We are on the day train from Chang Mai to Bangkok so l will have plenty of time to write this during the 12 hour journey. Am already impressed as they have just offered us free coffee!!! Have had a great week in N Thailand. It is low tourist season but a great time for trekking, visiting temples and general sightseeing as long as you have packed a fleece and long trousers as the temperatures are low overnight. We flew from Bangkok to Chang Rai last weekend and spent 2 nights in a home stay about 10 kms outside the city run by a Dutchman and his Thai wife. It was a great find as we were in the middle of stunning scenery -hills, river, rice fields, rubber and tea plantations, temples and friendly villagers. We did a long cycle ride to explore the area which included the Disney like Wat Rong Khun (White Temple). This was built in the 1990s by a Thai artist/architect and is a his very modern interpretation of a Buddhist temple. Bizarrely beautiful!
We visited the town to eat at the night market and to watch the ornate gold clock tower change colour on the hour with musical accompaniment (also bizarre). The town is busy by day with a thriving market with a mix of Chinese and Thai people. There is a cafe culture as this province produces Thailand's best coffee beans. We enjoyed the quirky Doi Chaang coffee shop full of locals. Glad to not see any Starbucks! We visited Wat Phra Kaew which has a green jade Buddha and is the most revered temple in the city. The tuk- tuk rides back to the home stay were fun albeit bumpy.
We then headed north 2 hours to a lodge on the Thai/ Laos border. We did a short detour to visit a village of Karen long necks, the giraffe women who originated from Burma but were driven out by persecution from the military generals several decades ago. The village had about 30 women and young girls wearing the neck rings. They believe it makes them much more attractive to men although it seemed pretty barbaric to me. We had to pay to enter the village which is how they make their living, as well as selling their weaving. All a bit of a zoo but glad l saw the women. Arriving at the lodge was fascinating as it is on a hillside in a Hmong and Lahu tribal village. The lodge has been set up by a company and the village to provide employment for the villagers. We were in a bamboo stilted building with 4 rooms and en suite shower rooms. It was very comfortable and had an open veranda with views to die for of the hills and the Mekong. The food was delicious and it was so peaceful ( except when a group of local musicians and dancers entertained us) especially as we were the only guests the first night.
The village is given support by a NGO which aims to improve the life of hill tribe communities. There has also been a lot of work funded by the Royal project to stop locals growing opium and now they are growing other cash crops,especially sweet corn. This geographical area is part of The Golden Triangle (Thailand, Burma, Laos) but there are many road checks to counter any drug smuggling.
We had the chance to visit the village Shaman who is the traditional man who acts as a healer using herbal cures or animal sacrifices. Apparently, in cases of serious illness, he will go into a trance and enter the spirit world to discern cause and remedy. We both hoped we would stay healthy!!!
We trekked for a day and an afternoon. We had local guides wearing traditional dress. We went through rubber and tea plantations and a bamboo forest to a waterfall. The next day, we walked through fields on steep inclines. There were lots of banana palms, sweet corn and pampas like grasses that local farmers were cutting to make brushes. The hills were dotted with huts for the farmers to shelter from the sun and rain. After several hours walking, we had to clamber on bikes and cycle for 10 kms. Was wandering if l would have to swim the Mekong next but thankfully not!!!.
The next day we were driven to the boat jetty back in Chang Rai for the 4 hour upriver ride to Thaton. This consisted of 10 foreigners sitting/lying across a small gas powered boat which was low in the water for 4 hours. There was no room for luggage so that was driven on ahead of us. The boatman stopped off at riverside tourist stalls twice, the first had massive constricting snakes you could pay to be photographed with. All of us stayed well away! We saw elephants in the river with people riding them. The river was very shallow in places with stretches of rapids. There was a lot of dredging being done. We arrived at our destination and caught a communal tuk-tuk, a sorny-taa-ou, to the town of Fang. The bus to Chang Mai was ready to depart as we got to the bus station so we were pretty impressed with our travel prowess! The 4hour journey was made more interesting by 2 military checks of papers. The woman in front of me was taken off the bus as something was not in order! They were totally disinterested in us, the only foreigners on board.
So after 12 hours travelling, we reached Chang Mai. Our hotel was run by a mad Chinese lady and all the other guests seemed to be Chinese. However, the room was fine and the location was excellent. We woke the first day to songs being broadcast over a loudspeaker system. Thought it was the owner waking us all up hi di hi style but turned out to be the school next door. Chang Mai's old town seems to be full of Westerners and there are a lot of dreadlocked hippies who look as if they live there. There are so many temples and monks wandering around. We visited 3 wats - Phra Singh, Phan Tao (rows of sitting monks receiving instruction in the main temple) and Chedi Luang with a massive old structure with elephant statues in the beautiful grounds. The Warorot market was a hive of activity. We had a massage at a place staffed by blind Thais. We wanted to go the the massage place run by the women's prison to give inmates a livelihood just before release but it was fully booked. There are so many restaurants in the city. We ate in the old town and by the riverside. Good food with many tourists. Our best find was a small bar, Barli by our hotel. The owner had crammed the bar with advertising paraphernalia and arty bits and pieces. We enjoyed our 2 evenings having drinks there. Really have loved this area and liked both cities.
Tonight, we will be in an airport hotel before our early morning flight to Yangon to begin our trip to Myanmar...... Xxx