Dec. 22 (continued)
As the plane was delayed a bit we got to Chiang Mai only at 3 pm. We shared a cab with 2 German girls we'd been on the bus with coming from Chaung Tha to the Lai Thai Guest House. After a month without email we were quite glad to be able to get some news from home.
Every Sunday Thapae Street and Gate are turned into pedestrian zone with lots of little handicraft stalls, street artists and food stalls, creating a very pleasant atmosphere.
After Myanmar, we felt like we'd arrived in the land of milk and honey again: what beautiful, new, shiny cars, what variety of restaurants and shops... Apparently we'd also developed quite a craving for European food because we went to Pulcinella Da Stefano, an excellent Italian restaurant where we really savoured pasta, tiramisu, wine, coffee...
Dec. 23
Today was errand day. We first picked up the new cell phone at the travel agency where we'd bought the Myanmar tickets (Nara Tour Mae Ping) and at the same time gave in our passports to have the visa for Laos arranged (1500 B pp for 30 days). We continued towards the Warorot market where we bought 2 small backpacks for 190 B each (one North Face and one Lowe Alpine) and then had our watches repaired. We also stopped by at the post office to see how to go about sending a parcel home (and prices). The rest of the day we spent at the pool ... traveling for 2 months apparently does use up some energy and this is the right time to recharge the batteries before setting off for Laos.
Dec. 24
We had selected all the stuff we were going to send home the day before, so we took a tuk-tuk loaded with 3 bags of souvenirs and excess clothing to the post office. They really must be quite used to seeing foreigners ship home the strangest things, because they very stoically and carefully wrapped all our things in a big box, which turned out to weigh 16 kg - sea freight cost was about 3000 B (delivery 2 to 3 months).
Then we walked around to find a nice place to stay for New Year, and booked a room in the River Side Lodge (1450 B). Next we still had to find a restaurant for Christmas Eve - we finally reserved a table at The Gallery, next to the river.
When we arrived at 7 pm the place was of course packed with falang - also the menu was fit for the occasion with turkey with cranberry sauce... but the food was very good and the setting very stylish.
Dec. 25
For Christmas we paid a visit to Chiang Mai's nr. 1 attraction, Doi Suthep. It's a mountain national park near Chiang Mai with a temple on it - the views of Chiang Mai are supposed to be very fine but as it was quite foggy we didn't see much. We did run into the Belgian Contingent for the World Scout Jamboree to be held over New Year in Bangkok and who were apparently on a sightseeing trip.
Near the temple is a large parking lot with souvenir stalls and a jade factory. We saw here a very interesting video that we should've seen before going to Myanmar: 80% of the jade production is smuggled on elephant back to Thailand (the jade mines are in hands of the quasi independent minorities in northern Myanmar). The items sold here are undoubtedly beautiful and genuine, but my is it expensive...
We enjoyed Christmas lunch at the Tamarind Village, a new luxury hotel in village style in the heart of the old city with a pool etc. Alas no rooms available anymore for New Year however...
Christmas dinner was at the Art Caf� (turkey again).
Dec. 26
We packed our things for our excursion to the Golden Triangle in a big and a small backpack and dropped the rest off at the River View Lodge. The bus ride to Thaton takes about 4 hours (70 B pp) so we got there around noon, which gave us plenty of time or check out all the hotels (we finally chose River View Reosrt, 1330B/bungalow on the river). Thaton lies on the Kok river and is, apart from being the starting point for river trips to Chiang Rai, smack in the middle of hill tribe country (hence the Akha sales women who set up their stalls outside the hotel). The village itself is very small, except for a Wat on a hill that you can climb to and that gives a good view over the river plain. We booked a tour at Thaton tour for 600B pp for the next day to take us to Doi Mae Salong, a Chinese settlement (originally KMT refugees) and surrounding hill tribe villages).
Dec. 27
Apparently Thaton Tour had forgotten us so when we showed up on their doorstep after having waited at the hotel they promised to pay the entrance fee to the Akha museum.
This museum is actually a village were people live and where some information panels and demonstration sites for e.g. weaving have been arranged - an interesting visit: at least this doesn't give you the voyeuristic feeling that other village visits do.
The next village we visited was a Yao or Mien village with the women in distinct red fuzzy collar dress. Almost every family has a souvenir shop where you're encouraged to buy something - amazingly most of the stuff that is sold actually is from Myanmar (lacquer ware, marionettes...).
Doi Mae Salong has a scenic setting on a mountain side with tea plantations surrounding it (some years ago it used to be opium but tea also appears to be a success story judging from the quantities offered for sale). There is a very clear and heavy Chinese influence visible in street signs and buildings.
After Doi Mae Salong we drove to a big Akha village (again souvenir stalls) and next to a Lisu village (no stalls here, only a bunch of women and children on foot with -really made by the Lisu- handicrafts for sale). Visits to these villages remain friendly (when you laugh and joke with the villagers), even when they try to sell you something - it's not the aggressive atmosphere you can get in muslim or Latin American countries.
Apparently there is now also a settlement of Padaung long-neck Karen that we'd visited in Mae Hong Son here in the area, but the entrance fee to the village is also 250 B.
On the way back we stopped in a Chan village to see weaving in action - with all the different types of looms we've seen so far we're going to end up real experts...
Dec. 28
We set off for out boat trip along the Kok river to Chiang Rai at 10.30 (Thaton tour does this trip for 250 B pp but you get time to make a few stops along the way - the regular boat costs the same, leaves at 12.30 but you don't get to stop. The scenery along the river is very beautiful with forested hills. We first visited 2 Lahu villages where a type of weaving is done that was new to us.
Last we stopped at the Hot Springs near Chiang Rai. They are in fact so hot that you can boil eggs in them (as was demonstrated).
In Chiang Rai we took a room in the Mae Hong Son guest house (120 B shared bath). Chiang Rai has a night market that aims to equal that of Chiang Mai, but it's really much smaller. We had a few snacks at the open air food stalls of the night market.
Dec. 29
By bus we left for the most northern point of Thailand, Mae Sai. Mae Sai is also a border town at the Myanmar frontier and it's one gigantic market. Tons of goods from Myanmar (and China) are sold here, although remarkably, very little teak but incredible amounts of jade. We bought a jade reclining Buddha and some more clothes.
We stayed at Johnny guest house (200B so nothing fancy- in general accommodation in Mae Sai isn't much to look at).
Dec. 30
We left Mae Sai for the Golden Triangle and Chiang Saen. The Golden Triangle is the point where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet (Mekong =separation) - it used to be a major opium producing and trafficking area (hence the name). The village where the 3 country point is is called Sop Ruak and it's lined with souvenir stalls. We took a boat trip (400B for 2) on the Mekong to have a look from the river at a casino on the Myanmar side (named "Paradise" - I assume there is a bit of propaganda from the Myanmar government involved). We also stopped at an island that's Lao territory where you can visit the border market for the day for 20 B without need for passport or visa.
Finally the boat dropped us off at Chiang Saen, an old capital of one of the smaller northern kingdoms. But as there really is not that much to do and accommodation is even worse than Mae Sai we took a bus back to Chiang Rai where we stayed in a very nice hotel, the Golden Triangle Inn (600 B) with tile and wood rooms and a nice garden, and it's in the center.
While walking around in the evening I stepped into an optician to ask after the price of monthly lenses and I stepped back out with new glasses (made in 30 min) and lenses, for resp. 4500 B and 1400 B, which is about one quarter of what it would cost me in Belgium.
Dec. 31
The bus back to Chiang Mai got there at 1 pm, so we went straight to the River View Lodge and dived into the pool. For New Year's Eve we went to Piccola Roma Palace, the most expensive Italian restaurant in town, and the food was excellent, but the service was so-so (at least for the prices they're asking). The Thai are also really fond of fireworks because at many places in the city there were fireworks at the same time.
Jan. 1
Today it was very cloudy and it even rained- so we didn't do very much except rest, read and in the evening go to the night market...
Jan. 2
We picked up our passports at Nara tour and stopped by at the post office to ship another parcel by air mail (2500 B for 5 kg).
So we got to the bus station quite early, in time to catch the bus back to Chiang Rai and from there connect to Chiang Khong, a Thai border town at the Laos Frontier.