Crossing the border. There's no bus back... [Northern Thailand, Super Local Trip 2]

Hello! It's Mura-kun!! Well, we've finally reached the border!!
This time, believe it or not!!

I'm also landing in Laos!!
As for the bus back...

There isn't one!

What am I supposed to do now (lol)

Encounters at the Golden Triangle

From there, I hop on a local bus.
The door is left wide open, and there are holes in the seats. Plus, the staff gets off mid-route while driving to deliver packages. Talk about being too efficient (lol)

Arrived at the Golden Triangle!

Finally arrived! The place where the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet.

The Golden Triangle!!

When I offered to take photos for other tourists, a conversation started naturally and I made some friends. "Shall I take a picture for you?" is a handy little trick when traveling.

Are there really borders? Even if you can't see them.

Here, two rivers converge, forming a fork. The colors of the rivers are different.A reddishpart and abrownishpart.Even though they are rivers, the colors are different.

ミャンマーとラオスがすぐ近くに見える。
こっち側も、川の向こう側も景色は変わんない。
ちょっと川を渡ったら、違う国。
ルールも人も違うように思える。
ルールは違うと思う。

どこに行っても、子供は遊んでる。
笑いながらお話してる人もいる。
　
国境ってただの川。国って何だろう。
国籍の違いって何だろう。

国境って何だろう。

A quick landing in Laos.

You can go without a visa if it's to specific areas.
The time limit is 50 minutes. Since I crossed by boat, the driver is waiting for me.

Even there, people are the same; shopkeepers come to sell their goods, and the people cooking food are smiling.
They are just a bit more business-minded than in Thailand.

Thai internet works there too. Thai QR payments are also available. You're kidding, right (lol).
It's basically Thailand already.

They had snake liquor there.

There was habu snake liquor, so I tried a tiny bit.

Doesn't it taste like snake???
I don't actually know what snake tastes like, though...
It just tastes like whiskey.
It's not like it's good or anything.
(Just personal preference, I don't really get the taste of alcohol anyway.)

Apparently there's no bus back.

We came back to Thailand by boat, so now, time to head to the hotel.

There has to be a bus~~!!

Where could it be??????

I asked about seven people.
Most of them didn't know.
Some said they knew and pointed me in a direction, but when I asked around there, they said they didn't know.

Hmm.

Can't even call a motorbike here.

Can't get back????

A haggling battle with the taxi company—I'm not paying 20,000!

I asked a restaurant staff member.
They said there's a taxi.
That seems to be the only option left.
It can't be helped.

The price. 20,000.
That's expensive. I haggled like crazy.
My partner is getting annoyed while haggling. (lol)

We're just going to throw a tantrum now.

18,000.

16,000.

15,000.

14,000.

12,000.

10,000.

Wonderful, we're splitting it between two people, so 5,000 each. Since we're riding for about an hour, isn't that cheap?? It's air-conditioned, and they let us charge our phones. They even let us play our own music.

Plus, he even stopped at Rong Suea Temple (Blue Temple) for us!!
The taxi driver guy is way too kind.

A 460 yen hostel?!!!

Finally arrived at the hostel!!
460 yen per person per nighthostel. One bed for two guys, no air conditioning. But there's a fan. It's enough. It's enough. Well, it's fine, isn't it? It's cheap, after all.

This trip has had all sorts of things happen.

I got to ride a boat (the driver was so skilled I barely got wet), I got to go to Laos, and I had no way to get back...

A chaotic, wonderful trip.

Next time, can I put this on my resume?? Getting an elephant trainer license! And for some reason, a Japanese college student was working there. Why??

Thank you so much for reading this far!!
The journey continues. Actually, I've finally finished writing about just one day of this three-day trip. It was so packed (lol).
Thank you to my partner who looked up so much for us.
I'm bad at researching, so I left it all to them.
It really is a great trip.

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