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Published: September 21st 2013
Back to Thailand :-)
We were so glad to get off the bus in Bangkok and headed straight to Khao San Road to meet Scott (Katharine’s boyfriend) and find somewhere to stay. Scott had checked into a hotel on the main road so we went there to try to check in. We were met by an incredibly rude woman who tried to tell us Scott hadn’t stayed there unless he was ‘that English man who walked in off the street with a Thai girlfriend’ and that ‘we could stay there if we wanted but it was very noisy’. We were then told off for spending too long looking at the room before showing her our passports to check in properly, and we ended up in absolute hysterics at her attitude and decided to stay there despite the abuse she kept giving us! Scott arrived just after us and we had a laugh about the fact that he had a ‘Thai girlfriend’ the night before, then we went for a beer to get over the last few hours of stress! We followed this with a foot massage, some shopping, a lovely dinner, cocktails in a great rooftop bar that Katharine and
I had found in February and loved because of the live music, and then bed!
On Sunday, Katharine, Scott and I got up fairly early to head to see the Grand Palace. Basically, Katharine and I were ashamed of ourselves for having been to Bangkok twice already each, and not having ever been to the Grand Palace. This is why we had headed back into Thailand a day earlier than originally ‘planned’, and why we ended up flying to Chiang Mai later in the day, instead of getting the bus, in order to save time. I think it was worth it!
We had a lovely 7eleven breakfast (cheese and ham toastie of course) and started walking over to the Palace. We met many people on the way telling us it was closed. We ignored them, and carried on, as I predicted this was just their plan to try to get us into their tuk tuk to go elsewhere! I was right, it was open! It was really hot (made worse by the fact I was wearing my pyjamas as they were the only things I had that were ‘covered up’ enough and clean) and incredibly busy, but I’m
glad I went to see it. We took some photos of ‘the gold’ and I found all of the really ugly statues to snap a picture of as well! We then walked around to see the massive horizontal Buddha, just around the corner. This was particularly spectacular – I really liked the feet and the fact that it was absolutely huge! I can’t believe I hadn’t seen it before when I stayed in Bangkok as it was right up my street.
We then went back to Khao San Road to meet Rachel and had lunch and another foot massage (we just couldn’t get enough!) Scott had ridiculously ticklish feet for some reason and had us all in fits with his twitching legs! After that treat we got in a taxi to the airport for our flight to Chiang Mai. We had booked with ‘Nok Air’, which sounded completely dodgy, and Scott then informed us that ‘Nok’ means ‘Not OK’. However, it turned out to be a great flight! We got the seats with extra legroom and they gave us some sort of sausage pastry type snack, even though the journey was only about an hour. They certainly earned my
approval and I will be using them next time I find myself in Thailand.
So we found somewhere to stay in Chiang Mai and headed out to the night bazaar. We got absolutely drenched when a storm hit just as we arrived at the market, even though we were only actually in the rain for about 10 seconds! We decided to get dinner whilst it passed – delicious fried rice (I can’t get enough of it in Thailand) and a beer. The storm only lasted about 15 minutes and we were soon back to shopping. We were all a bit tired though so we didn’t buy too much – plus I knew I was coming back at the end of the week anyway! So we headed back for an early-ish night (standard) ready for an early-ish start in the morning (also standard!)
So on Monday Rachel and I said farewell to Katharine and Scott for a couple of days and headed to the bus stop ready to head up North! We bought our tickets then headed to 7eleven for yet another cheese and ham toastie breakfast in preparation for the journey! The bus was more hideous than I
had let myself remember. It was ridiculously cramped (not made for the Western body) with nowhere to store your bags so mine was basically hanging precariously out of the back door, and Rachel’s was squeezed into a tiny overhead space and kept blocking the fan! Anyway, 5 hours later (after a stop in the pouring rain to use a really dodgy looking toilet) we made it to Mae Sariang and promptly broke down. The driver drove the bus around the bus station a few times, trying to get it to go, but to no avail. We got everything off it and decided to get some dinner as I predicted everywhere would be closed by the time we made it to Khun Yuam. I had thai omelette and rice, which is always great. I also rang the place we wanted to stay to check there would be somebody about to let us in when we arrived – Khun Yuam is usually like a ghost town after dark. The new bus actually arrived quite promptly and we made it to Khun Yuam 8 and a half hours after leaving Chiang Mai. We went to ‘Ban farang’, which basically means ‘home of the
white person’ and got our room. Hilariously, there were 3 beds, 2 of which were hard as rock and one that was soft. Rachel had the soft one and I had one of the ridiculously hard ones! We then realized how filthy we were from the bus (my arm was black with dirt as I had it hanging out the window on the way up) so had a quick shower and headed to sleep.
On Tuesday we were up at 7am and had an American breakfast at ‘Ban farang’. We then went to buy some chocolatey treats in 7eleven and some fruit for the children before we met Nootsabar (who works for KHT – the charity I was in Thailand with last time) to go to Huay Ku Pa (the village I lived in and where Nootsabar’s family live). Nootsabar’s friend offered to take us in his pick up truck so we piled in and set off. On the way we stopped at the police check point, where our driver had a couple of shots of whisky (it was about 11am), given to him by the policeman. We were offered whisky as well, but opted for the water and
biscuits instead. Of course, I was used to this kind of behavior from living there previously, but Rachel was a little bit shocked! We then carried onto the village. We managed to go in with the pick-up as they had built a new bridge into the village. I pointed out the ‘swing bridge’ that used to be the only way in and I’m not sure Rachel believed that I used to cross it on a motorcycle. I saw my old house, which was my home for 2 months, and then we went to visit the school and chat with the volunteer who is working there at the minute. There is a new headteacher but I saw some of the teachers I used to work with, which was really cool. Sadly I couldn’t see my ‘Mum’ as she was working in Chiang Mai. Her and her husband are building a new house and so she is sending money back to the village to help pay for it. I saw my ‘grandma’ though and it was just really nice to be back in the village.
We then headed back to Khun Yuam and we met up with another 2 volunteers who
are working at the school there. They were really nice and seemed to be really enjoying it. Rachel and I then headed off for dinner. On the way we stopped at a ‘street meat’ stall because it looked so delicious and each had meat on a stick for a starter! We then found a restaurant I had been to before and had fried rice. It was the BEST friend rice I think I’ve ever had. I know it’s hard to believe that fried rice can be that great, but honestly, it can! I event took a photo, it was so great (I am not normally a food photographer!) To finish it off and make it a 3 course meal, I grabbed an ice cream in 7eleven before we headed back to the room for another early night!
We had to leave Khun Yuam early on Wednesday morning to make it to Pai for a reasonable amount of time. So we grabbed breakfast at 7eleven (you know what I had) and then got a bus to Mae Hong Son and a very cramped minibus to Pai. It was raining when we got there so we had a smoothie in a
restaurant then went to check in at a cute little place with bungalow huts. We met Katharine and Scott and grabbed lunch – I had my first thai green curry of the holiday, then chilled for the rest of the day. I basically sat in a café, ordering drinks and reading my book for about 4 hours! To make the day productive I did head to the pharmacy and buy all the drugs I needed to avoid ever having to visit the doctors in SK :-) We all had dinner together in the evening, although Rachel’s meal never came as the waitress cancelled her order without telling her, and had a pancake from a stall and a cocktail before saying goodbye to Katharine and Scott again (for real this time as they were heading off at 5am) and hitting the hay.
Thursday was another travelling day. We had tea and pancakes for breakfast then got on the local bus (one hour later than it was scheduled – obvs!), which was ridiculously full of people and arrived back in Chiang Mai at 6pm. Many of the guesthouses were full but we eventually found one, which was gross, dumped our stuff
and headed to the night bazaar. I got all of the bits and bobs I said I would get for KHT for their online shop and stalls that they do, and then we had a fabulous dinner of noodle soup and spring rolls. We followed this up with a beer, a foot massage and another beer, to help us cope with the fact that we were sleeping in a really disgusting room!
The room was made all the more gross in the morning when there was no hot water after my shower, so Rachel had to wait for it to come back on before she could wash! We also had a cat that made residence in the room for the morning – that would not have happened if Katharine was with us – she isn’t a cat fan! Although it started off badly we then had a lovely last day with a great breakfast (including a watermelon shake, which I have now become addicted to), a trip to Doi Suthep temple, and a foot massage. The temple was just as I’d remembered it when I’d visited it on my last day in Chiang Mai 5 years earlier – I
probably blogged about it in detail then. A tuk tuk then took me to the airport where I got my Bangkok Airways flight to Bangkok. This was also a great flight – again I got extra legroom and a great snack! I was told that because I was in the emergency seat, if we crashed I had to undo the door and usher everybody out, or block the exit if it was dangerous and tell everybody to find another way out. What responsibility! Anyway, there was no need for me to do either of those things and I landed safely in Bangkok, grabbed myself a burger king with my remaining Thai baht and waited for my plane back to Seoul.
And that was the end of that part of my holiday! But I didn’t really mind because after a day in Seoul (doing washing, shopping, grabbing a quick massage and having 2 hours sleep) I was back on a plane to England where I had a lovely time seeing everybody I miss!
What a fantastic summer! :-)
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