This transcript is from a Nate Buchanan YouTube video documenting a travel segment from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong, Thailand, as a lead-in to a planned border crossing into Laos. The speakers (Nate and Kara) describe missing an earlier 10:15 bus and taking an 11:30 second-class bus (no onboard toilet, has AC), getting a Thai massage while waiting, a roughly three-hour bus ride to Chiang Rai followed by a ~2-hour local bus to Chiang Kong (a Thai border town), checking into an upgraded waterside hotel, and preparing to board a luxury two-day Mekong River cruise (hosted by Luang Sea/Luang State Cruises) the next morning at 9:00 to reach Luang Prabang.
Questions this video answers
The 10:15 bus.
A second-class bus that leaves at 11:30.
No (no onboard toilet); it does have air conditioning.
Supposed to be three hours (often longer in practice).
About two hours.
Chapters
Here's your very freshly roasted coffee.
Thank you. This coffee is being roasted right here.
No wonder it's so good.
Sa.
We are in pack mule mode and we are heading to the bus station to go to Chiang Rai. But we're running late so I'll explain later.
We like to cut it close on travel days.
Wasn't even a lounge this time. I know. But there was a good coffee shop. We made much better time to the bus station than expected. However, we had to get one tickets. So now we're in a queuing system at about 2:60 and we have about 20 minutes to tell our bus stops.
To Chiang rai. When is 10:15 possible?
No.
What bus? What class?
Second class.
So how much?
No toilet. Yes. Yes toilet. No toilet. Okay.
You don't leave till 11:30 on the second class bus.
No bathroom, but it does have air conditioning.
And now we wait. We didn't technically miss the 10:15 bus, but it was sold out. So now we have to wait till 11:30.
We had to take the second class bus since we missed the first one at 10:15. We saved a little bit of money. So Kara's gonna use it to get a mass.
I'm getting a Thai massage and I get this cute little outfit.
So excited.
I deserve this. And I'm about to ride on a bus and a boat for two days.
Right. Since we have a little bit of time now and Kara's getting a massage, I thought I would take a second to explain why we're going to Chiang Rai.
So we're currently waiting at a bus station here in Chiang Mai.
In about 30 minutes we're gonna get on a bus that is supposed to be three hours long. It's almost always longer here to Chiang Rai. From there we're going to connect to a local bus and go to this little bitty city in the north of Thailand called Chiang Kong. It's the border city between Thailand and Laos. And this is where we're going to be staying tonight because tomorrow morning we are crossing the border over into this city because we have some extra special travel planned. We gotta go.
I am so glad we missed the first flash. That was the best massage I've ever had. Any knots I did have on my back have been completely destroyed. She was crazy.
As soon as I turned on my back, she was just like.
Just like going nuts on my buckle back. It was so great. Then I sat up and she like grabbed my arms behind my back and like put her knees in my middle back and then laid down. So I was like doing A back bend on her knees and she started like, wiggling her knees.
It was wonderful. Whoa, baby. We are leaving a minute ahead of schedule.
Random roadside stop number one.
There'S chance halfway through the ride. Quick bathroom break. He's sleepy. One this time.
It's nice.
Back on the road and back to sleep. Random roadside stop number two, the switch rolls.
Stop number three.
A short.
Somebody got off this town.
We made it.
Hey, we're here.
Also alarm. We're going somewhere else.
Sorry I woke you up.
You said you were just going to sleep for a minute. It appears to be the consensus of the rest of the bus that this is the stop that we should get off on. We may have timed this perfectly. There's a local bus leaving in 10 minutes. We're just hoping it's not cool.
Do we pay you or.
Toast?
Two hours.
But we got the last two seats on the bus.
Apparently we are not the last ones that can fit on this bus. I should know better after spending two months in Asia. So comfy.
He didn't make it.
We can fit one more.
Come on. I'm praying this door stays open the whole drive. It is smoking hot in here.
The roads turn to gravel. Once again, the consensus is that we have arrived.
All right.
We said we wouldn't do this again. Get on a tuk tuk.
The city is much smaller than Bangkok. It was either a 20 minute walk or like a $75 to ride. Normally I'm all about saving money. But not this time. We went fancy tonight. Hotel on the water. So.
You have a Mickey, right?
Yes, thank you.
Yeah, you can, I mean, leave your things here and have some tea. Coffee first. And banana.
Oh, thank you so much.
Ah.
Oh. I forgot to tell you one thing. We upgrade you to the standard room.
All right. Thank you.
Yeah, no problem. She was adorable. And we got an upgrade. Why did we get an upgrade? Did you ask?
No.
This is awesome.
Check out this view.
It's so nice.
So nice.
Gonna wait a couple days to go to Laos.
Yeah. For real? Seriously. This might as well be the Ritz for us. This little area over here by the door, like that area, that's how big our room was that we've been in for the last eight days now.
The whole room. And the best part.
Focus. It's too cold. It can't even focus.
We've also been eight days without that.
To the best of my drawing ability, Thailand looks something like this. During the last eight days, we've been hanging out in a city in the north of Thailand called Chiang Mai. Today we took a three hour bus ride up to Chiang Rai. Once we arrived in Chiang Rai, we took a two hour local bus ride to a city called Chiang Kong. It's a border city that sits on the border of Thailand and Laos. Laos looks something like this. Dang it. I forgot to draw Chiang Kong. Chiang Kong is like somewhere right here.
We're only staying here in Chiang Kong one night because tomorrow morning we're crossing the border into Laos. When I had originally looked at crossing the border from Northern Thailand in Talao, I was really excited about this two day slow boat ride down the river. But the more research I did, the more bad things I read. Basically everybody just talked about how miserable the two day boat ride was. I read that taking the slowboat goes something like this. Tomorrow morning there'll be a mad rush over the border. Overland border crossings are always a little interesting. If you're taking a normal slow boat after crossing the border, you have to rush down to the river and try to find a boat that will take you to the city of Long Prabang, assuming that's where you want to go. From what we heard, they try to jam as many people onto these boats as possible. Sometimes you might not even get a seat for the two day journey but. Or you might end up sitting on a bucket beside chickens that somebody is transporting. The more research we did, the more I realized that this probably wasn't a trip that we wanted to take. So up until a week ago, the plan was to fly back to Bangkok. That's a really bad airplane. However, a few days ago, Luang Se Cruises offered to host us on a two day luxury cruise down the Mekong River. Needless to say, we jumped at the opportunity and could not be more excited.
So Tomorrow morning at 9am we'll be boarding our luxury riverboat somewhere in this area. Then it'll be a two day journey to Luang Prabang somewhere in this area. And then there's a river that goes something like this.
So tomorrow morning we're boarding a boat that looks something like this. Thanks. Luang State Cruises. We can't wait.
How cute is this little coffee farmer?
He's so cute.
The whole vaccine to ourselves. We got the whole back.
