Hello everyone, we've been here now for almost four months and are back into some sort of routine as both of us are working. The travels don't stop though!
After deciding to leave Cambodia for next year because we figured one week just wasn't enough, E and I decided to visit Chiang Mai and Chiang Dao in Northern Thailand. We were meant to leave on the Friday but all trains were booked, so we took a second class sleeper train leaving on the Saturday evening. This train leaves from Hua Lampong station in Bangkok.
Having heard that the sleeper trains were the most relaxing ways to travel overnight, the second class option seemed to be a good deal as it was about 650 Baht one way (about 12 quid). The journey was to last 12 hours - leaving at 9:30pm and arriving at 9:30am. So, after leaving at 10:30 we realised that 'Thai Time' was to be in full effect. Below are some pictures of our carriage. If you book as a couple you will get one bunk that folds open above the two seats below, which in turn transform into a bed. If you're over six foot tall, as I am, go for the bunk.
As the train groaned away from the station, we were constantly offered beer from the hostess. I didn't fancy making mulitple trips to the loo, so I declined. After visiting the loo an hour later, however, I decided it was time for a beer - the toilet's drainage is on the rail track itself and I had images of myself being electrocuted in the worst possible way. I only found out later that the tracks aren't electric...
As I walked out and headed back down the carriage, a Thai man with shaggy hair was carrying a bucket of Leo beer in ice and offered me one for 30 Baht. Thinking nothing of it, I bought one. He then proceeded to jump off the moving train, leaving me open mouthed. After living in the nanny state that is Britain I realised that our obsession with health and safety isn't mirrored around the world. The side doors of the carriage are left open throughout - so if you're travelling with kids, keep an eye on them! Walking back with my can of Leo I was confronted with a look from the hostess that spelt trouble - why did I buy a beer off a hawker and not her? Well, he was there at the right place and the right time. To ease tensions I proceeded to buy a couple more off her for E and I. I forgot that the catering companies work independently of the rail companies and they aren't happy to see their potential profit spent elsewhere. I was still in shock from seeing someone jump off a moving train when our food was served. The staff then came to make our beds with fresh sheets...
E and I sat back and shared our headphones, listened to music and watched the world go by until sleep encroached. I moved to the top bunk, E stayed on the bottom. I don't know why they call them sleeper trains as I was basically rocked awake for 8 hours, cocooned in my own private hell. All the fumes from the train hung in the air and mozzies were attacking my face. The sound of the train's wheels screeching along most of the track provided the soundtrack to our night. I almost fell off the bunk a few times as the train jogged from one track to the next. I'll quote Frank Skinner from his recent sojourn on a sleeper train for the BBC's 'Around the World In 80 Days' programme: "They aren't sleeper trains. They're more 'lie awake with your eyes closed all night' trains". We decided through bleary eyes over our 7am breakfast that we'll take the day train back. We arrived in Chiang Mai looking as if we were coming off heroin...
Brekkie was good, though...
And so was the scenery outside...
Our guest house, Lai Tai Guest House, arranged for a van to pick us up at 11:30 - two hours after we were meant to arrive. Luckily they called to check what time we would be arriving. Lai Tai guest house is set on Kotchasarn Rd, just off the south eastern point of the Old City. The guest house has really friendly staff (the waiters and waitresses are a tad sleepy...) and you get decent air conditioned rooms for 550 Baht a night (about ten quid). There's a pool to chill out in and the restaurant serves good food at affordable prices. Be warned, however, that all rooms face the main entrance and late night revellers may keep you up into the early hours.
After sprucing ourselves up from the train journey, we donned on our sun glasses and headed into the Old City to see a few temples. The Old City forms the center of the city of Chiang Mai, with the rest sprawling around the perimeter. Chiang Mai means 'new city' and was founded in 1296 as the capital of the Lanna kingdom. The moat that surrounds the Old City was built to ward of invasions from the neighbouring Burmese. The first thing we did was wander around the quiet lanes within the Old City and immeadiately found that although Chiang Mai is essentially a bustling city, solitude and a shady lane is never too far away.
Going against everything a travel blog stands for, I'm afraid I can't really tell you what these next few temples are called as I deleted the details off my phone. They are the 'main' attractions within the city: Wat Chiang Man, Wat Phan Tao, Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Phra Singh.
And then we bumped into a lady selling birds that you can free for 20 Baht...
And then onto Wat Phan Tao, a gorgeous teak temple...
After the temples we headed back for a quick bite to eat at Lai Tai and then headed off to the infamous Sunday Walking Market. One word: HUGE. As you wander down endless roads of handicraft goods from the surrounding hill tribes, clothes, art, furniture and food, your wallet gets lighter and lighter due to the bargains. I noticed the Thai's were paying the same prices and at last we found somewhere that doesn't totally rip off tourists...then again, our Thai is getting pretty good meaning we haggle very well indeed.
E was in heaven. I was basically her mule.
We shopped till we dropped.
On Monday I had to do a 'visa run'. I have a visa that entitles me to stay for 15 months, however I have to cross a border every three months. Being in Chiang Mai, I decided to hop over to Myanmar (formerly Burma) at the Mae Sai border. I chose to go with a company that operates a mini van every day from Chiang Mai to Mae Sai. The trip up takes four hours, followed by one hour to hop into Myanmar and back, then another four hours drive back. It cost me 750 Baht (15 quid) for the whole thing, which is reasonable. If you need to do the same, just Google 'Chiang Mai Visa Run' and you will find that company. I shared the van with two Americans studying massage in Chiang Mai and one chap from Essex. Luckily we all got along really well - 8 hours in a van is a long time...
This is the bridge you cross over from Thailand to Myanmar...
In the queue to get to the border crossing...
On the other side and into a market. Behind me are about ten children trying to sell me Viagra and ciggies. They followed me everywhere until I had enough and turned back round...
And headed back into Thailand to get that essential stamp on the passport...
E, meanwhile, was back in Chiang Mai on an all day Thai cooking course. They take you to the market to buy your ingredients and then teach you four different classic dishes. A one day Thai cooking course will cost you 1000 Baht (20 quid).
And voila! Tom Yum:
That night we ate at the Riverside Restaurant - an absolutely gorgeous place right on the river, teak furniture, low lighting with modest prices to boot. With full stomachs we headed to the Night Bazaar - a market that opens at 6pm onwards every night. This is a good place to see the local artists at work and to buy more stuff you don't really need.
On Tuesday morning our rental car, a two wheel drive Chevy pick up no less, arrived at Lai Tai. We decided to rent a car (20 quid a day) so we could have the freedom to explore the areas north of Chiang Mai. We rented this from a company called North Wheels have a good rep.
We headed to Chiang Dao, an hours drive or so north of Chiang Mai, where we were to stay for the next two nights. We'd heard that there is a hill tribe market on Tuesday mornings in Chiang Dao but on arriving it simply looked like any old market. Our hopes of meeting tribesman selling their wares were dashed. There was the odd tribeswoman here and there but they were shopping for groceries themselves.
We found a little stall off the main road to grab a quick bite to eat. We were then served amazing vegetarian dishes and it turned out that the cook's stall was promoting an upcoming vegetarian festival in Chiang Dao. Family run, it was a great lunch and we met her father and sisters. Oh, and it was free (but we of course made a donation).
After our feast we headed to where we were going to stay at Malee's Nature Lover Bungalows. It's an absolutely beautiful place but they failed to tell us there would be building work. We decided to explore the area and found somewhere called The Nest 2. There is a very upmarket resort called The Nest and this is their sister resort - more modest, but as you can see by the photo's of our bungalow below, absolutely stunning. The mountain behind us is Thailand's third highest (Doi Luang Chiang Dao).
The hostess, 'O', and her staff are fantastic and the food there is incredibly delicious. If you're going to Chiang Dao, stay here. The fan bungalows are about 600 Baht a night (12 quid).
After dumping our stuff, we headed off to Chiang Dao's most famous attraction - it's cave. This was only a five minute drive from where we were staying. The Tham Chiang Dao Cave's stretch for a few kilometres into Doi Chiang Dao. A local legend says that a hermit lived in the cave complex for 1000 years and there are monuments and various Buddha's in the cave paying homage to him. Go for the 'unlit' section and hire a guide for 100 Baht. He or she will guide you through the caves using a gas lantern. Be warned, you have to crawl through tight spaces and E had to deal with a very big spider waiting for her on the other end. Oh, and if you're afraid of bats, maybe you should wait outside.
The entrance to the caves...
The stairs leading into the cave...
And we're in...
Oxygen levels are low...and the paraffin fumes don't help...here's us with our guide.
Bats. Basically rats with wings.
A rock formation that has been adorned to represent a sleeping Buddha...
One sad fact about Chiang Dao Caves is that there seems to be little thought into protecting the ancient stalactites and stalagmites that were formed there. You can walk over anything and touch anything you like. None of the delicate formations are cordoned off from the main path. Some are still forming but you simply tread on them to get past. People here focus on the spiritual aspect of the caves rather than the scientific. The guide, for example, spent most of his time telling us which rocks looked like elephants and Buddha's. Unfortunately it's too late to save any of the ancient formations.
Leaving the caves, we headed from a spiritual underworld to spiritual heights by visiting Tham Pha Pong Monastery. This monastery is famous for the 500 steps you have to walk up to get to the top. It's set halfway up the mountain in beautiful scenery and for the first time we truly felt that we were immersed within nature and dusting Bangkok off our clothes. This monastery is also a meditation retreat for anyone wishing to approach a state nearing nirvana.
The entrance to the steps...
And up through the rainforest...
Halfway up you can catch a glimpse of the monastery...and take an incredibly cheesy photo.
And we reach the top. Apart from the chorus of the rainforest, there is a hush about the place. Monks robed in their orange fabrics get on silently with their chores whilst people meditate dressed in brilliant white. We wanted to take some photo's of them but just felt it would be disrespectful. I think you can feel the vibe in these photo's though.
We head back down the stairs. Once we reach the bottom, there is suddenly a loud sound behind us as if a large truck was approaching us on gravel. We turned round and saw nothing. The sound grew louder and we were wondering what the hell was going on. The monks working near us looked up at the direction we just came from. "Rock slide", one monk said. "It means good luck". Indeed!
We headed back for a great Thai meal at our lodgings and fell asleep to the sound of frogs, crickets and a bloody annoying bird.
Good morning Chiang Dao!
Today was hill tribe day. There are various hill tribes scattered all over northern Thailand consisting of six main groups: Karen, Lahu, Hmong, Lisu, Akha and Palong. Most of these tribes have been moving into Thailand over the last 100 years or so from China, Tibet and Myanmar and have retained their distinct cultures. They still prefer to live in the hills and tend to live in isolation from the rest of the Thai population. Only recently have they been granted the right to seek medical help and education and the Thai authorities are now teaching them other ways to farm to avoid their traditional 'slash and burn' methods. The night before our hostess 'O' suggested we go on one of many tours that they offer. As we had the car we thought it would be better to do some exploring independently to see if we could get off the tourist trail and discover the villages ourselves. We headed east of Chiang Dao, following a route suggested to us by another blogger and started to drive through some beautiful scenery.
Although the drive was great, we couldn't find any of the villages mentioned on the net. We knew we had to 'do a left after passing a steep hill' but that didn't help much. I steered the car up one narrow road, full of pot holes, that directed us through some farmland. This was starting to look promising until we reached the end of the tarmac road with no village in sight. Ahead of us was just a red dirt track. We decided to turn round and head back to the Nest 2 with our tails between our legs. I went to do a three point turn, which meant I had to use the wider dirt track to accomplish the manoeuvre. I managed a one point turn. Our car was stuck in the mud. This was meant to be a pick-up truck but I may as well have been driving a bloody Smart Car. We were literally in the middle of nowhere. The nearest sign of civilisation would be a two hour hike from here and I'd just read somewhere that a tiger had killed some cows in this very area. Heroically, I told E to get behind the wheel while I got out to push. Visions of tomorrow's newspaper headlines flashed through my head - "English tourist killed by lone tiger whilst freeing stuck car". Instead, as you would expect, I was sprayed with red mud as E stamped the car into reverse. I wasn't happy. E was dying with laughter. After pointlessly trying to jam a few sticks under the wheels to give them some grip, I told E to stay in the car while I walked back down the way we came to find some help. I remembered seeing some farmers cutting some bamboo about 500 metres away. God knows what they were thinking when they saw a farang traipsing towards them with a 'Rub My Belly For Good Luck' t-shirt covered in red mud. I know what I was thinking when I approached three very tough looking men holding massive machetes: "English tourist killed by farmers in Northern Thailand. Tiger drags body away". I used the best Thai I could and mustered up some incredible miming skills to explain that I was an idiot tourist with a car stuck in their mud. Before I knew it, they were on their truck and drove to the Chevy. Within ten minutes they had us free, using tire chains to release us - it looks like it's not only the tourists that get stuck. That salvaged a smidgen of pride. We drove back to our lodgings.
"Hi 'O', can we arrange for a tour guide this afternoon?"
Take 2...
We hired a taxi driver and a tour guide for 1000 Baht. We told them we just wanted to see some hill tribes and kept it quiet that we'd just spent all morning trying. Our tour guide, a great guy unfortunately called Tory, took us straight to our first village which is inhabited by the Karen tribe. It was like stepping back 300 years...
The Karen's are from Myanmar and moved to Thailand
I bought some stuff from these lovely ladies. I only wish I wasn't giving it 'the pose'.
And E bought some goods from this Palong woman. Her gums and teeth are red from chewing betel nut.
Hopping back in our saungteaw (pick up truck) we headed to our last village to see the Lakka tribe.
It was obvious as soon as we got there that tourism is no new thing to these people. Having spent the last century trading opium, which is now obviously illegal in Thailand, visitors from overseas are the main providers of hard cash. As we arrived a horde of Lakka children ran up to us selling hand made string bracelets for ten Baht each. I bought ten in the hope that they'd move on...didn't work!
Christian missionaries have since visited the tribes and have been a good charitable force for the community, building schools and teaching them English. We found it quite ominous, however, that one tribe was Protestant and the other was Catholic.
That night we had dinner at The Nest to round up an almost perfect day (bloody mud...). What can I say? E had the best roast lamb since our trip to Wales
Unfortunately the next morning we had to say goodbye to the Nest 2. We would highly recommend these cabins to anyone - http://nest.chiangdao.com/.
We drove south towards Chiang Mai and took a right on the 1096 road. This road will take you through some gorgeous scenery and we stopped off at a monkey show along the way. We sat in audience of about ten people to watch the show. Little did we know that we would be picked to volunteer for various tasks. It didn't help when the trainer whispered a stern warning in my ear: "Don't touch the monkey".
Humiliation number one
Humiliation number two:
The monkey was then challenged to find one piece of wood with the number '3' on it.
And then, much to E's pleasure, another monkey was chosen from the audience to find a wooden block with the number '2' on it.
Thank God.
After humiliation number three, we continued our drive onto the Mae Sae Elephant Camp. Here you can train for a week to become a rookie Mahoot or you can simply wander around and watch the elephants being trained and washing themselves in the river.
Some elephant artwork that you can buy. Yes, that's right. The elephants use their trunks to paint...
Here come the babies...
After an hour and some lunch we headed off back through the mountains...
We arrived back in Chiang Mai and, you guessed it, did some more shopping at the nightly Chiang Mai Night Bazaar. We ate at the Jerusalem Falafel, a great little place for Mediterranean food before calling it a day. We did wish that we could stay in Chiang Dao for months though.
Our last day was a relaxing one - not much happened. E went for a massage at the Chiang Mai Women's Prison. Rehabilitated women prisoners, close to their release date, are trained to be masseurs to help them back into the real world and you can get a one hour massage for about 150 Baht (3 quid). In the meantime I went book shopping and had a beer in the sun.
Saturday and it was time to leave. We took the day train - it's still a 12 hour journey (it ended up being 14 hours) but it was a damn sight better than being rocked awake all night. We did have to deal with cockroaches though. Still, the sun setting over the Thai countryside whizzing past us was a fitting end to a brilliant week.
Till next time...
Thanks for sharing all the pictures!
ReplyDeleteNo worries B!
ReplyDelete