All Hands Off Deck

So, I woke up on a quiet early Friday morning for my last bit of time in Thailand. I had already packed up the night before, so I was ready to go. I shifted to the front of the guesthouse balcony, took the pictures that I posted of the river in the previous blog post, and waited. I got up extra early, but not too terribly much so... soon enough, though, the other people who had booked this same boat showed up. From this guesthouse, there was three people. One was an older lady named Julia, from the UK, and then two younger guys, one named Kristian (also from the UK) and the other named Mark, from Switzerland.

The four of us were put on a tuk tuk and taken to a place to get photos taken to be ready for the on the spot Lao visas we’d be getting in a short time from now. I started getting to know the three of these people at that point, but only in a very casual way. It was still too early to really get to know a person. I’ll have none of that until after noon, thanks.

Three Visa-on-Entry's in 16 hours.

My days in Thailand were numbered. I headed north, to the town of Chiang Rai. I was only going to be there a day, then move on to Myanmar/Burma if it was possible. Nothing’s ever certain with Burma, so I wasn’t staking my entire travel plans on it, but I made my way up there anyhow.

Two More Days in Chiang Mai

So I woke up the next day, and got ready to do . . . something. Actually, this was set to be a good day. I had a few things planned for the day. The first of them was to go to a nearby temple on a mountain top, with my new friend Hannah. This temple is called Doi Suthep, and you really have to take a saengthaew (the name of special pickup truck taxis in Thailand) to get to it.