Woke up 8.30am and left Luang Namtha at 9.40am without breakfast, Today's ride will be about 180km.
Along the way, I couldn't find a decent place to have my breakfast. In the end, I stopped at an abandoned shack by the roadside to have a can of tuna. Seems like very pitiful but I enjoyed it.
The first 110km of the journey was good but the rest of it was quite bad due to poor road conditions.
After 4 hours of riding, I reached Huey Xia at 1.40pm. Stopped at a local riverside restaurant beside the ferry point to Thailand. Basil pork rice and pineapple shake for lunch. Cost: 24,000kips (US$3)
Crossing from Laos to Thailand feel like an extremely troublesome and costly affair to me.
1) had to charter a boat to ferry my bike and myself over coz I don't feel like waiting. I really feel that I got fleeced. Cost: 500B
2) had to pay to import my bike into Thailand. Cost: 200B for letter of conveyance. (1st time I had to pay)
The entire process is very tedious and took a total of 2 hours. At 3.40pm, with my documentation settled, I still don't know where's my destination for today.
I'm feeling very grumpy due to the troublesome processing and the freaking hot weather. Why does crossing one river make such a big difference?!
1) Chiang Kong - looks too boring to me so I moved on.
2) Chiang Sean - looks alright but I thought I'll have a look at the golden triangle 1st.
3) Golden Triangle - Only 1/3 of the stores there is opened. The rest looks abandoned. I really wonder why? I snapped a few photos and moved on.
4) Mae Sai - By the time I reached Mae Sai, It was already 6pm and I was feeling extremely tired. Many hotels in town but I can't find one the I like.
I looked all around town and found 'the northern most point of thailand'. Is this luck or what?
I ended up staying in the most expensive hotel in town to pamper myself. Piyaporn hotel for 800B. Shit!! This is the consequence of being too picky.
My consolation is that the room is nice, there's wifi and buffet breakfast.
By 8pm, after settling my laundry and taking my bath, I went out to the large night market to take a walk and have my dinner.
The night market sells mostly clothing and hawker cooked food which is good coz I'm very hungry. Dinner was garlic chicken and pork omelette. Cost: 110B.
I'm grossly over budget today without spending on entertainment. WTF?!
Tried calling my contact for crossing over to Tachilek, Burma but the number is busy. Sad case! Please don't tell me this this the end of my burma dream...
Expenses:
Hotel - 800B
Petrol - US$11.25
F&B - US$4 + 110B
Entry to Thailand - 700B
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