Chiang Mai and Beyond

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I feel just a quick note on Chiang Mai is warranted. As we mentioned earlier, the train was a pain, but arrived eventually. Our Friend and frog - Julie - very kindly met us at the station and guided our weary bodies to a reasonable guest house.

The guest house in question (which we can't remember the name of - it was a while ago) was nice, had a pool and a TV lounge. I did find however that we didn't take to it - It may have been the overpriced and slow internet, or the horrific price they tried to charge to burn photos onto our own CD (which tipifies the worst elements of the making money from the beleagered westener). But to be fair the room was OK and reasonably priced SO..

We ventured out in a limited fashion - to the 'Wats' (buddhist temples) and around the old town. We also both commented that it was bigger and more western than we thought. Chiang Mai brings to mind images of a remote traveller destination - whereas the fact is it ain't that remote, and you could quite easily 'pop' there for a holiday and do a bit of trekking.

As you might be aware, we're writing this some time after the event, and there is really only one other incident which clearly sticks in the mind - an embarrassing incident also!

We were wandering around the small streets of the old part of town when we came to a very pretty Wat . After a look around the place we saw a gathering of chairs and something resembling an 'off square' alter. We went and had a look around.

A man approached in sombre fashion and asked if he could help - it was now that we were both sure of what we'd stumbled upon - a funeral! It got a little worse as the man elaborated that it was his mother in the box (not an alter), and that she'd died the day before.

The surprising end was that he wasn't offended (although the dozens of 'sorry for your loss', and 'so sorry' etc hinted at how embarrassed we were). In fact he went on to tell us the best areas to see, what we shouldn't miss and a little history of the place.

Then it was off to Laos.

We organised a trip on the slow boat down to Luang Prabang - the next major stop off point over the border. First we had to get to the Mekong river which is the border at this point between Thailand and Laos. Not as easy as we first thought.

The photos tell the story better than I could - so simply to add that:
The driver really did have the wrong map (it was of Chiang Mai - the place we left a while back); the reason we got stuck in the rather large flood is because the driver drove straight past the police signalling him to detour; and the Thai people really do make the best of things (the kid was about to tube down the road, the woman fishing was one of many and there was a man washing his car!)

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Photos

Puddle Fishing
You've got to admire their resourcefulness (and optimism)

Floods of Fun
They really do make the best of a situation