Advertisement
So as it happened we ended up in northern Thailand by circumstance rather than choice. We were planning on travelling to Laos from Siem Reap however typhoons from the previous month had done so much damage to the roads that a normal 8hr bus journey to cross the border to southern Laos, now took 2 days. Flights to Laos were over $300 so we doubled back and went off to Bangkok! The bus left at 2am and arrived at the border which we crossed by foot. The Thai team took over and a 3hr bus journey took 7hrs, conveniently stopping at every tourist tat shop on the way. They must have thought that us sleep deprived tourists were easy targets! When we arrived in Bangkok amongst massive political demonstrations, which closed the major roads and tourist attractions; we headed straight to the airport to book the next flight north. We got to Chiang Mai and booked into Mojito hostal, which sticks in my mind...To all intents and purposes we booked a room with a double bed, bedbug free with clean sheets and pillows. When we sat on the end of the bed however, after paying for the room, the mattress collapsed into the cardboard boxes that were propping it up! Admirable cheek! It was clean, relatively comfortable and only $10 a night, so we stayed!
Chiang Mai was like a breath of fresh air. The first day we found a lovely French bistro for breakfast. They did exotic fruit with yoghurt and museli (peanut free), with powdered green tea latte, and a bacon buttie with coffee for Mark. Th
e owners were lovely and when they baked banana muffins they brought the mishapes over to the customers, fab! After breakfast we meandered through shops and markets and visited 2 temples. In one temple Mark was blessed by a budhist monk, which is his white bracelet. Later that day we couldn't help but smell the delights of the street food stalls. We had delicious, spicey chicken and rice for dinner follwed by a banana spring roll for pudding, all freshly cooked infront of our eyes. The next day we travelled to Doi Suthep, a temple on a hill overlooking the city, we got a taxi up! Apparently the spot was chosen by the regal elephant. We also went to Tiger Kingdom, a place that Gary and Jeannette suggested. This is where asia really comes into its own, forget health and safety or animal welfare, lets go and play with tigers...or maybe not! We could look into the enclosures containing 6 adult bengal tigers from the cafe and watch as groups of 3-4 tourists were moved around inside.
The handlers, 1/group, had a foot long bamboo rod to deter the tigers from possible attack, and tourists were taken in during the day when tigers were 'sleepiest'. Even with these assurances you wouldn't get me in there for love nor money. You could also go in with adolescent or baby tigers, but it was all just a bit wierd and expensive for us.
We decided to have a fun day the next day and booked into Chiang Mai tubing and beach club, where the owners - one nicknamed Squirrel - have set up a beach style resort in the middle of the countryside. We had been hoping to go tubing in Laos, so this version, although a bit tamer, would have to suffice for now. There were 6 of us, 4 pasty and slightly less toned Brits and 2 uber healthy dragon boat racers from Canada (the day previously they had climbed the hill to Doi Suthep, it took them 2hrs, our 45min taxi ride) We all got on like a house on fire! We tied our rubber rings together with our icebox of beers and floated off downstream. One of the Canadians, Lydianne, did most of our paddling when we got to any rapids or stuck on any rocks, while we all happily glided wherever she wanted to go. When we got back to the imported sand beach, Claire and I put the world to rights, while the others made a valiant effort at volleyball and slacklining. It was quite surreal to be sat in hammocks on this fake beach after floating down a muddy river, but it was great fun. This was the first time we were properly drunk since leaving London! Afte
r we were dropped back to town we continued the night with Claire and Michael from Greenock, by having a curry and more beer! The next day we had our first hangover at 30 degree heat! We decided to travel up to Chiang Rai, a 2-3 hour bus ride north. We foolishly booked a tourist minibus, which we didn't realise was double the price and double the time of the very spacious, aircon public buses. This tourist rep was worse than any theif, and he lied to us with a smile on his face, telling us there were no other buses up north! Our bus wasn't due to leave until 6pm, so we decided to visit some temples and go around the sunday market, where we bought some christmas presents. Our bus left 1hr late and stopped so many times that the journey took 6 hours. We arrived on a street corner at 1.30am with 2 other tourists in the same predicament. A drunk tuk tuk driver tried to get us in his cab, but we opted to walk instead. The local call girls were all hanging around the massage parlours and kindly showed us to a hotel with cheap rooms and 24hr reception.
We spent our next day in Chiang Rai looking around 2 temples, then decided to book a tour for the day after. We were told a driver would take 4 of us around 3 major sites up north and return us for 4.30-5pm, in plenty of time for the last bus at 6.30pm. The next day a minibus arrived at 8am, packed full of 8 other tourists, and took us to 9 sites, arriving back at 6.35pm! We visited the golden triangle bordering Laos and Burma, the northern most point of thailand, the opium museum, long neck Karan tribe, Akha tribe, monkey temple, Chang Saen, the black house and the white temple. The long neck tribe was really interesting. They are refugees in this part of Thailand, making money by offering tours. Tourism is now keeping the long neck practice alive, which was dying out previously. The White temple is really what we went to see. A modern, brilliant white, mirrored, budhist temple with neogothic artwork in every part. The inside wall that Budha looks at, was still being painted with scenes incorporating lots of modern day icons including ET, Michael Jackson, and Harry Potter. This was the highlight of this incredibly touristy day.
I guess I should have been pleased we got so much after being sold less, however it lead us to missing the last bus to Chiang Mai and wandering the streets looking for cheap accommodation again. This time we booked into hostal tuk tuk, with a lovely big bed, needing some tlc, but not bad for $8 we thought. Lying down on the bed to relax after carting our rucksacks around for the last hour, I catch something moving out the corner of my eye. Little beasties crawling over the mattress towards me! I scream then begin flicking them off the bed. By this time it was about 9pm, we would have changed if it wasn't the public holiday week of Loi Krathong and everything was fully booked. So we were stuck with our bedbug companions, that I kept trying to swat instead of sleeping! Funnily, we were up and out early and on our lovely first class bus to Chiang Mai. We decided to indulge in a fancy hotel for $20, and had a day relaxing and posting home christmas presents followed by a nice Italian dinner with a glass of red wine. Mark booked us onto an overnight tour trekking through the jungle the next day.
It started with an elephant ride. You bought the food for the elephant and fed it on the way. We ate our lunch was in a jungle clearing, it was rice and veg packed in banana leaves. We hiked for 4 hours, visiting a waterfall for a swim midway. We ducked un
der the waterfall to see the power of the water cascading over us. When we arrived at the village there was a hut for 12 of us to sleep in. It had bamboo mats, pillows and mosquito nets. There was a toilet but no shower, or electricity after dark. We had a great dinner of green thai chicken curry and various local veg dishes with rice. Then a sing along with a guitar playing guide. Our favourite was Zombie by the Cranberries, and being the only native English speakers we heard all the different versions of this song (ie hungry inplace of Zombie)! After a few beers Mark challenged a pole dancer to a press up competition before breakfast the next day, then slept in! The next day trekking was a bit wetter underfoot and I slipped twice, once in another waterfall! Thankfully after lunch we had bamboo rafting where we all got completely soaked! We had a lovely time with Harm and Karin, who ended up were staying in the same hotel as us after! This hotel was also lovely with a pool, even though the water was was freezing!
Typhoon Haiyan hit the Phillapines 2 weeks before we were due to arrive. It had left the country without infrastructure or electricity, so we diverted our flight through Singapore instead, decicing to visit Bali en route. On Saturday we booked our flights to Indonesia and Singapore before catching a bus south to Sukothai.
Sukothai was the first Capital of Thailand and the origin of Loi Krathong, being celebrated on Sunday. We should've realised that it might be busy! On arrival a tuk tuk driver took us around at least 20 hostals and hotels, all of which were full before dropping us at Garden House, where us and 2 other girls waited. He spoke to the owner and they offered us to sleep on the deck of their balcony on some cushions under a pop up mosquito net! We couldn't refuse such a kind offer...and really it was kind as we had nowhere else to go. She didn't charge us for sleeping on the floor and we got into a room at 7.30am. To pass the night Hannah, Kerrie, Mark and I went for food and beer. We found an interesting bar decorated with biking gear, cowhorns and had a live band playing. The next day was the festival day where 10000 floating paper lanterns are released. In Sukothai there is an old town of ruins which was where the festivities took place. The ruins were lit up and there were stages full of dancers and singers. One wonderful thing was that as there was no alcohol, the atmosphere was so happy and relaxed. Mark found some fried mealie worms to try, and the young and impressionable Kerrie and Hannah did too! We had bought our own lanterns and set them alight, watching them float off with thousands of others. Families would also buy flower boats with a candle in the centre and float them on the lakes. Then at midnight there was an incredible firework display over the main lake. Again health and safety was less of an issue as a large chain of lit fireworks collapsed 1m from the crowd barrier! Thankfully no one was hurt!
The next day we got up late and hired bikes to visit the ruins in the day time. It was strange visiting the day after the festival as there were hundreds of shells of lanterns strewn about with cattle wandering over them. It could not detract from the beauty of this site. We cycled 10km around many Buddhas, temples and dagobas surrounded by grassy areas and lakes. As we watched the sun setting behind the scene we gave our bikes back and got the bus into town.
We headed south again to Bangkok by nightbus the day before our flight to Bali. We investigated the K
ho Sam road area, full of all sorts of oddities, energy and beauty too! Unfortunately the riots were still ongoing and have ended in a Military Coup being announced this week.
For us Thailand was a lot easier to travel around and enjoy than the rest of south east asia. It was full of beautiful scenary, historical sites and physical challenges where we met some awesome people that we'll never forget.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.095s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 8; qc: 46; dbt: 0.047s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
