Back in Thailand

We left Laos yesterday...a 4 hour public bus from Luang Namtha to the border crossing, a quick 2 minute "ferry" crossing to Thailand, and then down to Chiang Rai. Having spent 4 hours on a bus already, I voted at this point to take the offer of a "taxi" to Chiang Rai. We probably over paid, but $40 got us an airconditioned four wheel drive directly to the hotel of our choice, with a stop for lunch and the bank. I think it was totally worth it.

We've spent the day today getting laundry done, as trekking in Laos results in spectacularly smelly clothing, and reconnecting with Thai food. We visited the Hill Tribe Museum here, which has excellent information about the hill tribes in this area. It was fascinating and depressing to read that the Long Neck Karen are not here by choice, but have been brought from Burma (or from refuge camps) and put on display in artificial villages created for tourists like us. Needless to say, we're glad that the hill tribe trekking we did was in Laos through the carefully controlled program there.

We ate lunch at Cabbages and Condoms. This chain of restaurants was started by the Thai minister of health many years ago and so named because he hoped that condoms would become as readily available as cabbages. The food was nothing special, but the life size santa claus created out of red and white condoms was worth seeing (picture will be posted soon).


We're on our way to Chiang Mai tomorrow, where we'll have some more time to update the blog and recover from the miles we've done recently.