Hue to Chang Mai in 5 Days Flat

We've covered some ground since last we wrote. Although all three of our ardent readers have wondered if we got locked in an Asian prison since that last post, we simply arrived in Chiang Mai and got lazy. This town is a little like that.

And truth be told, we started having fun instead of kicking against the goads of low-budget South-East Asian travel.

But there's lots to tell!

Hue was where we left off. We spent a night there and planned to get out quickly the next day. Although it was smaller and quieter than Hanoi, it was littered with pushy touts at every corner! We couldn't walk two blocks without getting hassled for a motorbike ride, a shampoo or a tour of the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone). So, last Saturday, we took a five-hour local minibus to Lao Bao, the border town on the Vietnam side of the Laos-Vietnam border. We arrived in the afternoon and were told we'd need to wait till morning to cross.

Just as the locals in Hue warned, Lao Bao was a "sad", "small" town where the youth had nothing fun to do but cause trouble. It was a strange little place where we couldn't get straight answers and had to surrender our passports for the police to look over.

The next morning, we got stuck at the border (Check out the "Limbo" post) and eventually chanced to catch a five-hour bus to Savannaket, a town on the Laos-Thai border. We decided to stay there for a night, see a bit of Laos, and head for amazing Thailand in the morning. That night, we could see the lights of Thailand glimmering across the Mekong River. Almost there.

In the morning, we got a bus through the Laos exit border (no troubles!) and into Mukhadan, Thailand. Then we took a four-hour bus to Kahn Kaen. This was a very pleasant school bus ride with mostly Thai school girls. They loaded at the most interesting towns and houses. Upon arrival in the evening at Kahn Kaen, we bought tickets for a night bus to Chiang Mai!

Chiang Mai by morning!

And that's how we arrived in this beautiful green town. Early in the morning after a night bus after a school bus after two borders and a lot of Asian countryside.