Northern Thailand and Laos Wrap-Up

Since I didn't do a Northern Thailand Wrap-Up, I'll include it with Laos. Northern Thailand was great, I think overall I ended up liking it more than the south. It was more relaxed and not as full of beach-bumming douchebags. The locals seemed to be more relaxed as well, probably because of the lack of contact with beach-bumming douchebags. The weather was cooler there, the nights in Pai were cool enough to allow you to see your breath. I met a ton of cool people there, notably the group of people in Pai whom I've traveled with and/or met down the road.

The good: Pai. This was by far the best place I visited in Northern Thailand. The heavy reggae presence there made for really chilled out times, notably at the Yellow Sun and Bamboo Bars. I met a lot of great people there and saw some amazing scenery, like the Lod Caves. Ripping around the Pai countryside was definitely a highlight. Chiang Mai was a cool city, a small city with a small town feel to it. The Sunday night market was the best I've seen yet, and even though it was disgusting, I have to put eating the cricket in the good category. Can't forget the cheapest sushi I've ever had, too. I liked the fact that everything in the north is much cheaper than it was in the south. The day tour I did out of Chiang Mai was a highlight, and it marked my first white water rafting adventure.

The bad: The biggest thing that comes to mind was that stupid cab driver that made me miss my train to Kanchanaburi. I really had wanted to go there, but oh well, shit happens I suppose. Other than that the only bad thing I can think of was the bus ride to the Lao border; it's hard to get any sleep in a minibus doing mach one on a mountain rode. All in all, pretty minor.

The costs: Northern Thailand is a little cheaper than the islands, but it still is Thailand. And I still drank a lot.
Total days spent: 14.5
Total money spent: Rougly $570
Total daily expenses: Rougly $500
Average cost per day: Roughly $34

And now for Laos. Laos is an amazing country all around. For being one of the poorest nations in the world, it has so much to offer the traveler. It's a truly wild place with some of the most amazing scenery I've laid eyes on. It can be tough traveling sometimes, and has been for me. The road transportation here was the worst since India, and I managed to get sick again, twice. While not as seemingly poor as India was, you can tell people here work harder to scratch out a living with the constant threat of unexploded bombs lying beneath their feet. That said, overall they are incredibly friendly people, with whom my good experiences far outweigh the bad, and I hope that one day they can be a prosperous nation and enjoy everything we have back home, because they deserve it.

The good: Beer Lao! The Gibbon Experience. I'll never forget ziplining one hundred and fifty meters above the jungle floor. The slowboat to Luang Prabang was an incredibly social environment, especially when the Pai crew broke out a case of beer and some whiskey. The Mekong was full of amazing scenery, making that two day boat ride completely bearable. The waterfall outside of Luang Prabang was also amazing, and made for an amazing day of rope swinging and jumping. And I can't forget to mention the stair party we got going in Luang Prabang. I'm not sure I mentioned it before so basically the lowdown is everything in Luang Prabang closes at 11pm, so the first couple nights we drank on a concrete stairwell by the river with some music. The third night it was up to forty people. Phonsavan was my favourite place, our planned one day turning into four is a testament to that. The countryside around that city made for the best motorcycling I've ever done, and it seemed to always be changing and blowing my mind. Those four days were packed full of some awesome caves, seeing a live unexploded cluster bomb munition, taking in some great panoramas and seeing ancient artifacts. The food must be mentioned, especially in Vientiane, where we found the best food I've eaten in a long time. The Konglor Cave was mind blowing! Relaxing in Pak Beng was a great way to end the Lao leg of my journey.

The bad: Lao was a hard place to travel in. The buses weren't great, they usually were packed completely full of people and cargo, notably my bus ride to Attapeu a few days ago where the isle was lined with giant sucks of God knows what. The long-haul tuk tuks were no better either, being cramped in the back on a bench with twenty-five other people and a goat is not so much fun. On the topic, the day traveling down to Pak Beng was shit. Getting sick in Vang Vieng was no fun either, liquid out both ends for four days will drain anyone. And we can't forget the bedbug saga, which is finally done, thank christ. I've never been so itchy in my life. Well I can't trash Vang Vieng completely, my time there was really dull, my party mood had been drained and given the crowd I was with and the environment I was in it with, I toughed it out.

The costs: Laos was famed to be so much cheaper than Thailand, but I expected it to be much cheaper than it actually was. The Gibbon Experience was a big expense I didn't drink as much this time...
Total days spent: 29
Total money spent: $1173.89 ($42 visa, $309 for the Gibbon Experience, about $37 to ship a package home)
Total daily expenses: Roughly $730
Average cost per day: Roughly $25

I'll apologize if my budgeting it a little vague sometimes, I try to keep track of every penny I spend, but when you're constantly busy it's tough to accurately keep track of every expenditure.