First view of the Mekong
30 Jan 2014 | Chiang Saen, Thailand
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Time is for me to come back to my dear loneliness, which sounds like freedom to my ears, only me to care about, no need to discuss any (absence of) plan, alone on the road! Serena takes the train to make her way South to Malaysia from where she will fly to Turkey, I'll make my way North, flying only within my head ;)
From Chiang Mai I hitchhike to Chiang Rai accross the beautiful mountains. It's quite a big industrial and commercial city where transit goods coming from and going to China through Lao, nothing much of interest for me.
Hitchhiking out of the city, a young student girl stops with her scooter, telling me she is going to her university a few kilometers away, being late for her lecture. A few km is better than nothing, I go with her. She doesn't stop and drives straight to the next city, 30km away. When we get there, I assure her I'm alright and will find my way, so she leaves and I start walking a bit to the next road. Fifteen minutes later she's back, too late for her lecture anyway so she insists on taking me all the way to Chiang Saen and to give me a tour there. Off we go, 30 more kilometers and she takes me to some ruins and temples and to the Golden Triangle wich I had never intended to visit. The Golden Triangle is where the Ruak and the Mekong river meet, and the border point between Thailand, Myanmar and Lao, it got its name because of the opium traffic that used to transit there. Nowadays it's only built up fof tourism purposes.
Back to Chiang Saen, it's getting late so she makes her way back while I try to inquire about boats going directly to China up the Mekong, but no luck there, the only boat is in eight days time and costs something like 100€...