Advertisement
Published: November 16th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Went on a trip today and it was brilliant, much much better than Monday. It was to northern Thailand, including the golden triangle - where Thailand has borders with Laos and Myanmar (Burma). Got collected at about 7.30 for a joint trip i.e. people from other hotels had booked onto it. I was the last one to be collected and all the good seats were gone. Seriously! In a 10 seater van everyone had sat near the front and the only seat left was right at the back in the corner. I had to climb over everyone to get to it. The guide for the trip is called Oak (his nickname - it’s custom in Thailand for everyone to be given a nickname at birth, he did quite well sometimes it’s things like maggot! He was very cute and sweet and we bonded because we are both really interested in crystals. At the first stop he came up to me and admired my chakra necklace and he had a gorgeous bracelet with different crystals on - I ended up wearing his bracelet for most of the day! The first stop we made was at a hot spring, holes in the ground
where boiling water is found naturally and people bring along baskets of eggs to boil! There was also a market, and so the usual chorus as you walked around “lookee madam, madam lookee…” I wish I had looke-d! I later found out that the older woman from shanghai (she was here with her daughter and son (he was really nice - almost caught me when I almost fell, more about that later!) had bought an 18 carat and REAL sapphire bracelet for about £45!!!!!! I knew that they mined I knew that they mined for sapphires and rubies here, but I didn’t realise that you could buy them in some out of the middle of nowhere downbeat market!! This is the first of a few times today that I want to do this trip again. When we gat back to the bus/van we wait about 10 minutes for the Chinese people to come back (late). It turns out to be a regular thing, mainly due to the daughter who shops, shops, shops. Every time we stop somewhere she comes back with bags. Whilst we were here I was going to go to the toilet. Sorry to include this in my
Messai
5 Baht for a picture diary but I think you should know what I have had to put up with! I went up to where they were and a few things bothered me. Firstly when I asked someone if they were western toilets she said no…so that means a hole in the ground with a bucket to swish around. Secondly you had to pay 5 Baht!!! That’s about 7 ½ pence! To try and do the toilet shuffle i.e. pull trousers & pants down, pull trouser legs up so they don’t get in the..erm..wet on the floor (I keep trying to convince myself that it’s water not….you know…), hold bag (out of the wet, there are never hooks), hold tissues AND go to the toilet at the same time! Then you have to sort yourself out in reverse! Ok now you try that, but remember whilst you’re doing that in your nice carpeted bathroom that I’m in a communal tiled area. Thirdly you had to take your shoes off. Would you want to knowing the above? So I decided that as I wasn’t desperate I would wait. I wish I’d gone!!!!
The next stop was at a temple, which would have been really interesting…if I
hadn’t been so desperate for a pee! So I endured Oaks talk and walked around the temple as quick as I decently could (there were monks as well, normally I would have taken ages) then I found the toilet. Oh. My. God! I wish I'd used the others. This was still a hole in the ground….I think I tool a photograph for your enjoyment! So another reason why id like to come on this trip! No photographs of this particular Lanna (northern Thailand style) temple!From here we went onto Messai, which is on the border with Laos. Here we could go on a boat trip to see the border with Laos. I chose not to go on it when I looked at the map of where it went as it didn’t look all that interesting. Reason number 3 to do this trip again! They stopped in Laos!!!!! That means I could have another country that I’d visited. I just thought…oh boat trip, I’ve been on a few of those. Still had a fab time while some of them went though. There were some girls aged about 10 dressed in traditional Mongolian costume…erm we’re in Thailand??? They looked very cute though.
The funniest thing was that they ran after you with outstretched hands saying “5 Baht for a picture” or “10 Baht for a picture” depending on which one was after you! I think I got a bargain for 5 Baht, then they realised they could ask for more. They were so funny as well when I showed them their picture, pointing each other out. Then they all wanted to look through the viewfinder and pull faces at each other. A bonus of not going on the boat trip was that we went to lunch early (the Chinese family chose to shop (surprise) and an Australian couple didn’t go either. I keep trying to talk to Australian and New Zealand people in the hope that I’ll befriend someone who will invite me to stay with them! Lunch was the usual buffet inc. fried chicken legs. At Messai we also went to a jade factory where they explained about the different qualities, the mining etc. and we got to shop. I bought a nice bracelet to bring me long life, happiness and prosperity and a little pig - my Chinese year. In the afternoon we went to the border with Myanmar (formerly Burma and still called that mostly over here). This was completely different to the Laos border. The Laos border, apparently just like the country, was quiet with no fuss. The Myanmar border was chaotic! Manic! Tons of people, lots of stalls (lookee madam) and lots of very people begging. I spent my whole time scouring the stalls for a bracelet like Oaks and giving small change to beggars. I did ask oak if I could go across the border into Myanmar, just to say that I'd been there, but he wouldn’t let me. This is where I nearly fell as well, I was so busy trying to look at the stalls as I walked past that I tripped over a paving stone and almost scared the life out of the shanghai boy!
After this we drove back to chiang mai, but stopped on the way to take a photograph of Thailand’s largest lady…a group of hills that look like a woman lying down. Didn't get back till 10pm!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.11s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 16; qc: 78; dbt: 0.0795s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb