Chiang Mai

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Geo: 18.8, 98.98

Firstly a post Myanmar reflection… It is unfortunate that Overlanders are forced to travel through the country in a tour group. Our trip was for 12 days and all but 3 days were spent racing down the road to the next Hotel.

Oh you poor soul I hear you all say, well I suppose being able to take a shower at night and the morning was definitely a good thing considering the normal gap of 3 to 7 days since Tajikistan.

However it was somewhat sad to rush by fantastic riverside camp spots which would have been perfect.

The 2 Australian motorcyclists we travelled with were fantastic, Luke and Dan. They had been travelling together for 7 months and were good fun.

So back to Myanmar, relatively quiet roads reasonable tarmac allowed us to hit some very fast speeds indeed…. Yep we cracked the 100km/hr barrier and it freaked me out… The Burmese are somewhat more passive than the Indians however they still seem to suffer from the side road entry style that nearly sees them plough head long into your vehicle…. So hence the trepidation when travelling at speed. Lisa called them suicide bombers.

Bagan was the main highlight, I cannot convey just how in awe we all were when we drove through the valley and the Buddhist Stupas were popping out amongst the trees… freaken fantastic…. It was also a shame to not be able to camp out there, that would have been magical….. To watch the sun set whilst sitting atop an ancient monument was breath takingly beautiful…. Well apart from the fact we had climbed on top of an ancient monument… silly us.

On the 3 days off we did tourist things which included:

Laquer workshop

Gold leaf workshop

Bronze statue workshop

Stone carving workshop (only saw this through the window)

Weaving workshop

Tobacco cigar workshop (with free samples)

Wooden boat workshop

Freaken hell man the normal tourist stuff is tiring and re-affirms why Overlanders are not normal tourists.. As we travel though the range of countries we have we sometime get numb to stuff because we see so much stuff. So being a normal tourist was intriguing for a change although we had become one of those hordes of tourists who pull up in a cloud of dust in the mini-van hop out walk around with cameras in hand… clickclick… then being prattled to by our guide who was obsessed with ancient time lines… Luke played this game well, just when Thei was winding up on a speech Luke would ask something like… so was that in the 7th or 11th century…. Apart from being very funny (you really had to be there) Thei would spring into another speech about this and that and …… Luke ya dag, you are so bad.

Another funny thing with our guide was his English pronunciation was rather like Forrest Gump. Thei was and is a fantastic chap and very caring and passionate about Burma…. But this Forest Gump thing got out of control, Luke you really are wicked… We would plan on how to get Thei to say stuff like; Lieutenant Dan you got new legs, Jenny, sticky, etc…. so if you know Forest Gump then you may see the funny side.

Last days trip was 150kms to the border, Dan got a flat tyre 100kms short and it was hot. Got a dam nail in that then proceeded to put 1 million holes in the tube…… so after having one go at repair the wheel was taken back down the road for repair… hence at the border a little late. Again we stood around whilst Thei did the paper work thing and then off into Thailand we went…. And it was like entering planet zardos…. Everything was orderly clean and it had shops, real shops with ice cream and Snicker Bars…. Hummm.

Camped the night at an empty roadside stop which even had toilets, awoke to the park being full of cars and trucks… Headed up to Chiang Mai and into the hills where we found a nice campsite at a place called Dui Suthep which had a great view out over Chiang Mai at night time.

We have been travelling for so long now that energy levels are at an all-time low and we pretty much looked at one another and decided to turn tail and head for home. One thing we did not put too much effort into was the shipping home of our vehicle, so we decided to head back down to Bangkok to arrange shipping.

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Photos

Offering Day
Unsure what they were for but told we had to hold them

Riverside Camp
Our last official camp in the wild next to a river where we washed and splashed

Comments

[David Collett]

I hear they cure wandering spirits. Just saying.

[JS]

Nice parking Lisa....

[Juliet]

Both the 'queens' are looking good! Will Paracombe be seeing you soon? Xx

[roamingabout]

Shall I tell the caterer we will have 2 vegetarians along to the brigade Christmas party on the 18th?

[Christian]

Hi mate. Didn't manage to say goodbye before we left villa videci in kampot so I had a little search for you now that I have some WiFi again. Hope you are good and make it out North on Sunday. Don't become a weird old stoner eh? And thanks
for trusting us in sharing the story and the overall good time. Let's connect if you are up to it old man

[harryabroad]

haha Christian. thanks for your kind words. i definitely will not become an old stoner, they look smelly and boorish... unsure about the old man comment.... 21 is not that old...