Enjoying the sights

We headed out of Chiang Rai on Monday on the 10.30am bus to Sukhothai. A fairly uneventful, long journey. We arrived at around 6pm and negotiated a taxi type pick up truck to our hotel. It was about a kilometre out of the town slap bang in the middle of a residential area full of wooden houses ranging from fairly palatial-looking to downright ramshackle.

On the Tuesday we caught the bus into Sukhothai old city. We hired bikes and spent a lovely - if sweaty, in the 38 degree blazing heat - 4 hours cycling around the ancient sites and temples.

On Wednesday we packed up and took the bus the one hour journey to Phitsanulok. We arrived at Sukhothai bus station and as Matt went to buy some water the ticket seller suggested I board the bus as there was no luggage compartment and we would just have to find a space for our bags. So, I headed to the bus to discover a rather steep step. From previous experience I opted not to try and get up the steep step on my own as due to the rather top heavy nature of my backpack I have nearly toppled backwards on many an occasion whilst climbing steep steps. So, I waited for Matt. The ticket seller spotted me and said, whilst frantically pointing to the sky and her head, 'hot, hot, hot' then turning to laugh with the person next to her. Had her command of the English language been a little better she would probably have been saying, 'Look, you daft farang idiot, the 40 degree sun is beating down on you as you stand there carrying a 20 kilo backpack…here's an idea, rather than standing there like a lemon why don't you stand in…..the…. shade???' So, assuming this is what she meant I grinned inanely whilst nodding in agreement and moved to the shade to wait for Matt.

We arrived in Phitsanulok to be greeted by no tuk-tuk drivers wanting our business. As we get to the less tourist frequented parts, we are left to fend for ourselves a bit more (which would be fine if we could speak a little Thai and hadn't sent our Thai phrasebook home at Christmas thinking we weren't coming back). We found an ok hotel for the night.

Yesterday morning we headed back to Phitsanulok bus station not really knowing where we were going but having a couple of ideas; we would just see which was best understood by the ticket vendor. We ended up on a bus travelling the 4 hour journey to Loei. We disembarked and with no sign in English anywhere set about finding a sawngthaew (converted truck-bus) to Chiang Khan. Which we did much to the amusement of the other passengers. Sawngthaew seating is 2 benches facing each other in the back of a truck. It can be a little unnerving having 12 pairs of eyes on you, carefully and curiously studying every single aspect of your physical being. However, we set off and within seconds the majority were fast asleep.

We were deposited in Chiang Khan around 5.30pm and headed into the very small and quiet town, looking, I believe, our most conspicuous yet in Thailand, as the local townsfolk watched on wondering why on earth we would consider visiting their unassuming town when most Thai people from Bangkok haven't even heard of it (according to LP). We found a quite nice, if a little insect ridden, guest house. It's one of the most basic we've experienced yet with no sink, just a dustbin of water in the bathroom (does have a shower though) and hundreds of ants busily carrying off lots of dead, odd looking fly things. They have a specific path around the edge of the bathroom and around the skirting boards so we just keep out of each others way. We're right on the bank of the Mekong, literally a stone's throw from Laos and have gorgeous views which more than make up for the other stuff.

Today we had a wander around Chiang Khan (saturated in all 3 types of mosquito repellent we possess - still to be bitten I hasten to add - the blighters are a determined bunch around here). t's a sleepy town - that is apart from the odd rabid and savage looking territorial dog. It's full of timber buildings and locals nattering away or flaked out in the heat. We enjoyed a spectacular sunset over the Mekong then ate dinner at our guesthouse. Our pre-dinner entertainment consisted of watching the geckos on the ceiling; on this evening 2 in particular were having what looked to be a stand-off which turned into a turf-war-fight-to-the-death type thing for a good 10 minutes. Anyway, all's well that ends well as the dominating gecko then mounted and started humping the other (for all of 20 seconds) whilst its little gecko hands were wrapped around the other little gecko waist. How romantic.

Then we learned our lesson for the day: Never ever EVER tell a Thai person who is about to cook you a meal that 'spicy is good'. Never. We enjoy spicy food and I think our tolerance for spice has increased over the years. Depending where you go in Thailand, a lot of the time, the cooks tailor their food to what they think is the farang preference (mild-medium) and sometimes for us this can be a bit disappointing. We ordered Tom Yum soup, vegetable noodle soup and an eggplant and tofu spicy salad. The first couple of mouthfuls were utterly delicious; as you may know, Thai food can be really frangrant with the galangal, lemon grass and so on. Then there are the bird's eye chillies. Our over-dinner-conversation consisted predominantly of expletives of the worst kind. We had drunk 3 large Singhas and 1 margarita beforehand, so were on the path to moderate inebriation, however I can safely say that a good dose of potent chillies have the ability to sober you up in an instant. Three bottles of water slightly alleviated the pain our skinned alive taste buds were going through and sat typing this over an hour later I can safely say they are well on the way to recovery.

Tomorrow we hope to head to Nong Khai - a border town with Laos. We're not entirely sure how to get there yet as there are no direct buses but we'll give it a go.