Correct Change Required...

Chiang Rai, Thailand

July 24, 2007
N 19°54.385
E 099°49.830

This morning, as we stood on the eastern shore of the Mekong River peering across at our destination, the rain came down at a steady pace and Thailand was just a few hundred meters away. We boarded a long boat and made the 300 meter trip to the other side of the Mekong. It was that simple. Goodbye Laos, hello Thailand.

After getting a fresh stamp in our passport from the Thailand authority (Marc now with only one square to spare), we jumped in a taxi and headed to the bus station. Upon arriving at the bus station we discovered the bus to Chiang Rai left at 10:00 AM, giving us five minutes to make the bus. No problem, right? Well, nothing is ever that easy.

Since we just crossed the border we didn’t have any Thai Baht. We asked the taxi driver if we could pay him in US dollars, but he politely declined and told us there was an ATM at the bus station. I hit the ATM thinking I grabbed at least $300 USD worth of Baht, only to instantly realize my mistake—I only grabbed $30. Oh well, it should be enough to pay the cab driver and get us on the bus to Chiang Rai.

I ran back to the taxi driver and handed him a 1000 Baht note. “No,” he said, “you go buy something” as he pointed to the 7-11, he couldn’t make change for a 1000 Baht. I ran into the 7-11 with 3 minutes until the bus was scheduled to leave and grabbed a few snacks.

Perfect, I got two 1 Baht coins and ran back to the driver. I handed him the two coins, thinking it was the 20 Baht required for the fare. The driver looked at me incredulously, shaking his head… again, another currency error. “No, no, this isn’t even one Baht.” Oh crap. I fumbled through the bills and found a 20 Baht note, he smiled and gave me my small coins back and we jumped on the bus just as it was about to take off.

We felt foolish for not understanding the currency, but in a matter of thirty minutes we walked out of our guesthouse into the rain, boarded a boat, crossed the border, jumped in a taxi, and were faced with paying for a service in yet another new currency. This is the tenth currency we’ve dealt with in the last six months. Everything was happening so fast we didn’t even have a few minutes to process things; calculate exchange rates or recognize coinage and notes. After we got on the bus we studied the bills to make sure we wouldn’t repeat our mistake.

As we rolled through town we immediately noticed a change from our earlier environment, separated by a river and only 300 meters—Laos and Thailand are like night and day. The rustic town of Huay Xai has one bank (without an ATM), one petrol station, a handful of guesthouses (a few with slow internet connections and dinosaur computers) and maybe a dozen restaurants. However, when we crossed into Thailand we bumped into a 7-11 with an ATM outside, a Toyota dealership, several internet cafes and restaurants and bars everywhere.

Driving through the countryside of Chiang Rai Province we commented that the landscape was very similar to Laos. Except, the farmers in the rice paddies had significantly more technology, including tractors, pick-up trucks, gas powered weed-whackers, and most importantly paved roads to transport their product. There weren’t any oxen pulling plows, people pushing carts, children running around butt-naked, or bamboo thatched huts as commonly seen in Laos.

As we approached Chiang Rai, we realized we were no longer in the quaint country of Laos. We were being thrust back into a country that grasped capitalism years ago. Even though Thailand is known for a coup every 2-5 years, their economy seems to be booming, of course, tourism is one of the top reasons for the growing economy. I guess it is time for us to do our part!