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Escape to the North
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Returned to Chiang Mai to find our hotel reservation cancelled and all the close guest houses fully booked :( Next time we'll know to prepay! So we hopped on a bus up to Chiang Rai where we found a nice little guest house (Tourist Inn) run by a Japanese guy who also operates a bakery. Started off the morning with breakfast a la francaise with fresh coffee and croissants.
Spent the morning visiting the town and its interesting temples before hiring a scooter to get around the outskirts.
Took the bike for about 80km the first day and can really feel it, it's about as comfortable as a wooden plank after such a distance. We visited a somewhat ambitious temple near Mae Lao (albright white with reflective mirrors encrusted in the stone) and a semi wild hot spring - believe us it was hot, the water was boiling. The fountain that has been installed is just steaming off.
After a first day of 80km decided to take the bike on a longer tour through the rolling hills and hair pin turns for about 150km. The pollution on the main roads sucks but once in the hills it was fine, hardly saw anybody even when we were struggling uphill at 20km/h :) We visited a semi-touristic village Mae Salong which is famous for tea, there are 7 different varieties which grow here, oolong being the most expensive at 8 euros for 200 grammes.
All in all the north is heavily influenced by the Chinese culture, the road signs are written in chinese, thai and transliterated in latin characters. There are some preparations for chinese new year which you can hopefully watch in a small video if we upload the film. The tours, as opposed to Chiang Mai are more representative of the hilltribe cultures (more eco-friendly) although the prices are just as high!
Simon got his hair cut in a rather random fashion by a thai lady of about 60, conversation wasn't great nor was the cut but it only cost 2.10 euros. Somewhat more expensive is a lady for the day at 45 euros between 18-35 years old for those who might be interested.
We finally started our return South to Bangkok via the Mae Kok river to Thaton 4 hours on a long-tail boat where we only got stuck once. Two of us climbed out to get the boat back afloat off the sandbank where the driver had miraculously positioned us. Thaton's only claim to fame is a Wat with 9 "floors" (levels) that you walk up to gain views over the landscape and almost into Burma (Myanmar). The temple is being built (according to the locals) to protect them from Burmese invasion, judging by the number of police checks on the way south not everybody has the same level of confidence in a temple.
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