Hello all
Have you missed me? I know I’m far behind schedule with my reports. While these got stuck in Thailand I’m already back in China. And in between I spent a while in Laos.
I guess you all have heard about the terrible earthquake not to far from where I am right now. I’m in Lijiang, only a few hundred kilometers south of Chengdu. But here we didn’t even feel this earthquake, while in some far away places like Vietnam or Thailand they still could feel it. The medias here are full of information, but otherwise life is going on it’s normal way here in Lijiang. I’m probably going to donate my blood in Chengdu in a few days.
So I’ll finally finish the story on Thailand this time.
From Bangkok I went to Nakhon Ratchasima (aka Korat). Korat is not a very special city. But it’s surely a real Thai city. First of all there are only few tourists. So there is no organized minivan or tourist bus that just picks you up from your guest house but you have to travel there by government bus or by train. I went for a bus trip because the train station in Korat is quite far away from the city center. After some hours I arrived at the Korat bus terminal and took a tuktuk to the hotel I selected from the guide book. I decided to go to Korat for its proximity to the temple ruins of Phimai. I paid for two nights for nice cheap room with a beautiful view over the entire city and strolled around the rest of the day, as I planed to visit Phimai the next day. Quite early next morning I took a local bus. It was a very hot day so I only explored the ruined buildings of the main site, skipping the smaller ones spread out around the town. Therefore I was back in Korat rather early and decided to check out the same day and continue to Nang Rong, another place with a couple of Khmer temples nearby. Even I overstayed the checkout time for a couple of hours and already had paid for the second night, the hotel manager paid me back the money without being asked. This was a new and unique experience for me in Thailand. In Nang Rong I found a nice guest house a little outside of town. I rented a motorbike the next day to visit the temples of Phanom Rung and Prasat Hing Muang Tan (see picture below).
Phanom Rung is located on a hill and boosts a beautiful view over the countryside. I’m still addicted to these Khmer temples even I’ve seen so many of them in Ankor.
The next place of my trip was Lopburi. More touristy already, as it is closer to Bangkok and many old Thai ruins a scattered over the entire city. But there is another thing that makes Lopburi very special: hundreds of monkeys. Wherever you go there are some monkeys around. In the trees, on the power wires, on the street. It’s fun to watch them playing and fooling around. I like this place.
From Lopburi I took a train to Nakhon Sawan and from there a bus to Kampeng Phet, which has again an area of old temples and monasteries. After this I visited Sukhothai, one of the most famous sites in Thailand, as this town was the capital of the country for many decades and also houses a lot of temple ruins. In it’s proximity is another important temple site, Sri Satchanatlei, which I had a look at as well of course. I also hired a motorbike one day in Sukhothai to visit Wat Phra That Lampang Luang, a very old and beautiful monastery.
Now, these were many temples in the recent days and so I was happy to get to Chiang Mai, a big city famous for food. I spent some days there, walking around, visiting markets but also still entering the monasteries with their nice temples and stupas. Sometimes it is possible to have a glimpse into the monks everyday life.
One very nice temple, Wat Doi Suthep, is located on a hill with a very nice view.
I stayed in a guest house whit a swimming pool, so I usually had a swim in the hottest time of the day and another in the evening. Like that I had some quite luxury and relaxing days.
Next stop was Chiang Rai, a city closer to the ‹Golden Triangle› the region where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet. This region used to be the main producer of opium years ago. Only in Myanmar this business is still going on. Chiang Rai is the gateway to places like Mae Sai, a border town at the border to Myanmar or to Chiang Saen, at the border to Laos. I stayed a couple of days in all these places, exploring the environment on bicycle or motorbike, before reaching Chiang Kong, my last place in Thailand. Chiang Kong is the border town where tourists can leave to Laos.
The last 10 days in Thailand where very special. Songhkran, the Buddhist new year was going on in these days. As tourist the only thing you experience is getting wet all the time. Splashing water at every one is the main task for many people in all these towns. In the beginning it was quite fun. Especially when kids were throwing water. But after a few days it was enough for me. On day I visited the ‹Opium Museum› in Sop Ruak. I went there by motorbike. Arriving there I was completely soaked and left a trail of water in the museum. It just not possible to avoid getting wet in the streets. I always had to protect my camera from the water but sometimes they threw water from a car passing by and so a couple of times my camera got a splash as well. I was lucky no damage occurred. I got angry a few times. One time I stopped and asked the people not to splash water as I had to travel next day and didn’t want pack wet clothes into my backpack. They signaled me that’s ok. But when I passed them I again got a bucket full of water into my back. I was so pissed off I almost got into a fight, but instead I drove away after a few angry words. A few day it is fun to get wet. But they continue for at least another week. Just to much. This went so far that I didn’t leave the guest house anymore in the afternoon.
Another thing which made me tired of Thailand is the cheating a lying. In Chiang Mai at the bus station, which is out of town a few kilometers (as almost always in these countries) I asked 5 different people where the city bus is leaving. I knew there is such a bus but 5 times I got the answer that there is none. I found it by myself in the end. I
understand that they want make business and bring me there on their tuktuk. But for such a ride they always overcharge so much that I started to avoid tuktuks at all. The city bus brought me close to my guest house for 5 bath while the rates for the tuktuks started at 70 bath up to 120. Normal fare for a tuktuk would be around 25 bath for this distance.
The last couple of weeks in Thailand I didn’t enjoy very much anymore and I even started thinking of going home.
But another way to escape the water splashing was to leave to Laos, as the first two days were spent on a boat to Luang Prabang. And there nobody was bothering me anymore. So I reconsidered and decided to continue at least a for couple of weeks. I’ll write about Laos in another report, probably soon. It will be a rather short report, as I only stayed there a couple of weeks.
Greetings from China
Thomas