Advertisement
Published: February 17th 2005
Edit Blog Post
Hi Guys,
Yesterday was an important day for me - the day I fell in love with Thailand.
Up until yesterday i was somewhat missing Vietnam. Then I went on a mammoth day of sightseeing which took me to the golden triangle, a brief boat ride over to Laos, and up to see the long neck and MaeSai tribes.
After some initial well founded skepticism (my bus was late (even by Thai time) and a seriously overweight / smelly French man with his pro was squeezed into the packed mini-van).... the day surprised me.
First we visited what is allegedly the most significant temple in Thailand - here I must mention that you get over temples quickly.... there is one on practically every corner. What keeps them interesting is trying to get a good photo of a monk - they're illusive and the younger ones are actually cheeky!
There were no monks at this temple to photograph so we went to the golden triangle. Typical tourist photo opportunity (yes, i got one) and i can now proudly tick it on my 'life to do list'. They run boat trips from there up the river to the
edge of Myanmar (Burma) and then over to Laos. I did the boat trip, it was good fun. I was seated at the front of the boat which was for the best because Mr. French the world’s largest man ended up being in my boat and had I seen that I probably wouldn't have got on I am genuinely surprised that we were still buoyant.
Ok, so we got off the boat on an island of Laos and it was amazing how the scenery changed. Tall trees with more of a forest feel - very different to Vietnam and Thailand. We were greeted by the usual array of vendors selling everything from dresses to Laos whiskey with cobra in the bottle (again, I have a photo) and (sadly) a chained up monkey.
What surprised me about Laos was how beautiful the scenery was, and finding a bear cub just wandering around the village (not chained) - I took many photos of him because I’d never seen a bear in the wild before.
There were a few locals about, and after a payment of 10 baht (each, which surprised them), the children let me take their photo, and
on the way out i got a couple more of another family with the big brother carrying his baby sister on his back. Laos is defiantly on my to-do list now, i have heard many rave reviews from other travelers and this brief visit sparked an interest.
We had to move on, the trouble with doing tours! Next stop was the Thai-Myanmar boarder. Not much to see here but the hoards of people trying to leave and re-enter Thailand to re-new their visas. It was interesting from a political science pov because the relationship between Thailand and Myanmar has and is one of tension so i was interested to see how it was policed. It was not as policed as i expected, if something was to break-out there i have no doubt that there would be many lives lost because they didn't appear to have the capacity to really protect the boarder. I got some photos of people trying to leave and reenter, Thai officials stamping the paperwork and the street vendors trying to make a buck.
We left the town for the hill-tribes; initially I wasn't going to bother visiting the long-neck tribe. It felt overly touristy.
But everyone else in the van was doing it and I would have had to wait for them so i joined in (400 baht later). A very good decision, again when you arrive there are vendors, typical weaved goods and silver. The tribes speak their own language, but the younger generations have started to learn to speak Thai as its mandatory for them to attend school under Thai law.
The children were gorgeous! Even though they get visited almost every day by a bus load of tourists they were excited to see us, and happy for us to take their photos.
They loved the digital camera because they like to see themselves on the screen. I left the tourist group and went off to play with the kids and my camera. This was the best part of the day, I let them take some photos with my camera (ill put them up), it’s cool to have a little piece of how they see the world. One girl was drinking a can of coke - I had to get a photo because it was such a contradiction..... Here she was, rings around her neck and knees, living in a traditional
More sleeping on the job....
only this time i think the boss is bound to find out about it. hut and eating hunted meat but washing it down with a coke! I have to hand it to Coke, that's definite market saturation. It was a short walk to the next tribe…there was an overpass that the group walked over but the kids took me their way, under on the dirt path - they grabbed my hands and ran with me up the hill - they wore me out but it was fun. I wasn’t sure how their parents would feel about me playing with them, but when we got to the top and played in the dirt with them one of the mothers came over and called me ‘mother’ so I figure that they didn’t mind too much. I didn’t bother catching up with the group again until it was time to get back on the bus. The kids were fun and I felt like I was getting a more genuine experience playing with them than walking past the market stalls. It meant that I didn’t see much of the MaeSai tribe, different to the long-necks and admirable due to their Matriarchal system. In this tribe women are the boss, men babysit, women hunt and if the woman wants
tuk tuk
sounds a lot like a lawn mower in desperate need of a tune up. to have more than one husband its cool. Ladies - I am planning a mass migration here at some point, I think they have it figured!
From the hill-tribes it was a 3 hour bus ride home to Chang Mai, we drove through some really pretty countryside, along weaving roads through mountain ranges. The sunset was amazing - left me wishing that I wasn’t on a tour so we could stop and get some photos of the sunset over the mountains. I tried out the window of the bus - ill put them up but they fail to capture the beauty of the place. When night fell we could see hundreds of small fires, burning off in preparation for the wet season. It was magic, better than a fireworks display.
I have plans to come back and drive myself. I think a tent and a motorbike is the way to go. It would be nice to spend longer with the hill-tribes and be able to stop on the side of the road and appreciate the scenery next time.
We arrived back at Chang Mai about 9pm. Initially I was going to hit the pub but was tired
from the day’s activities so I went to bed. I leave Chang Mai tomorrow for Koh Pagnan. I will be sad to leave but curious about Thai beaches, and the full moon party. Accommodation is a bit of a problem on the island but I have given up worrying about it and intend to call on the travel gods for some assistance. Who knows what will happen!
*ILL PUT THE PHOTOS UP ONCE MY CAMERA HAS RE-CHARGED*
Z
Advertisement
Tot: 0.103s; Tpl: 0.041s; cc: 6; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0513s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
bill nj
non-member comment
photos
great photos. Would u believe we even have bear cubs here in Nj USA wondering thru our yard on occasion. Agin the question. Would we need an individual guide or can one just plan out where they wish to go and catch a tour?