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Published: September 13th 2007
Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport is a glimpse of the future. After four months in India and Nepal it really did feel like we’d stepped off in to a space station. The building itself appears from the docking station, looking out of the plane window, to be a mess of glass and steel twisting around itself in a vaguely caterpillar-like shape, emanating dark blue. Once inside the efficiency took us by surprise as arrival and departure cards were handed to us before we’d left the gate. The building was very large inside, clean and ultra modern but most importantly, air conditioned. Customs was fast moving and easy apart from the necessity to give the address of the place of residence for Bangkok. We had a guesthouse written down which came recommended by Andie and Squeak (friends who have recently been to Thailand) so this wasn’t too much of a problem but some travellers either chose randomly from a laminated list some officials had or simply made up a name e.g. Bangkok Guesthouse. Our luggage was on the carousel when we reached it and an air conditioned bus brought us close to Ko San Road, the backpacker village of Bangkok, for 150 Baht (GBP
2.30). We read from our assortment of Bangkok leaflets that the airport had only opened in September 2006. That explained a lot!
We successfully checked in to the lovely Thara House, on Pra Athit Road near Ko San, but due to lack of booking we had to accept the only room available on the 6th floor, ominously named room 666. After we’d struggled up with our bags and then back down again we wandered along Pra Athit till we hit a lively place that wasn’t playing loud music, Mae Ny. We thought it fitting to have Pad Thai and Green curry at the first opportunity and weren’t disappointed. Both dishes were divine and the meat wasn’t in the slightest bit resembling cartilage, unlike some of the food presented in India. Everyone we met that day was so friendly, smiling and helpful. Welcome to Thailand!
Ash got carried away unfortunately on the second day with her ordering, forgetting her feeble tummy, and ended up bedridden for three days as a result with such unpleasantries which should go without saying. During this period Ade was most useful foraging medicine, food and beverages as well as the new Harry Potter book.
Days 2 & 3 of this spell were spent reading. We didn’t get up to much else in Bangkok although we did really enjoy chilling and soaking up the change of environment.
Chiang Mai was the next chosen destination. We boarded an overnight train in Bangkok and found our beds in the air conditioned carriage with plenty of space and to a suitable degree of cleanliness. Having confirmed this we locked up our bags and headed to the beer and smoking carriage, more commonly known as the restaurant carriage. We holed up there until we were unceremoniously booted out by the staff. Apparently the restaurant doubles up as staff quarters after 11pm. Our bill was presented which seemed ridiculous and was reduced when queried. We found out on our next voyage that we’d still been completely fleeced. We asked the price of beer rather than for a menu and were told 150 Baht a bottle. When we spied the menu second journey round it was only 100 Baht a bottle!
We arrived in Chiang Mai tired and bleary eyed with another guesthouse name written down. A tuk-tuk (known as rickshaws in other countries) dropped us up the road
and we found Julie’s Guesthouse after some degree of wandering in the sun. It was a just as Andie had described it, relaxed and easy to meet other travellers. The pool table and cheap imported wine were a bonus and the self service, keep your own tab, deal they had going on was a novelty for us. We rented scooters the next day and engaged temple spotting sequence (also known as Wats), all of which were impressive and varied but the highlight was Doi Suthep. This is also known as The White Elephant temple deriving its name from a holy elephant that died here. It can be found 20km from Chiang Mai, up a steep winding hill complete with scenic views en route and from the temple itself. The temple architecture is completely different from India; the buildings are rectangular with ornate, colourful roofs and normally consist of several buildings within each complex. One thing we found strange was the little old ladies offering the opportunity (for a charge!) to free little birds from wicker cages on the premise of ‘good luck’. Surely the act of capturing and storing them in cages so small they can’t even spread their wings
would generate the opposite i.e. ‘bad luck’!
On our constant quest to better ourselves (ahem!) we signed up for a cooking class with a company called The Best Thai Cookery School. We booked it through our guesthouse and were collected from there too. First stop was a trip to the local market for a food briefing. This was both interesting and horrific; we’re as interested to learn about how to get different types of juice out of coconuts as the next person but the abundance of cockroaches scuttling about with gay abandon was a little disconcerting. We went on a murdering rampage which was frowned upon by one of our fellow fledgling cooks but in the end the cockroach population was impervious. After a twenty minute ride out of town we arrived in a very smart neighbourhood and were ushered round the back to where our cooking stations were located. These consisted of mini gas hobs and a chopping section underneath which various cooking implements were stored. During the day between us we cooked Pad Thai, Green and Red curry, chicken and cashew nuts, vegetable stir fry and two types of Thai soup. We also watched how to peel
mangoes to make skins flower decorations (pointless in the eyes of many) and tasted mango and sticky rice. Most of the creations were yummy and all were edible to some degree. The head cook and owner of the school was very enthusiastic, cracking jokes throughout the day. He even persuaded Ade to try his hand at ‘adventure’ stir frying - this involved adding water to the hot pan so when the veggies were thrown in huge flames rose up risking eyebrow survival. That evening (Aug 6th) we checked out Chiang Mai which was pretty nice but lacking in people, memorable only as it was the night Ade quit smoking!
We took a tourist minibus to Pai which took about three hours. The trip was up and down winding hills and pretty tough on the stomach as lack of air conditioning took its toll. Pai is a very relaxed hill town up near the Burma border. According to the Lonely Planet it’s part of, or used to be part of, the hippy trail and this is fairly conspicuous; many bars, restaurants and guesthouses are run by westerners, many who are married to Thais. It has a very sleepy atmosphere and
having fun, bar crawling and scooting around the hills are a must while here. We frequented Blue Restaurant, BeBop bar and Bamboo bar as well as the dvd rooms. These are little rooms with tvs, dvd players and sponge floor mats and a large dvd collection. You pay 75 Baht per person per dvd and we took in such classics as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Goal.
Scooters are a big part of visiting Pai. There is quite a lot to see around the town and a few big, cheap rental companies. We rented two scooters with optional trendy helmets included and took the free map with the normal tourist route marked. The day we rented them we didn’t stray far. A few kilometres from the town is a waterfall that’s popular for dipping. Despite the huge, cryptic “Caution! Be Slip Down” sign Ade still managed to slip on the wet rocks making our way over to the falls. The following day we hit the main trail, first stop on our self guided tour was a temple just out of town. The view here was good although the temple wasn’t anything spectacular. Thom’s elephant camp was next
up. We decided on an hour trip down to the river for some bathing which was a bit scary due to bareback riding. Ade gracelessly mounted via the trunk but Ash opted for the more traditional platform route. Attached as part of the package was a soak in the hot spring tubs assembled 100mts from the tethered elephants. This was all good in theory but lack of running water for showers after meant we wore eau de sulphur for the rest of the day! We stopped for lunch at a restaurant down by the river where we sampled local cuisine. We have foolishly forgotten the name of the dish but it consisted of minced beef, rice and a mildly spicy, tomato based sauce. Delicious! We checked out rooms given the great views and food but didn’t think it was worth the move out so declined.
Located less than a kilometre from the restaurant was an old WWII bridge. It is no longer in use but runs parallel to the modern replacement. We ventured on and as Ade was snapping, Ash wandered down to where the wood had fallen through. To her shock and dismay she had stepped over a
bees nest hiding under the planks and was attacked by a swarm. Dodging holes in boards and rotten wood, she ran back to safety making suitably anguished wails. In search of vinegar, we stopped at a roadside restaurant but the language barrier, or lack of vinegar, resulted in the purchase of tiger balm. At this stage the stinging had gone down anyway so we are unable to comment on whether tiger balm is an effective sting relief. Pai Canyon was next on the trail and involved a short walk through some trees to the clearing at the top. We didn’t really know what to expect when we arrived but were pleasantly surprised out how cool it was. The word canyon had conjured up grand scale images of natural design in our minds but this was by no means a large site. A thin, twisted path seems to be raised on a pedestal made out of sand coloured rock and was surrounded above and within by tall, waif-like trees. We were alone here and walked around imagining ourselves teleported to another continent, as it was so different to the lush greenery of the fields all around. A waterfall was the last
stop on our map but after 20 minutes of driving on a pot-holed dirt track we decided to call it a day and headed back in to Pai.
On our last day of motorised transport we ventured the 45km to Lod Cave ignoring the warning from the rental shop that our bikes may break down, and in the event that they did, we would not qualify for free pick up. The journey was epic and the gentle rain was exaggerated by lack of rain jackets and exposure. We didn’t dare go full throttle and made frequent stops in an attempt to spare the engines. Upon arrival we hired a guide with a gas lantern who led us to the hollowed out wooden boats parked in front of the cave entrance. These boats carried 3 or 4 people and were pulled along the river by a man, stopping to let us out at each place. Once inside we visited three main caves, all big and dark with plenty of geological features to ogle. The third was the proud home of one million bats and their faecal matter for the last century as well as ancient coffin ruins. The caves were
really impressive, the first we’d been to without fixed artificial lighting and with river running through the middle. Well worth the trip out.
On our return to Chiang Mai we checked in to a swanky pants hotel avec swimming pool. Wanting a bit of culture, and disregarding the guidebook’s well meant advice about hill tribe villages being staged, we inquired about a day trip to visit some tribes, with particular interest in the Long Neck Tribe. This tribe originates from Burma and the women add brass rings to their necks from the age of 7 to elongate them. There are many traditional reasons why this was done in the past but it’s quite apparent that in Thailand today the main reason is for revenue from tourists but more on that in a minute. When booking we asked for a half day tour with just tribe visits but found ourselves on a full day package including a trip to an orchid farm and a Buddhist cave temple. The first five villages were all conveniently located down one country lane all lined up in a row. The kids were all armed with tiny bracelets and the women had bags and scarves
Thai fruit
scoffed after coking classat the ready. Some villages had stalls set up outside their houses and we spotted a troupe of women at a few places who were being biked around by their husbands or sons. Each village consisted of wooden houses on stilts surrounded by an assortment of farmyard animals, the men were out working the fields and the women were wearing traditional clothes performing traditional activities for our benefit e.g. bag weaving. While traipsing around we spotted the world’s biggest moth (photo attached), which got everyone far more interested than the show going on around us! The Long Neck tribe visit was saved for the last act and was by far the most uncomfortable. These poor girls weren’t even trying to pretend to be going about normal life. We were led to a gauntlet type set up with stall after stall selling the same items. The only way out was to retrace our steps past all the same girls sadly watching people take their pictures and guiltily buying trinkets for twice the price they could elsewhere. Our guide had insisted, en route to the camp, that these women were happy as the men performed the household chores (because they physically can’t!)
and they sat around laughing all day. From our brief glimpse in to their lives (which obviously doesn’t mean much) this looked to be far from the truth. The laughter was coming from the closed doors not out on the stalls. Though the sadness displayed may have been real it could equally have been a sales ploy. Who can say?
The night market is a big tourist attraction in Chiang Mai and we made our way down on the last night to check out what all the fuss was about. There were thousands of stalls lining the streets and in big indoor market complexes. Prices for the exact same goods varied widely depending on the proximity to the main stretch. Further wanderings led to a food court where everything we ate was cheap and delicious and a free cultural dance was performed on the stage on looked by the masses. We never did find the baby squirrel and exotic bird section but we did purchase a new bag unit for Ash. The next morning we flew back to Bangkok to be in time for Emilie’s visit; Air Asia took us there with smiles on their faces and for a
decent price too (beats Ryanair!).
(Please note that not all photos are on this page - need to click next page below in order to view the remainder)
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Sue
non-member comment
Lovin this blog-gives me something cool to do at work. Ripping with jealousy but totally enthralled!