Mae Sai to Chiang Khong sawngthaew saga

We set off from Mae Sai thinking it was going to be a couple of easy hours on a bus. How wrong could we be?? Firstly we jumped a sawngthaew to the main Bus Terminal only to discover that we couldn't purchase any bus tickets! Why? We were at the wrong terminal! So we grabbed yet another sawngthaew and headed back into town and towards the "other" bus terminal near the boarder gates with Burma. Well... bus terminal is a word obviously used very loosely in Thailand! In reality it was 2 sawngthaew's parked on the side of the road and a small, hand painted sign saying "Bus Stop". After our "round about" trip we purchased 2 seats in the back of the "local bus" (really it was just yet another sawngthaew) and waited.... and waited... and waited... and waited! Each time we asked for our departure time we were cheerfully advised in broken English that we would leave in 20 minutes. Do you know how many times we waited 20 minutes?? So after about 2 hours and when all the locals (19 squeezed into something that could only be licensed to carry 10) were ready to leave (stocked up with months of groceries in hessian sacks, sacks of rice, dried meats, medicinal herbs, sticky rice and other assorted necessities) we left Mae Sai - bound for Chiang Khong. We were so tightly jammed into the back of the truck that Si chose instead to stand out the back, hanging on for dear life while Nik mixed it with the elderly women of several villages who were munching on something less than aromatic.

After 3 hours we pulled into another small town on the Mekong River - Chiang Saen - where we were advised that we needed to alight the bus and find another one to take us to Chiang Khong. Whilst it was refreshing for Nik to finally have some fresh air, do you think that the buses all left from the one place? No! So off we set, backpacks loaded up and searched for the "other" bus terminal. Ha! Of course this one was some 5 minutes walk away and had no signage what so ever. After looking like a lost tourist and wondering aimlessly up and down streets, Si was finally approached by some concerned local who kindly pointed to a row of sawngthaews that would take us to our intended destination. Once again we squeezed into a jam-packed sawngthaew (21 people this time) and thought that we'd arrive in only a few hours. Like the previous ride, this one was overloaded with rice sacks, fruit bags, boxes of "who knows what" and a brand new bicycle. In a puff of black, diesel smoke (and with Si once again hanging off the back) we sped out of town; gears grinding all the way.

The journey was quite amazing in its scenery... as if we were riding through the vegetable garden of Thailand; the Mekong River to our left and vegetable gardens all over the countryside mixed with rice paddies, banana groves and scatterings of villages. Some 2 hours later we stopped at Ban Hua (please don't ask us where it is cause we can't find it on any map). Here we were told to get off as the driver kindly pointed to yet another, yes another, sawngthaew and kept saying "Chiang Khong, Chiang Khong". Obviously... well more in hope... we assumed that THIS was to be our bus! And low-and-behold after another 3 hour ride in the back of a sawngthaew were landed in Chiang Khong. The entire journey had taken over 8 hours to complete (never believe everything you read in the Lonely Planet Guides) but here we were on the banks of the Mekong, looking across at Laos.