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Published: August 21st 2006
How many ticket offices?
All selling tickets to Bangkok!The 20th
Today we headed northeast-ish to Chiang Rai, a step closer to the Laos border. We got up early this morning so we could get to the bus station for about 9.00 and get the first available bus to Chiang Rai. Unfortunately by the time we were up and moving around, Becca had started feeling pretty ill, with an unpleasant stomach upset, so we took things a bit easy. We went for some breakfast but, then we gota tuk-tuk to the bus station. We were there shortly after 9.00 and when we arrived we were pleasantly suprised at the lack of touts that there seem to be everywhere else. We soon managed to find the right ticket office (there are dozens just selling tour tickets to Bangkok!) and after an hour wait we were on the bus. We made sure it was one with a toilet, just in case.
The bus journey was fairly nice, the service offered on thai buses pleasantly suprised us again as even on this short journey they provided us with a drink and some cake, although I think the bus could do with some new suspension as it was a pretty bumpy ride! It was nice to see some of the thai landscape along the way and we saw our first up-close paddy field. You may not think that's particularly interesting, but we do. The jouney was about 3 hours in total so we were there by 13.30. We then headed over to our hostel that we had already booked. It's cheap at 200 Baht (about 2.85) so we weren't expecting much, but it's actually very pleasant, possibly the nicest room we've had yet in our whole trip, clean, airy, not massive but enough room with a nice bathroom and hot shower, everything you need in a room.
After settling in we went for a bit of a wander around Chiang Rai and got some lunch. We had decided to stay here two nights then head to Chiang Khong and straight over the border to Huay Xai on Tuesday, so we thougth we would look for an activity to do tomorrow. Chiang Rai is smaller and quieter than Chiang Mai but it's pretty similar apart from that and there doesn't seem to be much to do around here other then go trekking which we're not interested in! We thougth about going for an elephant ride as we knew there is and elephant camp nearby but it's hard to find general information and the tour operators charge a bit more than we were willing to pay, so in the end we didn't find anything.
After wandering around for a while becca was feeling a bit rough so we headed back to our room and stayed there for a couple of hours. We went out for tea and as becca's tummy seemed to be disagreeing with the spice from yesterday, we found a place selling pizza and pasta, not authentic thai cuisine, but no chillies involved. While we were there we ran into Dom and Eleanor, who we had met on the sawngtaew to Khao Sok, so it was good to see them though a bit of a shock to run into them in a pizza place considering we didn't even know they were in Chiang Rai. As it turns out he's got a bit of a dodgy stomach too.
After dinner Becca got progrressively worse and what we originally thought was brought on by too much spice we now think it probably a bit of "travellers diarrhea".
The 21st
We had thought about hiring a moped today to head up to some hot springs and waterfalls in the area, but as becca's not looking too good we decided to cancel that plan. We dosed her up on immodium and some antibiotics (boots own brand) and she's spent most of the day resting. We're going to hold off heading to Lao until she's recovered as A 2 hour bus trip then a 2 day boat journey starting the following day might not be too comfortable right now.
Quick Update
It's the 22nd now and becca is feeling a bit better. The sickness has gone and she managed to eat a decent amount of breakfast this morning, so it looks like shes on the mend! Hurrah!
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Mum W
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Poor Bex
Ah bless - hope you are felling a bit better now - it always seems to happen to you!! Glad the cooking course was good fun so we can look forward to some interesting meals when you come home then - that will be nice!!!