North Thailand

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(written by Kerry with some additions from Graham)

So after leaving Bangkok we went to..

Phitsanulok, Sukhothai, Chiang Mai & Pai

Phitsanulok was more or less just a convenient location on the main train line to Chiang Mai where we could stay to take a day trip to Sukhothai. The air-conditioning on the train we took from Bangkok was a little bit too good - most people spent the journey wrapped up in jumpers, coats or sleeping bags.

Phitsanulok was a pretty cute little town with a nice night market. We stayed in one of "the best Thai national Youth Hostels in the country" which turned out to be a lovable, ramshackle place littered with all manner of old stuff. The main reception/bar/breakfast area was basically a garden in an unkempt wooded area with a roof. There were piles of literally hundreds of old cart wheels, plant pots and other paraphernalia in various multitudes littering the space around and beyond the few tables & benches, themselves fashioned out of old sewing machines & massive roughly cut slabs of stone amongst other things. On first sight it just looked like chaos. As our eyes adjusted to the dim light we started to make out a restaurant and hammocks amongst other things.

I (Graham) needed a haircut. We went to a cheap looking place over the road from the hostel en route to somewhere else. I walked in and made "snip-snip" hand gestures towards one of the women inside. She looked genuinely surprised that I actually wanted to have a haircut. A hot-pant wearing colleague was summoned from the a back room - she seemed equally surprised that I should want a haircut and also that Id brought wife to watch. She slipped on a pair on high heels and started trimming.........

Old Sukhothai is essentially a national park of old Wats (temples) set in lush gardens. Or as Wiki travel says "..the ruins of the ancient city of Sukhothai, which was the Thai capital during the 13th Century A.D. that Siam took from Khmer Empire.. .." So after a 2 hour bus ride we rented bicycles outside the park and cycled around the well maintained paths between the ruins. It was a hot day so the breeze while cycling was lovely and the whole thing is contained within about 3 sq km of flat land so it was a nice easy ride. Took loads of photos of various Buddhas, stupas and chedi.

Thought we were stuck there after what we thought was the last bus drove past us after wed sat on the side of the road waiting for it for 40 mins - it was already late by when the driver rudely ignored our waving, presumably because hed already stopped on that road a couple of hundred meters before. Anyway, we were assured by locals that another was due in 20 mins and to our disbelief after another 40 mins waiting it did show up and stopped to let us on - after our initial failed attempt wed cleverly moved up the road to where the other bus had stopped, just in case!

We loved Chiang Mai. No particular reason other than that it was a generally pretty cool little city with a good vibe. One of the highlights were renting a mountain bike to cycle up a mountain then deciding to cycle to the bottom (about 12km on main roads), take a tuk tuk to the top and cycle down. This was just as well as it was a good 15km uphill winding path which took 10-15 mins to drive up (esp. as Kerry was particularly weedy after illness)! There was a pretty standard Wat at the top of the hill (yep, we
are wat experts these days), reached, of course, by a substantial set of steps. The ride down was fun and included a detour to see a waterfall. Little did we know that you had to pay to go to see it and then AFTER we/d paid we found that it was a mostly uphill path - about 3km the get to the bloody thing. It was knackering and we ended up pushing the bikes up a good portion of it. Then on the way out Graham got a puncture so we had to go really slow down the rest of the way to the bottom where we picked up a tuk tuk to take us back to the rental shop. Just as well really as we just caught them before closing.

Another highlight was catching up with Ken, an old Lancaster Uni mate of Kerry/s who/s now settled in Chiang Mai. We had dinner with him & his wife & kids, forgot to take pictures (deja vu from Hong Kong with Vince/s family), then had beers & had a jolly good catch up with a little bit of pool playing on the side with Ken. Brought back a few memories! And Graham wasn/t at all bored by all the Uni chat. On the contrary, he was happy to have a drinking partner and a decent pool player to pot! Thanks Ken!

Two lowlights of Chiang Mai; one was Kerry relapsing which meant a trip to the Ram hospital for an examination & some antibiotics - successful outing but tedious. The second was "Same-Same" guesthouse, which we initially checked into but ended up leaving after 30 mins because the staff were rude, the beds overpriced and crap and the place generally dirty. If you/re reading this and thinking of staying at "Same-Same" (Same Same Chiang Mai Thailand guesthouse review same-same), don/t - go to JJs Guesthouse down the side alley on the other side of the road, next to Julies. It/s literally half the price for twice the space and the owners are really nice. Comfy beds too by Thai standards.

We also loved Pai despite not actually doing any of the rafting/trecking or other activities that we/d headed there to partake in. Due, of course, to Kerry being a bit poorly with a dodgy tummy. This time with a bit of sickness. Went to the hospital to get it checked out and were relieved to find out that it was ONLY food poisoning. Yey!

Anyway, there was a festival on while we were there so we got to see a few traditional Thai sports/activities on our last night (for FREE) and were not disappointed. This is what we saw:

Sepak Takraw (I just read there are other versions of Takraw..)

Looks like a cross between volleyball and football as it/s played across a volleyball net but the moves look more like some of the more acrobatic football moves. From a web search*: "..a head-high badminton net separates two three-man teams. A woven rattan ball (about 12 centimetres in diameter) is tossed into play and served over the net by a slashing kick. Thereafter, the rules are similar for volleyball except that a player may touch the ball three successive times but must not, of course, use his hands.Players pass, set up and spike - all using their feet and heads in a lightning-fast blur of pirouettes and somersaults. The most spectacular move is the 360-degree airborne cartwheel spike."

Thai boxing (Muay Thai)

Wow! Brutal but compulsory viewing. We watched the last 2 fights of the night. One between some middleweight (? Im guessing) adults then one between young boys, couldn/t have been more than 13 years old. Both fights were full combat with no pads other than gloves (and I assume crotch-boxes) scored over 5 rounds. The first got quite bloody (head wound) but they fought on to the end and the winner was obvious (and was a westerner!). The second was not bloody but lots of head shots seemed to land so still pretty tense to watch and the winner was announced as the boy wed assumed was the loser. Well, I/d heard that it/s scored on points and is hard to judge if you didn/t know whats what so wasn/t too surprised at getting it wrong.

Lantern/hot air balloon launching

Sooo.. pretty! Paper balloons fired up and let loose to float high into the night sky then float back down when the fuel runs out. We saw them floating up to the sky from the main road and were curious to find out more so we went to find the launching point. Never did find out the reason but there was a couple of fire engines at the ready and people handing out the paper structures to waiting tourists & locals who lit and launched them.

After Pai we headed back to Chiang Mai to get a bus up to the Laos boarder, spent a disappointing Saturday night there to break the journey up then headed out. It was disappointing as we were hoping for some night life but no bars were open that night. When we asked at our hotel we found out that it had been an election day and Thais don/t drink alcohol on election days, doh!

Final stop in north Thailand was the border town of Chiang Khong but we didn/t do anything there so have nothing to say about it.

*ref: http://www.hotelcompareprice.com/info/recreation/ThaiSport_1.asp

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Photos

Karaoke in Phitsanulok
Graham murdered Take a chance on me (ABBA) that night. Cringe!

Internet cafe
one of the uber comfy gaming cafes in Thailand

mad fish
in a Chiang Mai restaurant (not on the menu). Weird little thing followed you round the tank. Kinda cute but mostly scary.

steps
up to the temple, Chiang Mai

refreshment break
on the way down
mmm... water melon!