The Last of the North

I ended up spending four nights in Pai before heading back to Chiang Mai. Pai is known as being a relaxed hippy town with a good backpacker vibe; the reputation didnt disappoint.

I stayed at a hostel called Spicypai (one of a few hostels run by the some blokes), and the place was great. Situated a couple kilometres from the city centre, adorned by rice paddies and bungalow huts, it was a great place to relax - just what I needed after three days riding.

Most days were spent lazing about on the hammocks and nights having a few drinks with people we met along the way. Pai is interesting because most people from Chiang Mai head up there; I caught up with people I'd met on both Koh Tao and Chiang Mai earlier.

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos but one of the days a group from the hostel headed out to a nearby natural hot spring. We bathed in naturally warmed water for a couple hours - a great change from the rainy weather we rode there with!

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We rode back to Chiang Mai via Wat Doi Suthep; a famous temple situated on a mountain overlooking Chiang Mai, a few kilometres out of the city.

I've seen a bunch of temples already so it wasn't all that interesting, but damn the ride up there was good. Smooth uphill roads with tight corners to get a bit of lean on the bike going - great fun!

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We spent one more night in Chiang Mai before catching a local bus the next morning to Chiang Rai - the closest town to the Laos border.

Chiang Rai is known for its White Temple, a privately owned art exhibit built in the style of a Buddhist temple. It had a strange vibe to it; very dark and disturbing, but given its Buddhist appearance it was a weird mix.

Inside the main temple was a huge art mural adorning the walls, featuring a lot of pop-culture characters as well as some interesting metaphors, as seen below...

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From Chiang Rai we caught a local bus to Chiang Khong, the border town to Laos on the Mekong river.

The bus dropped us out the front of a tuk tuk lineup where you pay $2aud each to get to the border control centre.

From here get checked out of Thailand through immigration. You then pay another $1aud to get across no-mans-land and the Thailand-Laos Friendship Bridge and arrive at the Laos immigration control. ~$50aud and you organise your on-arrival visa and you're through into Laos! It was by far the easiest border crossing I had done to date - no scams, all set prices and no hustling!

Luke, Will and I spent the night in the border town of Houay Xai, situated right on the Mekong river, from which you can look across and see Thailand. This was the gateway for the Gibbon Experience ... more on that to come!