23km outside of Chiang Rai in the mountains. The ride itself was really awesome because we were basically riding up into the mountains through rice fields, tea fields, hilltribe villages and jungle. We got to Akha around 5:30 that night and checked into our bungalow. Our bungalow was pretty awesome because it was so simple. It was all bamboo with a "squater" toilet and an awesome view over the jungle. That night we grabbed some food (which was, unfortunately, not that good and double the price), drank a beer, and booked a trek for the next day.Dec 6- Jungle Trek (Akha Hill House, Chiang Rai, Thailand)
Today we got up early for our jungle trek starting at 9:30. Our guide was born and raised in a village in the jungle and as such we already knew we were in for a treat (but he did speak pretty decent English). We started off hiking from Akha and basically made our way straight up a hill (I don't think switchbacks exist in the jungle) and got a good view of the area. After about 30 minutes of trekking we stopped close to a stream so that we could make bamboo cups
for our lunch. At this point our guide walks into the jungle and comes back in a few minutes later with a sizable stalk of bamboo. He quickly went to work making us PERFECT bamboo cups with his machete and afterwards let us try (it was much much harder than it looked and we have the cups to prove it). After grabbing some bamboo to make us chopsticks we trekked for about 30 or 40 more minutes stopping only for a few more pieces of bamboo for cooking. Eventually we got to a hut where we were told we would have lunch. Our guide quickly went to work by grabbing some water from the stream and some banana leaves. He then chopped some cabbage, onions, tomatoes, and lemon grass and packed it all into a large piece of bamboo with some water. Then he took some of the veggie mixture and put it into a smaller piece of bamboo along with some eggs. After this he built a fire and both bamboo tubes went right inside it. While these were cooking away he also boiled some water to make "jungle tea" which is made from tea naturally growing in the area (e
ven though it seriously looked like it was planted). Eventually he combined the veggie with some ramen-like noodles and let it sit. We ate out of our newly made bamboo cups, and although lunch was simple, it was surprisingly good (it was cooked in bamboo!!!). After lunch we headed out for some more trekking again hiking straight up another hill and pushing through super tall grass/jungle (it was steep and very hot- I think I could have put out a small fire with all my sweating). At the top we took a small break with another great view and made our way to a Chinese village (the hilltribe was originally from China, but they all speak Thai now). After a break here we continued our trek and ended at a waterfall before returning to Akha. We were tired, sweaty, and needed a beer. After a shower, a beer, and some dinner we headed to bed.Dec 7- Hot Springs (Akha Hill House, Chiang Rai, Thailand)
One of the great things about Akha is that we got TONS of sleep. We went to bed early (like 9pm) and got up late (today around 9am). It was awesome. Today we decided we wanted to trek to the Hot Spring which was roughly 5-6 km down the road. Unfortunately, we didn't get started until about 11am so on the way there we were walking during some of the hottest parts of the day. Much of the road was shady but unfortunately much of the road was really, really steep (much harder walking downhill than up). Once we got there we found that the hot spring was pretty much a swimming pool with hot spring water being pumped into it. There were several pools before the one we could get in, where the water was cooled down from its original 87 C. It was pretty relaxing despite how hot it was outside (it is cold season for the Thai people, meaning under 95 ish degrees). After a dip in the pool we decided we wanted something to drink and grabbed some coffee and a coke at the stand nearby. After relaxing for a bit more we decided we were hungry and tried to grab some barbecued fish (soooo go
od) but apparently the 5 fish on the grill were going to the 2 guys waiting nonchalantly nearby (Steph was really disappointed, as one guy walked away with a pile of 5 fish). Instead, we grabbed some d-e-licious barbecue chicken, along with some fried veggies, pork and basil, and a beer. We managed to improve the mood later though by grabbing some eggs in a basket and heading back to the hot spring to boil them. Its pretty popular for people to boil eggs in the hot spring (I'm convinced its because it smells like sulfur and thusly eggs). Our plan was to eat the eggs for breakfast the next morning but I guess we got impatient while boiling them and they didn't cook all the way (as we found out the next morning ha! At least they didnt explode on us hahahahaha!). The walk back to Akha seemed to be much shorter this was probably only because it was much cooler at that point. Once back at Akha we both showered and headed to the main dining area for some more mediocre food and beer and an Akha massage for Steph.Dec 8- Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai (Thailand)
Today we left Akha at about 9:30 and got back into Chiang Rai. After a long internet session to figure out what our next move should be, we decided to leave Chiang Rai and head to Chiang Mai. We caught a tuk-tuk to a different bus station and boarded the 3 hour bus for Chiang Mai. Once we arrived we immediately got into another tuk-tuk and headed to find a guesthouse. Our guesthouse right now seems pretty promising and basically gave us a "no-bullshit" overview of what to do in Chiang Mai and the surroundings. We were really hoping for a home-run dinner tonight, since the food at the Akha hill house was really lacking in awesomeness). We ended up having an awesome dinner of really good Thai food at a place recommended by our hostel. We had an appetizer of pork with cucumber sauce on toasted bread followed by spicy fried noodles with chicken and basil and a really tasty pineapple curry (pineapple is in season here-- I've definitely had some of the best pineapple I've ever had in my life during our jungle trek). That pretty much brings us to now! And now I think we're off to bed!
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