We spent one night in Chiang Rai and caught a bus to Chiang Khong, a small border town that sits on the Mekong River. After a bit of discussion, we decided to just cross over into Laos immediately, rather than spend one night more in Thailand. We had to hurry – it was 4:30 and the border crossing closes at 6. We hired a tuk-tuk to take us the kilometer north to the dock, filled out our Thailand departure card, and hopped on a longboat to the other side: Huay Xai, Chiang Khong’s Laotian sibling.

An entry visa is $36, which we paid in USD. We had been debating what to do when we arrived in Laos. Our hoped for plan was to embark on The Gibbon Experience. But since we had no reservations, this might be tricky. Email correspondence suggested hopefulness, but nothing was certain.

The Gibbon Experience has three options: express, classic, and waterfall. Express is 2 days and one night, while classic and waterfall are 3 days and 2 nights. Classic involves getting up early to see and hear gibbons, while waterfall involves no gibbons but a beautiful waterfall and pool to swim in.

Our first choice was the waterfall (we didn’t know yet it doesn’t have gibbons). But we were arriving on the night of the 5th and it departs the morning of the 7th. So we decided to just go to the office and find out whether there was space and if so sign up. The Private Eye ventured out and discovered that they had space for the classic on the 6th but waterfall on the 7th was only a maybe. Huay Xai is pretty boring, so we decided that gambling and maybe sticking around to the 8th was a bad plan, so signed up for the classic on the 6th. This made me happy – I am feeling a bit jumpy and in need of activity, so the idea of crossing into Laos and at 8am the next morning embarking on an adventure sounded great.

I won’t try to really explain the Gibbon Experience in words – I’ll upload some photos and hopefully a video as soon as I can.

— The Professor