Gateway to The Golden Triangle

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For our trip north to Chiang Mai, we decided that there was no way on earth that we were going to brave the economy class again. We paid the supplement, which actually was not much and we travelled on the VIP class no less. This was a whole different ball game, with reclining seats, hostess service, TV and a warm face cloth in the morning. The funny thing to notice was that the Thais tended to take the VIP buses and left it to the foreigners to take economy.

Ignoring that fact that we could not understand a word of it, the Thai television was the pits. Nothing but game shows followed by more game shows. I don't think they would have been any more entertaining if we could have understood them.

The whole idea of going to Chiang Mai was to go on a trek. After finding somewhere to stay for the night, booking the trek was our first priority so we set about going into town. The manager of the hotel said that we could have a lift in the back of their pick-up truck, but little did we know that he was going to make a few diversions to a load of factory shops (almost certainly on commission). They don't miss a trick these people. Despite the fact that the factories were complete token gestures on the side of huge gift shops, it was actually quite an interesting trip and it gave us the opportunity to get all the gifts we had been meaning to get. What I didn't bank on was the cost of posting them all back to England.

When I was posting one of the items home I noticed that it had a 'Made in China' sticker on it which was a bit of a disappointment.

That evening, to continue with the western stodge before setting off into the hills, we all had a huge fat-bastard pizza, which would keep us going for at least a week.

We all assembled at the travel office the following morning and set-off on a long drive in the back of a lorry to the Golden Triangle where most of the treks tend to take place. There were eight of us on our trek; the five of us, a Dutch couple and an American girl. We stopped off half way for a swim in a waterfall, which was very much appreciated. I think I must have swallowed some water, as a few minutes later, I got the most uncontrollable urge to throw my guts up out of the back of the lorry, much to the surprise - and disgust - of a guy in a car behind us.

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Photos

Waterfall
Waterfall just outside Chiang Mai