Another day, another adventure.
After spending a relaxing few days in Chiang Mai and being super productive with work, it was time to meet up with the group again for another trek further north. I jumped on a bus (no breakdown, like last time) and headed to Chiang Rai, where our driver picked me up in the minivan and proceeded to take me up to Chiang Khong, along the border of Thailand / Laos. There, I was to meet up with everyone and then head over to the river at The Golden Triangle, where Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet. The goal was to head over to the Win & Win Casino (part of the Golden Triangle Paradise Resort & Casino, prior to a partnership dispute) and spend a couple of nights checking it out.

From what I understand and could glean from a bit of research, there are several casinos in the area (more than 30 - like Southeast Asia’s own version of Vegas), and Thai people travel across the Ruak or Mekong River to submit to their gambling vices, as it’s not allowed back home.

The day went fairly smoothly. I only had problems topping up my cell phone minutes, after attempting to do so at three different places, and a final call to the company call centre still didn’t get any results. I’ve never had these problems before, but apparently it’s a new type of sim card and can’t be refilled any other way except…well, I don’t know yet. After paying for the minutes and having to leave on the bus, the confirmation text never arrived and I was still unable to make any calls. I just had to hope that the bus make it to Chiang Rai on time, my driver would be there waiting, and nothing went wrong along the way.
Alas, he was there right at the door when I arrived, and the bus was on time to the minute! He grabbed my bags and shuffled me to the car, and I thought we were going site seeing for a bit, as that’s when confirming plans with my mother before leaving Chiang Mai.
Well, it turns out that wasn’t the case, and we still had another 2 hour drive to go. I hadn’t gone to the bathroom at the station. About an hour into the drive, I asked in my broken Thai how much longer we had to go and found out that it was another ‘half an hour’. At this point, I couldn’t wait anymore, and I also knew that it might be up to an hour to reach our destination. So, after another 20 minutes of agony (it’d been 4.5 hours since my last bathroom break, and those who know me well will understand), I talked to the driver again, and asked him to stop on the side of the road. Except my weak vocabulary only allowed me to say, “Please, I have to go to the bathroom - really, really (or maybe hurry, hurry). Here, here,” as I then pointed frantically out the window to the rice paddies and hilly roadsides that we kept passing. He didn’t quite get it and while I kept repeating myself, I noticed I didn’t have cell phone service, and started looking around for a bottle to relieve myself in. Yes - I was that desperate at this point.
After waving my arms around wildly, he found the next small village and we pulled over. It was amazing - a fully clean bathroom, with not just soap and toilet paper, but even paper towels to dry my hands! This was too good to be true in a place like this! I have no idea what building we stopped at or why there was this freestanding large bathroom on the side of the road. I guess I’ll never know.
Once that was out of the way, I relaxed for the remainder of the pain-free drive, and grabbed a quick bite in Chiang Khong while waiting for the rest of the group to come through the border from Laos. Less than 20 minutes later, I saw them all walking by, and we then drove another half an hour toward Maesai, where we pulled over on the side of the road and filed into the Win & Win boat to escort us across the river.

We were off to the other side, and it took all of a single minute. There, staff grabbed our bags, put us into another vehicle, and drove us to the front door of the casino (and through the immigration ‘checkpoint’), with a stunning view of The Golden Triangle at dusk. It was nearly 6 pm at this point. A full day of driving, and we finally made it.

And tomorrow? We’re apparently going back to Thailand (I think?) for some site seeing before coming back for the night at the resort. All I know is I have to show up at 8 am. Who knows what’ll happen next…