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Published: October 15th 2008
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After Bangkok we caught a train (third class, very overcrowded, leaking roof, very hot indeed) to a place called Lop Buri. The big attration in Lop Buri is the ruined temples overrun by monkeys! We were guided round by a local boy who spoke not a word of English but pointed out the monkey for us (not hard to spot - they were everywhere. Children guides clearly money making gimmick) The monkeys were great, I was trying to take a photo of a family group when the baby ran up to me, jumped on my knee and tried to knick my camera - cheeky bugger!
It was freakin hot in Lop Buri so we spent a substantial part of the day in the air-conditioned KFC (which, oddly, is the first place we've been that had not a word of english) watching the monkeys play on the already dodgy electricity cables.
In the evening we caught an overnight train out of there to Chiang Mai, capital of the north, but not before having a few drinks in a bar. Bars round here tend not to have tables and chairs, but coffee table types with cushions. It was only about 8pm when
we got on the sleeper train and everyone was asleep, so I snuck into Mike's cabin to help him finish off the bottle of Sangsom! Hehe. Quite a good night's sleep was had on the 11 hour train journey.
Chiang Mai was rather lovely. We got a room avec balcony for a grand total of 1.50. Marvelous. Most people who go to Chiang Mai to do treks. Every place in town sold treks, restaurants, bars, guesthouses, everything. We didn't take on. Part laziness, part because it seemed too commercialised, part because it was seriously hot and partly because we'd done similar in Malaysia (and it was painfully hard). We attempted one day to take a guided tour around the city, but got hot and lost and cross and fed up with temples anyway so gave up.
After 5 days of doing very little (good Sunday night market tho) we took a public bus to a place called Tha Ton, where we stayed the night (in an air con room with a TV!! We got under the duvet and watched cartoons, it was amazing). It was just a little place, but surrounded with big mountains. There were buddhas hiding in
the trees up the hillside and steps leading up through them. Very cool. The following day we chartered a longtail boat with a bunch of randoms to Chiang Rai. We stopped at a few places along the way: a couple villages and an elephant camp. You could trek on the elephants but they were chained up on such short chains it seemed like not the best place. We gave them some food tho. They were nice elephants.
In Chiang Rai we only stayed one night again, even though the guesthouse has a swimming pool! The bead was like a board though. They had an excellent ice cream parlour in town. It was possibly the best thing I have eaten in the whole of Asia (the food has been largely crap here).
The next day we took a bus to Chiang Khong, the border town with Laos. It is next to the Mekong river, which forms the border. Possibly the most scening border crossing ever. We crossed via longtail boat the following day and dutifully paid our visa fees. It wasn't cheap. Glad we got told to take US dollars not Thai Bhat though because you really get ripped
off paying in Bhat. Sneaky boarder officials.
And so, we enter Laos!
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Jen
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"The food has been largely crap here." I'm sorry? What?!?!?! Thai curries, pad Thai, Tofu/rice soup. Crap?!?! What the hell have you been eating?!