Thailand - Laos crossing

On Sunday 4th was the start of my overland crossing from Thailand into Laos 🇱🇦
I got picked up at around 8.15am, where a minibus took us from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai where we stopped for lunch/to look at the white temple. As we only had 40 minutes I opted for my lunch and then just a quick look outside the temple!!
We then left Chiang Rai and went to the Thai - Laos border crossing (Friendship bridge).
The process was smooth - we had to fill out a visa form, attach a photo of ourselves and pay $40. I met two really nice Irish people during this process :)
Once across the border (by foot), I then got into a very very crowded tuk tuk 🛺 which brought me to a bus station.
I met my friend Emily (thank god), as the bus had very small double beds.. which we had to share! After the tourists got on, they then proceeded to pile a lot of locals on who had to sit in the aisles!! We also got handed plastic bags before getting on the bus (which confused us), but we then realised they were for our shoes!!
We left around 6.30 pm - with many many stops along the way (searches by police along the way as well as stops to let locals off), we arrived in Luang Prabang Laos at around 6am on Monday 5th February.Read more