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Published: December 17th 2008
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(Day 257 on the road)I arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand after a gruesome 20 hour journey from Luang Prabang in Laos. As I only have three days to spend in Thailand before catching a flight to Yangon in Myanmar on December 17th from Bangkok, my stay in this country will unfortunately be rather short. This will be only the second flight I have taken on this trip so far since I started in April, but as Myanmar is not accessible overland for foreigners it was either flying or not going at all. I choose to fly.
Chiang Mai (and Thailand I guess) seems, at first glance, a fair bit apart from much less developed Laos. In Laos, whenever somebody was trying to sell a premium article, they would actually promote it as being "Made in Thailand". Here in Southeast-Asia, Thailand really is the powerhouse of the region.
Chiang Mai is not small (about 1.6 Mio people, about eight times bigger than the biggest city in Laos - Vientiane), but the old city has a certain charm to it. It is also very frequented by western tourists, quite a change from generally more quiet Laos. I was only able to
spend a day and a half in the city, before catching an overnight train to Bangkok, but just wandering the streets and the colourful night market made for a pleasant experience. I also indulged in and stocked up on some food that was not available in Laos and will most likely not be available in Myanmar (good chocolate comes to my mind).
In Bangkok, I also only had one day to spend, and quite a few people I have met on this trip so far were actually in the city at the same time. In the evening, I firstly met up with Nicki, a Thai women I had met in Germany four years ago on a trip across Europe. Later I met up with Irish Teresa I had met in Mongolia in June, and also with Karen and Harriet again. It was a fun evening on Khao San Road, and it was especially great to meet back up with Teresa, who is working in Singapore at the moment.
Well, and the next morning I was off to Myanmar. A lot of controversy exists about visiting this isolated country with its harsh military dictatorship regime. Many organisations and also the British government call for a complete tourist boycott to Myanmar, but after careful consideration I have decided to go nevertheless. There are many pros and cons for a visit, and going into it in length would go beyond the scope of this blog, but all in all I feel that a conscious visit (read: spending money with the locals as much as possible, not with the government) is the right way to proceed. Also, Myanmar is one of the last few mysterious countries in the region, which only sees about 1%!o(MISSING)f the tourists that come to Thailand for instance. So it is quite off the beaten track, and I am very excited to see for myself!
Next stop: Yangon (Southern Myanmar).
To view my photos, have a look at
pictures.beiske.com. And to read the full account of my journey, have a look at the complete
book about my trip at Amazon (and most other online book shops).
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Lutz
non-member comment
Wow
That beart is just awesome!!!