Ben Guesthouse Chiang Rai

... Condoms restaurant downstairs, which promotes safe sex - and claims to have been instrumental in bringing average family size down from 7 in the 70's to 2 kids per family now. <br><br>We looked round a couple of wats and stumbled on a buddhist festival where people were giving gifts to the wats. Wat Phra Keaw is very beautiful and we had a chat with a monk, at the end of our chat he asked us to pronounce 'International Channel' - he had the words written on a piece of paper - we ...

... Immigration as we didn&#8217;t have Visas but we were directed to the &#8216;Visa on Arrival&#8217; section. The queue was way to big for us...well Ju...so we/she decided give that a miss and just queue up a passport control. A few questions, and an ALMOST stamp on our Work Visa and we were through. We have Work Visas organised and paid for by the Company but they are only Single Entry, so for this bit of independent travelling we are ...

... with a live band playing. After a bite to eat we went to some random bars,where we played pool and drank; it was nice because the whole atmosphere was so chilled out and everyone was really friendly, I had a game of pool with this Irish dude, discussed travelling with a South African and talked about the Royal Marines with a fellow Englishmen! Someone thought that it would be a good idea to go clubbing, and by this time it was half 1 in the morning, I was ...

Chiang Rai is an ugly city. But I still had a great time there. :) As usual, my time in Chiang Rai began with exploring the markets. I never ate insects in Thailand. They are in most markets, but I was always too chicken to try them. The market in Chiang Rai had an especially scary selection, including some very scarily huge ones. But once again, I was too scared. I decided that my main interest in Chiang Rai was the Hilltribe Museum. I am not usually that ...

... the local rice whisky. Nothing like Scotch but quite pleasant so bought a bottle for future "journeying mercies" (50Bt = 83p). We stopped at a village fair where they seemed to be having a dance competition. V pleased to have us in attendance. J and I were brought chairs. The celebration was the end of Buddhist lent and the coming rice harvest. Then down onto the plain which was v hot. We were flagging by the time we stopped for our ...

... said I was lazy?? that backpack is bloody heavy!! Nice doube room with fan for a fiver a night, hot water and a TV what more could I ask for. So it was a shower some food a quick walk around...its a small place then to bed....well some TV!! Jo and Camille were meeting me the next day, Monday, so I just hung around drinking tea and eating and chatting to some of the travelling community. There wasn't ...

... constant over-attentiveness of the guide started to really get to me on day 2 and I found myself becoming intensely irritable. Was it too much to ask to just be able to walk in peace without him leaping to my aid with balm every time I so much as brushed a fly from my arm??!! That said, we were blessed with glorious sunshine at last and the scenery was quite spectacular, with some pretty impressive waterfalls along the way, and only ...

Naysayers... they said it couldn't be done. The tour companies in Pai said, that due to the New Year Holiday, the minibuses and buses were full or not running back to Chiang Mai for several days. That we were stuck in Pai, which is an okay place to get stuck in, but we wanted to move along. So it was yesterday that we were getting negative answers from the tour agencies. While "moving along" to the bus station to check to see if there were either buses or ...

... me. when we (half the family came to see us off, and have an afternoon in nong khai as well) got to the border, there was a snaking line consisting of me, pooki and about ten laotian family members breezing through the checkpoints (me chuckling to myself at the bewildered and dirty looks from westerners queued up for stamps). one trainride later, i parted from pooki who flew back to chiang rai, and into a storm at work which ended up with her quitting. i stayed on ...

... something. Even so, my wife's scar wasn't pretty, but it was cheap. To some extent, you do get what you paid for. Going to an American dentist after my Thai dentist was like riding in a Cadillac after a VW beetle, but guess which one I can afford the easiest? I wouldn't advise buying into the whole Thai system of health care, though. Conceptually it can be a bit disturbing, particularly in the overemphasis on antibiotics. The EU ...