Blogs from Mae Salong, North-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia

Goed uitgerust sprongen we opnieuw de Songtaeow op (de gekleurde open jeep – die ze hier taxi noemen) naar het busstation. Daar namen we een lokale bus, een heel gek ding met tal van kleurtjes en luide toeters. Na een uur verkrampt te zitten kwamen we toe in een klein dorpje waar we tenmidden op de snelweg 'afgezet' werden. Langsdaar is het zei de vrouw en daar moesten we het mee doen. We zagen alleen een klein restaurant en vroegen of ze ons konden helpen. Niet hier, het is hierachter. Gelukkig moesten we niet te ver zeulen met de bagage want de taxichauffeurs sprongen recht om ons te helpen. We vertrekken euh...als de taxi vol zit zei hij. Ok, we waren nog maar met 3!! Er kunnen wel 8 of 10 mensen in die taxi! Een ... read more

Day 11 Today I decided to spend a few moments on reflection. Such as did I make the right choice to come on an Intrepid? How does one translate the experiences I am having into a meaningful context for readers? I certainly feel that I am actually a real tourist who has had the opportunities presented by the Intrepid people that one would never have had an opportunity to experience otherwise. The places we have visited would have been fairly well vetted to make them a meaningful experience and they are not in a city or town but in the out of the way places. Maybe a veteran traveller would be able to find these places but I am really happy that I made the choice to travel so that I got to experience these places ... read more

It is perhaps one of those places that life in modern society convinces you can no longer exist. A small sleepy town, quiet, mysterious, with jaw-dropping beauty. You can at once feel as though you have captured it's spirit, while likely never even cracking the surface. I will admit that as we sat in a small town, the name of which escapes me, surrounded by what seemed to be the least hospitable group of Thai's we had yet to come across, under a literally smoke-grey sky, I was wondering why in the world we were headed to Mae Salong. What could possibly sit a top those grey mountains that warranted the long journey to Chiang Rai, the taxi to a secong bus station in Chiang Rai, and the overcrowded bus - luggage in lap - to ... read more

Aah the little pleasures of life ... in this far away village i have found the best bananabread i've ever tasted in mi life ... so have of course become a regular customer at the this heavenly local bakery (after losing 20 kilos i decided i can spoil myself a little bit). Here i met an advanced bycicle tourguide from england who was in search of some new routes ... i had seen him struggling up the mountain the day before and told him i was very much impressed, however that he was crazy ... a laughter accompanied by nodding of his head 'i've biked all over the world, the Andes, the Himalayas however this is the first place i have ever needed to dismount my bike and push it ... well i did at dirt ... read more

HE SAID... We woke at 6am to prepare for the days ahead. We checked out of the hotel and left at 7.45am for the Chiang Dao Elephant Training Centre. We arrived around 8.30am, fed bananas to the elephants, watched a show and then went for a ride. While the show was difficult to watch (elephants pulling logs and painting pictures is not really my idea of entertainment), the ride was great. The elephant Ren and I clambered onto was hungry, so she decided to go bush a number of times to eat. She also took her own path during the river walk, making a beeline for the riverbank where she could clamber up and munch on the undergrowth. As we made our way back to the minibus we were presented with a framed photo of the ... read more