To Myanmar and Back
Trip Start
Oct 24, 2005
1
11
147
Trip End
Ongoing
Chiang Rai,
Thailand
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
After leaving Bangkok, we took an overnight train fourteen hours north to Chiang Mai, which is probably Thailand's second most known city. Chiang Mai was delightful -- it's right in the mountains, so there is an easy escape from the "city" whenever the mood strikes you. It's also tons less polluted than Bangkok, which my sinuses really appreciated... While there, we got some fab massages -- a whole 200 Baht ($5) for an hour.... The next day, we rented a motorbike and tooled around one of the national parks in the area and cruised the countryside. We saw some really nice waterfalls, and just enjoyed the country drive... until we noticed we were almost out of gas w/no town in sight. You can imagine how much gas driving in the mountains can suck up, so we did our best to get to the summit, and then cruised in neutral on the downslope, praying we would find some gas before we ran out in the middle of nowhere (not a whole lot of traffic where we were). Fortunately, we made it to the next town and filled up (at which time we learned the gas gauge didn't really work, and we really had about half a tank left...). That's when we realized we were in a race w/the fading daylight: we were about 60 km from Chiang Mai, and we had less than an hour of sunlight left. I held on as tight as I could, and Konrad zoomed us through the hills as fast as possible, constantly checking our mileage against the sinking sun. I usually kept my eyes off the speedometer (1. I didn't want to know how fast we were racing -- don't worry ma, I wore a helmet!, & 2. I couldn't see much w/my head pasted to Konrad's back), but I know we may have given Chuck Yaeger a run for his money. As the sun faded away, we got on to the main highway, and were almost home -- meaning we had made it -- no need to blindly feel our way through the hills w/no streetlights.
After leaving Chiang Mai, we headed further north to the border of Myanmar. We stayed overnight on the Thailand side, and meandered through the food stalls at the night market, thoroughly stuffing ourselves for about 90 Baht (for both of us together -- just over $2). The next morning, we got up really early and walked to the border crossing. After a fair amount of waiting around, we were finally handed temporary passports (they kept ours at the border), and granted entrance into the Kingdom of Myanmar (formerly Burma). We had secured a taxi driver already, so all we had to do was drive to Kengtung (pronounced Cheng Tung), right? Of course not, after about an hour, we finally were on our way. We had a good driver, and made it there in just under three hours -- that despite stopping repeatedly at the checkpoints, where our driver had to check us in w/the Myanmar authorities. When we got to town, we also had to check in w/immigration.
Kengtung is a pretty city in the mountains, w/three lakes in its boundaries. It was very pretty, and quite different from Thailand: no internet (in the entire country, I believe), electricity only after 6:00 PM, and good meals for about fifty cents. While in Kengtung, we hired a guide and trekked through the mountains, visiting a variety of hilltribe villages. Our guide was great, as he himself is a Shan member (the predominant tribe in the Shan state, where we were staying), and he spoke all the different tribal languages, as well as Chinese, English, Burmese, and Thai. We were a bit apprehensive about the trek -- we thought it would be uncomfortable and feel like we were just gawking the entire time. Fortunately, that turned out to be far from the reality, which I believe was a result of our guide's friendships and comfort w/the various tribes. We didn't feel we were intruding at all -- we were warmly welcomed, and often given food and drink by the tribes. All in all, it was a great experience, and we learned so much about the different hilltribe cultures (as well as how to make rice wine (aka: Jungle Water)....).
The trip back to the border was fraught w/the usual difficulties: stopping for lunch, stopping to get the car washed, stopping to buy this and that... but we eventually made it, and returned to Thailand (and got our passports back). We are now in Chiang Rai (also in the north), where we are still gorging for cheap at the wonderful night bazaar.
Hope you are all well and we wish you a very happy holidays -- wish we could ring in the New Year w/you all, but alas.... Talk to you soon!
