I got to Hat Yai by a bus from Krabi. I had to get another motorbike from Krabi to the bus station, which was about 5 Km out of town, but I managed to do this for a reasonable price. I walked to where someone touting for ferry customers told me to go and there were a lot of taxi drivers waiting. They were asking for 100 Baht, which I just laughed at and ended up getting the price down to 80 Baht, which was still too high. I had paid 50 Baht to get to Krabi, so I knew how much it cost and walked around the corner until I found some taxi drivers who I had seen waiting before. They agreed to 50 Baht with no problems and we set off.

I got dropped at the bus station and shopped-around for a good bus and a good price to Hat Yai. I sat at the back on a loose seat and got thrown about a bit, but apart from stopping for lunch, the journey was fairly uneventful.

In Hat Yai, I got off the bus and got accosted by taxi drivers. I decided to wait and ask the station office how you got to the train station and they gave me instructions on how to walk there and the word ‘train station’ written down in Thai on a piece of paper. I starting walking in the direction of the train station, but decided it was too far and ended up asking some taxi drivers at the end of the bus station how much it was to the train station. I was bargaining with one taxi driver, who was fairly young and got distracted by a woman coming out of the toilet. He thought this was funny and gave me the price I was asking for, which was significantly less than what the first lot of taxi drivers were asking for.

I got to the train station and immediately went and found out what the train times were. I had missed the trains for that day, but there were several trains the next day which looked good. There was some trouble with a terrorist insurgency in the area I was headed to, so decided to go for the 2nd train of the day, just in case there were any problems with the first one. I walked down the street opposite the train station and after looking at several hotels and guest houses, decided to stay in the first one I looked at, which was closest to the station.

The journey here was a convoluted one, with multiple stops and transport changes required. It took a few days, with a stop in Lampang, a train change in Bangkok, a night in Prachuap Khiri Khan and a bus ride to Krabi. I was quite glad once I’d got there!

Lampang

I started in Chiang Rai and went back to the original bus station that I had arrived at. The bus wasn’t for another hour, so I went across the road and got something to eat in a restaurant that I had been eyeing-up on the inbound journey. The journey was fairly long and boring, with some people still throwing water, which was quite refreshing with the wind from the bus. At the end, when we made the stop in Lampang, I got off, not realising it was Lampang, in order to go to the toilet and get something to eat. I ended up getting a fruit shake and getting back on the bus, only to find out that this was Lampang and I needed to get off.

After finishing my fruit shake I found a shared tuk-tuk that would take me to the ‘centre’ for 20 Baht. I got informed by my fellow passengers one we’d reached the centre and I got out, finding some taxi drivers who were willing to tell me where we were on the map.

Once I’d checked-in to my hotel (or guest house), I went straight down the road to where I could hear drumming. What I found was a big open-air stage, built out of stand and in the middle of the river. Whilst I was watching they had a tug-of-war, some kind of wrestling (where the loser would fall into the water) and a drumming competition. I ate a lot of snacks and stayed until it was dark.

The next day I loitered around the hotel until it was time to get my train at 19:19. The train was late and as it had been raining, there was a power-cut in the train station, so we had to sit there in the dark.

Bangkok

On the journey to Bangkok I met someone interesting on the train. I had upgraded myself to the air-conditioning carriage, as I genuinely wanted to get some sleep this time and someone from Thailand asked where I was from. It turned out that he had been to Taiwan too and stayed in the same hostel as I had, going to a few of the other places I had been to too. I got a recommendation for a university that was good for teaching Chinese and we departed in Bangkok, expecting to see eachother in Taipei some time.

Once in Bangkok I got a train timetable and hurriedly scanned my guidebook looking for places that I would like to stop. Prachuap Khiri Khan seemed convenient, so I managed to get the last ticket there and went for a wander whilst waiting for my train.

Prachuap Khiri Khan

In Prachuap Khiri Khan I got off the train as it was getting dark. I ended up staying in the hotel closest the station and went for something to eat in the night market. Whilst trying to figure out where I was going next, I spoke to someone from the Netherlands who had been a tour guide in Thailand for 8 years. He was able to speak Thai and ended up translating a conversation between me and the owner about why the Internet was so rubbish.

The next day I figured out how I was going to get to Krabi and hurredly got something to eat. Outside the restaurant there were some tuk-tuk drivers and one of them took me to the bus station, which was just a stop on the main road. Here I bought an expensive bus ticket to Krabi.

Krabi

The bus to Krabi was very nice with a lemon sponge cake and soya bean juice provided. I got to Krabi and a nice taxi driver showed me where we were on a map and another one took me to the town centre. I think there was a bit of confusion, as we ended up driving round for a bit, but I eventually found a hostel to stay in, as it was easily the cheapest option.

The next day I got the ferry to Railay, in order to find a famous south-Thailand beach. I decided to get a later boat and go in search of a new mobile phone, as my original one had broken and refused to charge. Once in Railay, I decided to go for a walk through the jungle and try and find Ton Sai beach, as Railay West beach hadn’t been exactly what I had been looking for. Ton Sai beach was very similar, just with fewer people and after going for a swim I pretty much decided that in order to find the properly nice beaches (white sand, crystal-clear water), you had to go out to one of the islands. This it was not possible to do, so I ended up staying where I was and having to run for the last boat back to Krabi.

I got here from Laos, as an alternative to doing a ‘visa run’ and staying in Thailand, traversing northeastern and northern Thailand to get here. It was the New Year celebrations when I visited, so everywhere I went I had water thrown at me and a white chalky-substance smeared across my face.

To get to Chiang Rai, I had to make the following stops:

Oudom Xai

This was a fairly short bus ride from Luang Prabang. I actually wanted to go directly to Luang Nam Tha, but I had missed the morning bus by about 30 minutes and the only other bus was at about 17:00, so I decided to wait the 2.5 hours for the next bus to Oudom Xai.

This was the first bus that had water thrown at it, as it was the Thai New Year and as the windows were open, a few people got soaked. Once in Oudom Xai, it was getting dark and I walked around until I found a hotel. Surprisingly, for such a small place, the best one was full and the biggest one was far too expensive. I settled for a cheaper one across from the station where there was a mother breastfeeding when I came to collect the room. I asked them to give me a new bed sheet as the existing one was filthy and I got woken up early the next day by the son of the family banging on my door, asking for the room money. I gave it to him but made it very clear that I didn’t enjoy being woken up.

Luang Nam Tha

I got on a smaller bus in Oudom Xai to Luang Nam Tha, that seemed to be occupied mostly by French people. I sat next to Francois, who ended up talking to me about his previous job in an oil company. I found this fascinating and learnt a lot and me and all of the other French tourists ended up getting a tuk-tuk to the centre of Luang Nam Tha as soon as we arrived.

On arrival in Luang Nam Tha, I went in search of something to eat. The place was a little touristy, so I thought I would try something different and go for one of the street stalls. I had no idea what they were selling but asked for one of them, eventually getting it as a takeaway. It was a load of vegetables and noodles mashed up in a big pestle and mortar and I ate it outside my hotel. This may had been a mistake, because after eating this, I was the sickest I have been since the start of my trip.

I decided to go for a wander over a bamboo bridge to a local village later in the day and saw the local people washing and playing in the river along with weaving and winding cotton in other places. As I was walking around I didn’t feel very well and decided to go back to my hotel room to lie down. Later on, I was sick out of both ends many times and was going to the toilet every five minutes at one point. I tried to rough it, but after taking multiple packets of Dioralyte and not feeling any better, I decided to down some Ciprofloxacin and some Immodium and get on a bus to Huay Xai.

Huay Xai

On the journey to Huay Xai I went to the toilet at every stop. The Immodium helped keep things under control until we were able to stop, which was luckily pretty regularly. I was going to ask when we were stopping at one point, but we pulled-over not long after me thinking to myself how long I was going to wait before asking. We got to Huay Xai without any problems and I got in a tuk-tuk with about 3 local women. As we were driving down the road, someone threw some water from the roadside and almost all of us got drenched. About 2 of the 3 women got a proper soaking and much of the rest of the journey was spent screaming and laughing. The women got dropped off early and I got driven in a loop to make the town centre seem further away than it actually was. I was feeling pretty weak at this point so tried 2 hotels, took the second one and went to sleep.

Chiang Rai

I got up early the next day and got a boat across the border (between Laos and Thailand). I had to sit down at the immigration office as I wasn’t feeling very well, but this was only temporary and I got a motorbike and a bus to Chiang Rai not long after.

In Chiang Rai I walked around until I found a hotel, which didn’t take very long. After looking around the first place, I left my bag there and had a wander around, getting my first proper drenchings. The best one was a Thai girl who came up behind me as I was trying to avoid the water from 2 western people. This got me properly soaked, which wasn’t too bad in the heat and after not finding anywhere better, I walked back to the original hotel, getting white talcum powder smeared across my face.

The next day, as it was the official Songkran festival, I had a walk down one of the main streets. I spent most of the day doing this and ended up dripping wet, with every part of my clothing saturated with water. It was very good.

Even though Songkran went on for another 2 days, I felt like I had got the point after day 1 and got on a bus to Lampang.

I got to Luang Prabang on a very long bus ride from Vientiane. I knew it was going to be long, but I didn’t realise it was going to be as long as it was, which about about 11 or 12 hours. We arrived in Luang Prabang in the dark and I managed to negotiate a tuk-tuk and a room in a guest house not long after.

The journey to Luang Prabang was pretty spectacular, with steep mountain sides, sheer drops and magnificent scenery. The road was very windy, passing through many small villages, which, surprisingly, were totally un-developed. Local, minority people were living there and I would have liked to explore them a bit more thoroughly, had I had the time.

Luang Prabang was a lot more touristy then I was expecting and it was difficult finding somewhere to eat. I finally found a ‘charge-per-plate’ type market stall where they charged me 10 000 Kip per plate of food, which is about 1.5 US Dollars. They even threw in some prawn crackers with the second plate.

The next day I started out by trying to gather information on where to go next. I decided that I was going to go to Luang Nam Tha, but that I would stay in Luang Prabang for a few days, as I did want to see some of it. I spent the rest of the day walking around and crossing various bridges, one bamboo (which gets re-built once it is washed-away in the wet season) and one industrial, with a long drop down to the river.

The day after I got up early to watch the monks’ alms. This is where Buddhist believers line up and place sticky rice in the food bowls of passing monks, who also pass in a long line. It is a very peaceful process, but where I was got swamped with Korean and Chinese tourists not long after the procession started, so I had to wander around to find somewhere quieter, which I managed to do just as the last monks were passing by. Later on, I crossed the Mekong River and went on a short walk past a load of temples (wats) and then through a village, Ban Nakham. Here, I got welcomed in to someone’s house, as they were clearing up after a wedding. I got given noodle soup and a vegetarian salad, which tasted like it had salad cream on it, but there was a misunderstanding about how many beers I would buy them and they ended up buying 6 beers with the money I gave them and not 2. We took the beers back to the shop, where the woman realised there was a white person buying them and refunded me 8 000 Kip for the 4 beers but charged me 10 000 Kip for the 2 I was giving away. As there was already 2 000 Kip which the man had supposedly already given me, I got less change then I was anticipating and decided to let them keep the 2 000 Kip, so that I didn’t have to go back into the house to get it. Walking back, I think they felt bad about this, as the man selling ice-creams was sent back on his motorbike to get me a give me a lift to Ban Xieng Mene, where the boats left from.

Once back in Luang Prabang, I decided to do one more thing and visit Kuang Si waterfall. Without a guidebook, I had only heard about this and seen one or two pictures, but I managed to find a tuk-tuk driver who would take me there for a reasonable price. We got in for free (as he was local) and he showed me around, which he didn’t have to do. In the end, it was totally deserted, with me and my taxi-driver swimming in one of the pools of the waterfall with the sun going down. I remember laughing, as this was one of the amazing points in my trip, which happen only occasionally.