On the evening of November 28th, 2023 we arrive in Chiang Rai by bus. A Grab taxi takes us from the bus station to the accommodation. This is a good 2km outside the center. A good choice, the accommodation โJansupar Courtโ is in a quiet area, we encountered few tourists and you don't notice any traffic (โฌ12/night). We move into a nice room with a bathroom and fridge, but unfortunately the bed is incredibly hard (only in Laos could this be bettered).๐ We make a few trips to the blue temple and the famous white temple in Chiang Rai. It's very worth it. We always used a Grab Taxi for the journey, everything else we did on foot. Both temple complexes are very impressive and a trip is worth it.
White Temple: Wat Rong Khun We also visited a Muay Thai gym or fitness studio in Chiang Rai and had two guided boxing lessons in a group. The training lasted an hour each and we had a lot of fun. We paid 200baht per person per hour. It's incredibly sweaty and exhausting and it uses muscles that I've felt for ages or never before ๐ definitely try it out if you're interested in that sort of thing. The studio is called โThe Underdog Muay Thai Gymโ and the training was professional and the team was super friendly. The border crossing into Laos ๐ฑ๐ฆ Chiang Rai itself didn't really convince us, we had passport photos taken in the city for our visa on arrival for Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia (and paid a total of โฌ7.80). Because on December 3rd, 2023 we left the city with the local bus (starts at the bus station where we arrived) towards the border or to Chiang Khong, where immigration is. Duration: 2h trip, price: 90baht per person, see photo! To be honest, the bus driver even kicked us out beforehand and a TukTuk took us, together with two women from the Netherlands, to the border control. So we left Thailand, bought a bus ticket at the next counter and the visa on arrival (it must have been around 3000 baht in the end for both of us). A few minutes later we took the bus over the bridge to Laotian immigration, where we had to fill out the application for our visa and arrival card. With the documents and our passports we went back to the counter and a short time later we were finally granted entry ๐ The first night we stayed near the border in the town of Ban Houayxay ๐ฑ๐ฆ here we booked the slow boat to Luang Prabang.
