Rockin' New Years, Huay Xia Style

We had a plan that depended on local Thai buses, a Mekong river border crossing into Laos, and a Laos local bus to make it to our destination of Luang Nam Tha in northern Laos. Although we realized it was technically possible to do this trip in one day if everything was on schedule, we wisely predicted the possibility of staying in the tiny border town of Huay Xia on New Years' eve.

Enter factor 1: Our local Thai bus to the border wasn't one of the crammed tourist minibuses, but took a longer scenic route through northeastern Thailand, made even longer by the frequent stops by police and bus security to look for smugglers.

Factor 2: The boat crossing into Laos was easy enough but the gentleman who's job it was to stamp our passports happened to be napping at the time. Dennis decided the best approach was to hover and be slightly annoying, while the other immigration officials laughed at their sleeping co-worker, and I walked down the street (p.s. into Laos) to buy some drinks and snacks for what could be a long wait. Luckily for us, a line started forming and a few minutes later we were officially welcomed into Laos, but just a little too late to catch our bus.

Huay Xia is a one road town, so we set about looking for a party. A large tent was set up in the center of town and we hoped it was a wedding, which we've heard is easy to snag an invite to and really fun. After more hovering we realized it was a funeral and moved on. Most of the locals seemed to be in high spirits (they celebrate international New Year, Tet, and Pii Mai, the Laos New Year), but after we got back from eating a surprisingly good street roti, it seemed everyone had passed out already. Luckily we had met Josh and Sara, a couple from Mississippi, and ended up having dinner, drinks, and a good conversation with them, while listening to a horrendous karaoke party nearby. A rockin' New Years, it was not, but it definitely worked as an introduction to laid-back Laos.

When you get Stuck Between Chiang Mai and Chiang Khong City

So we had planned to spend five days enjoying the city and surrounding environs of Chiang Mai. Unfortunately, we failed to realize that Thai New Year coincides with the Western New Year. What that means for us is that every bus, in every direction was booked as people tried to take long holidays. The upstart is that 5 days became 7 days.

Not exactly a tragedy (Chiang Mai is a wonderfully relaxing and easy city to be in) but causes a bit of a knock-on effect on our Laos and Cambodia plans. While we figured out our itinerary in the evenings, our days were spent walking every spare inch of the city. Chang Mai is full of an amazing diversity of wat styles with a prediliction for the Lanna Style (which is quite ornate), and we visited about 15 different sites.

Apart from the Buddhist sites, we were immensley lucky to meet a woman from Ireland (whose name we forgot to get) who had spent a few months in the city and gave us a perfect day-long itinerary that brought us to a wonderful Thai market with nary a tourist in sight, a relaxing coffee shop on the river, the local prison crafts and massage shoppe and back for the immensely overwhelming night bizarre. A nearly perfect day; thanks Irish woman!

The following day we treated ourselves to a cooking class. Hey, we may be unemployed, but we are working on our resumes. The class was pretty good and Kristi and I now can make a mean green curry, phad thai, papaya salad, and for dessert, grenadine-soaked waterchestnuts in coconut milk (better than it sounds).

-d