Holiday Snaps - Day 4. Getting there and away

Champasack to Chiang Mai in 26 hours

So I was told it was easy. Easier than trying to work out flights and connections and other ways to travel.  I was told to have my bags packed by 6.30 as the staff were going across the water to the market and I could catch a ride.

It's not easy to take a decent selfie that shows you are on a boat.

 

Boat: #1

 

I farewelled the Crazy Gecko guesthouse and its café where I'd spent some quality hammock time and eaten some pretty average spaghetti.



 

The locals came out to see me off.

 



 

 

Once I hit the mainland, the town was buzzing. I caught a sidecar to the bus station. 

 

Side car #2

 

Here is a picture of the side car and driver and behind him is the songteaw bus (aka truck) that my luggage was carefully thrown into.

 

The truck already had one passenger waiting to head for Pakse.

 

 

I had an hour to wait so I ate breakfast. I will miss noodle soup for breakfast.

 



 

I wandered around the market and took photos of scenes I'd seen before but figured I might not see again for a long time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eventually ten or fifteen of us and our bags and sacks of rice and ducks and fish still flapping in plastic bags took off for Pakse. The badly padded bench I sat on for two and half hours was one of the most uncomfortable rides I have had for a long time. I'm pretty sure another hour of that and I'd have earnt a horizontal welt across my bum.

 

Songteaw #3

 

Arriving at a strange yard that might have been a bus station I transferred into another songteaw. We waited for a few more passengers to arrive before heading into town. Once we took off one of the passengers changed her mind. We turned around and took her back to the bus station.

 

Songteaw #4

 

Eventually I was taken to a private bus company and my suitcase was dumped, along with me, onto the side of the road. I checked. This was not the bus I wanted. I loaded into a side car again (this time with a cure rickshaw-style hood) and went elsewhere. I suggested the market. I had no real idea where I should go to get a bus to the border.

 

 

Side car #5

 

Getting off at the market and then back on again when someone else suggested where I should go, eventually I found a minibus and all its air conditioned glory waiting to leave for the border. I climbed in.

 

Minibus #6

 

A bit of fussing around trying to reorganise my bags and before I knew it, I was being put onto the back of a motorbike while my suitcase was between the driver's knees. It seems you can't take a car closer to the border so have to walk or ride. I just agreed with whatever the hell was being suggested.

 

Motorbike #7 

 

The border crossing was simple but transport was confusing. I knew I was being scammed but as I had no idea of other options I paid a Thai guy around $23 to take me in his "taxi" to Ubon. It turned out to be a good idea. It was a clean and new and smooth Toyota sedan with the capacity to charge my mobile phone as we drove on remarkably clean and new and smooth Thai roads. Ahh, Thailand - your investment in infrastructure is appreciated.

Taxi #8

I was taken to a bus station and told to ask for a particular bus. It was "the good one". I paid what seemed a lot of money for a ticket to Chaing Mai. I had ten minutes to find some food and drink for the trip, find a toilet and find the right place to sit so I didn't miss the bus.

 

 

 

 

The bus was big.

 

 

 

It was also spacious and clean and more modern than any bus I'd been on even in Thailand.

 

I settled in, set up my food, book, knitting, phone with podcasts and fell asleep.

 

Luxury Bus #9

 

There was one food stop at 10pm. I ate and paid 10 Baht to have my phone charge a little while we ate.

 

Several podcast stories, a few rows on the socks I am knitting and 2 valium later I arrived at the very familiar looking Chiang Mai bus station.

 

 

I was tired. It was hot. I rang Kate. She found me. I'd arrived!