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Have car, will travel .. to Tak
Entry 13 of 24 | show all | print this entry |
Today we hired a car, and hit the road. With Lisa behind the wheel and Debbie being the chief navigator, we managed to get our way out of Chiang Mai without too much trouble - during the midday rush hour.
It didn't take us long to get used to the Thai driving rules: indicate left if you are turning left, or if it's OK for the car behind to overtake you (at their own risk!!); indicate right if you are turning right, if you don't want (or it isn't safe) for the car behind you to overtake.
Once we got out of Chiang Mai, we found the roads excellent to drive. They are usually two lane, dual carriageway roads, and the driving is generally OK and predictable. The biggest dangers are the bloody dogs all over the roads as you go through the smaller villages, and the crazies in the oncoming traffic that overtake on blind corners. Argh! We found it OK to drive - but you just have to be so alert. Debbie and I have been sharing the driving. And we sing along to some cheap CD's as they play over and over and over.
We drove to a small town called Tak where we planned to just stay overnight and continue on our way the next day. We got there around 4pm and went for a wander through the town and found it to be quite a charming little town. In the end, we decided to stay two nights, and use it as a base to explore from on the day in between.
That night we ventured into a night market and were fairly adventurous in trying some of the local wares. We bought some of these little fried coconut pancake/pattie things that were devine. We then tried some coconut paste that had been BEQ'd in lemongrass leaves (yuck!) and water chestnuts raosted in coffee grinds (hmmm OK). Finally we ordered some Pad Thai noodles from and this ended up being up one of the best Pad Thai meals yet - and only for 40 baht (less than $2!!). At least we thought it was good until Debbie discovered the dried shrimps that were mixed into the noodles. I wish we hadn't seen them.
We are now finding we can eat very cheaply with most meals being under $2. And we have decided that it pays to watch too hard as they cook your meal. We have taken on the motto: what you don't see won't hurt you! Actually - we have been very luck so far - absolutely no stomach problems!!
The next day, we drove out west of Tak to a small town called Mae Sop. This was a very Thai town with incredibly tiny narrow roads full of people and dogs and bikes and carts and cows and..... you get the picture. There really wasn't much for us here to do, so we continued a bit further until we got to the Thai-Myanmar border. We wandered through the border markets and chatted to some black market Burmese traders standing on the other side of the wall trying to sell us cigarettes. (They didn't succeed!). We were tempted to cross the border for the sake of it, but it was too hot, and we couldn't be bothered with the paperwork and $10 payment.
We headed back to Tak and had a quiet night in the outdoor restaurant at our hotel, overlooking the river. We ordered a cheeseburger (why?!?!) and some cocktails - and it ended up being the most expensive dinner yet - and the worst! We stayed in the restaurant just reading our books, watching the lightening and thunderstorm, and listening to the live entertainment - a Thai girl singing John Denver's 'Country Roads' and other such popular hits (!). It was all very pleasant.....
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| 13. | Have car, will travel .. to Tak - Tak, Thailand May 14, 2008 |
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