Slow Boat to Laos - Day one Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong

I booked my trip to Laos from my guest house in Chiang Mai. I think pretty much every guest house and travel agent ends up sending people to the same tour group so it doesn't much matter where you book. There's a slow boat and a fast boat, but from what I'd read online, the slow boat is safer and more comfortable than the fast boat, although it's all relative I'm sure.

She told me it would be a three day affair:

Day one: Minivan to the Thai border city of Chiang Khong, guest house provided
Day two: Cross the river into Laos, where a guide would usher us through the visa process, then the slow boat would take 6 hours to get to Pak Beng where we would need to find our own place to spend the night.
Day three: Slow boat from Pak Beng to Luang Prabang.

There was an option to leave at night and arrive in Chiang Khong quite late, or leave at noon and get a full night's sleep there. Old lady that I am, I opted for the full night's sleep even if it did cost a bit more. The total trip cost.... 1,800 baht, including the minivan to the border, one night in a guesthouse and two days on the boat.

I had a late and leisurely breakfast at the cafe across from my guesthouse (rapturously delicious ham and cheese bagel sandwich btw) and then was ready to go. It was about a 4 hour minivan ride, but the driver stopped about once an hour for a good long time each stop. It was nice to get a break now and then... but it did seem a bit excessive. The rest stops were good too... lots of choices for food, little markets, decent toilets. One stop had Thailand's highest geyser.

Another stop had this amazing white temple. I don't know what it's called or what the story was... but it was cool!



Finally we rolled into Chiang Khong at about 5pm, dinner to be served at 6pm. The room was basic but clean enough, decent bathroom again. My tolerance has increased considerably from living here though, so opinions may vary. Dinner was free, and pretty good. Rice with curry, and stir fried veggies. I had a beer and introduced myself to my fellow travelers - another couple of minivans had arrived and we'd all be going to Laos together.

my first view of Laos from the Thai side of the Mekong

After dinner we walked across the street to a bar, had a few beers & played some pool. It was pretty low key - just comparing where on the backpacker's loop we'd been, where we were going, and what the heck we were doing here in the first place. It turns out that pretty much everyone was 'between jobs' in one way or another. It was nice to find travelers I could relate to. At one point I told the Irish woman "I'm on my own so I'm just going to latch onto you guys if that's okay." and she said, in the way that only an Irish woman could "Don't be ridiculous, a' course a' course! We're all just travelin'." Which made me feel loads better. =)

Old Lady Tour of Chiang Mai

After my cooking course, but before the trekking, I decided to take a mini-tour of local hand-crafts. Mostly I wanted to see the silk production and weaving, but I was interested in seeing what else there was. Shortly after I booked the tour it occurred to me that this would end up being a glorified shopping trip - and I was right. I was the only one on this 'tour' so basically, it was just like hiring a taxi for the day.

The first stop was the silk factory and it really was interesting. They had trays of silkworms on leaves, and in each stage of their development.

Then they showed how they boil the cocoons to release the fibers. They pull the threads from the outside of about fifty different cocoons and start spinning it. After they have a suitable amount, the silk is washed & put into hanks (it was interesting to feel the difference between the rough unwashed silk fibers and the well, more silky washed thread). As you probably know, the silkworms are killed in the process, and they did show a pan of the dead silkworms. Personally...since they would have become moths and moths like to nibble holes in lovely wool sweaters, I'm not too sad about this.

After the thread is washed & dyed, it is spun onto bobbins.

Then the bobbins are used with the looms to weave the cloth. The patterns are created by elaborate machinations involving threading different colors onto the loom to start, then lifting some threads up and some down at different parts and shuttling different colored bobbins of thread through them. I would really like to learn how to actually do this since it's all a bit vague and theoretical in my mind.

After this I was set loose in the shop and spent a long time fondling silk scarves & shirts and in a near superhuman show of restraint, I did not actually buy anything. Mostly this was because earlier in the morning I'd just spent over $30 sending souvenirs home and was not eager to make another trip to the post office just yet.

The rest of the stops were about the same, a five minute talk about lacquer-ware, gem cutting, ceramics, whatever, then move on to the shop. There were a LOT of factories on the tour but I called an end to it after just a few more of them. I'd done more than enough shopping at the night markets, and wasn't in the mood to spend any more money. But all in all, it was a fairly cheap tour and I got to learn a little bit about this and that.... not a bad way to spend the day.

TAG: Code Watermelon

An afternoon of riparian entertainment

The travel agency at my guest house (and actually the travel agencies on every corner here) offer several different treks... the one most hardy young backpackers go on is the three day two night trek through the jungle, risking dengue fever from the mosquitoes and hepatitis from the toilet situations to get close to the 'real Thailand'. I, however, have been living in the 'real Thailand' for a year now, so I decided to go on the wussy one day trek that the tour guide promised me involved no more than about an hour and a half of walking. Sounds good to me!

There were three other girls on the trek - they were all Korean yoga teachers in Chiang Mai to take a Thai massage course. They all spoke a bit of English, and one was pretty good.

The first stop was the elephant camp! First we fed them some bananas (20 baht a bunch) then we rode them around a pretty well worn and muddy path through the jungle. My elephant kept grabbing leaves and eating... or trying to eat. I'm guessing that only some of the leaves are actually edible.

It was an interesting perspective, and I tried to imagine being royalty riding up in a big throne, or riding one into battle. But I have a terrible imagination and all I could do was think 'this is kind of cool' and try to ignore my pangs of guilt about the ethics of elephant tours in Thailand.

Oh well... the scenery was amazing when we got to the clearing.

The woman sharing my elephant with me was really scared. As soon as our elephant started to move she put her hand on my leg. I reached over and held her hand, because god knows I know what it's like to be scared out here! Eventually she was comfortable enough to let go, but any time our elephant did anything even remotely weird (like climbing half way up an embankment to grab some bamboo, or wandering over to snack on some grass after our mahout had gotten off) she grabbed hold of me again.

After the elephant camp we went bamboo rafting. Our guide was quite adamant to point out that we WOULD get wet and that the river contained river water, not drinking water -100% not drinking water! Ok... we got it. What I could not get was pictures... with the whole being in a river and getting wet thing.

The rafts were basically 10 bamboo logs strapped together.... that's it! Once I sat down I was wet, and wet in the very particular way that made me look as though I'd peed my pants. Delightful! The water was cool and looked like watered down hot cocoa - made from a mix, not the real kind. Since it's the rainy season (it had rained in the morning) the river was full and satisfyingly tumultuous*. The river meandered around bends and under trees. We saw cows & even an elephant on the riverbank. Fortunately, I guess, we dipped and turned enough to get my pants thoroughly wet, so I could avoid any question about my bladder control.

In fact, after lunch my bladder was emptied in the appropriate, if horrifying location.

We visited a couple of hill tribe villages. Initially I didn't want to do anything like this... because I just don't know how I feel about treating actual families as a tourist attraction.... but it was part of the trek so I went. And being a tourist - I took pictures. The background sound was the quiet cheep-cheep of several dozen baby chicks, and the background smell... pig sty. There were a few little kids running up to us with bracelets "Hello, five baht...hello, five baht." I really don't know the right thing to do in this situation, I resorted to cheap apathy - didn't buy anything.

The rice fields were really beautiful. These are just for the hill tribe's consumption, not for sale.

We hiked** around the fields and through a jungly bit and made our way to a waterfall. Not the most spectacular waterfall I've ever seen, but quite respectable. It was loud enough to hear well before we could see it.

OK - I started writing up this post last night...and I'm just now uploading pictures... but every time I do so, blogger adds like a page of blank space between each paragraph! ARGH! And you know, I have to drag the photos down to where they should be (17 brazillian page lengths down because of all the extra spaces). It was a good trek and I'll post more about it later, but now I've just got to call it quits.

It's Monday morning, and in about half an hour (or like two hours factoring in "Thai time") I'm catching a mini-van to start my trip to Laos. I'm not sure when I'll get to post again, it's half a day in the van, then a two day boat trip. I don't know ... it seemed like a good idea when I was sitting at the travel agent's desk. I will of course update again as soon as I have internet access again.

Wish me luck!

TAG: Code Mango

*which is to say not at all turbulent, but occasionally reached a level of activity that could be described as 'rather splashy'.

** walked slowly on reasonably well maintained trails and/or dirt roads.

Cooking with gas!

I'm starting to feel human again, getting over my cold and the crappy stuff that happened towards the end of my time in Rayong. So I decided to venture out and take a cooking course. It was a good decision.

There were five of us... a newlywed couple from Germany, a Canadian couple a year out of college and on their way to a year in New Zealand for a working holiday.... and you know, me... myself.... alone... khun deo. But really it was okay, the other couples were very friendly and we had fun chatting. It's kind of cool to be doing the travel bit after my year of working because when we get around to the whole "How long have you been in Thailand?" game, I always have the trump card.

And after a year of trying to fit into the Thai culture, it's fun to be a genuine tourist here. Since there are soooo many tourists here I have no problem whipping out my camera and snapping pictures of anything that's "weird."

For example, all kinds of random stuff at the market, where my cooking class started.



The instructor, "Miss Bitch" as her t-shirt proudly announced, told us a bit about the different Thai ingredients, then let us wander around while she did the actual shopping.






Back at the school we started on breakfast - for me Pad Thai. All the ingredients were set out for us, all we really had to do was mix this and that and do the stir-frying. It's definitely more for fun than for actually learning how to cook... but that was fine with me.





After Pad Thai came the appetizers, Spring Rolls for me, and Som Tam (papaya salad) for two of the other students.



Miss Bitch had quite an entertaining teaching technique: "Crush the garlic like your ex-lover", swirling the egg in the wok for the pad thai: "swirl the egg, swirl the egg, swirl your hips - sexy sexy sexy!" and admonishing the guys not to use the toilet after touching peppers to avoid getting chili willies "I cannot help you with that!" It was a routine, but it was still really funny.






Next I made Tom Yam Gung, a very popular sour coconut shrimp soup. It starts with coconut milk, lemon grass, chili paste, keffir lime leaves and... something else I've already forgotten. =( We only add the shrimp at the end, and don't stir because it makes it taste too fishy, according to Miss Bitch.





For the main course I learned to make both stir fried chicken with cashew nuts and yellow curry. Although she demonstrated making the curry paste from scratch with a mortar and pestle ("now treat it like your new lover - harder! faster! harder! faster!") she told us that even most Thai families buy their curry paste at the market...it's cheaper than buying the ingredients separately.






Both of these dishes were absolutely delicious, and I cannot wait to try them at home. After each dish we stopped and ate, and napped.... it was a LOT of food for one day.




And when we were more bloated than could possibly be imagined, we made dessert! I chose mango with sticky rice, which I think could be well adapted to peaches depending on your climate.






Yum!


I started feeling relatively comfortable with the wok, and we got a recipe book at the end, so in theory I should be able to make all these wonderful dishes at home.

You know, at that time in the undetermined future when I actually *have* a home again!





TAG: Code Sweet Chili Sauce

Still Chillin'

Well, I'm doing stuff.... but forgot to bring the cord that will let me upload pictures to the computer. Soooooo.... do you want me to post, then add the pictures later & tell you to go back and look; or should I wait and post everything with pictures in a couple of weeks when I have access to my laptop again? Basically, do you just subscribe for the articles. ;) And really... is anyone still reading?

I'm still in Chiang Mai... relaxing, recovering. My travel mojo is at 65% right now, which is not bad actually. Beer consumption is at 5%. Plans are in the works.

Chillin' in Chiang Mai

Rather than book a bus trip to Chiang Mai in backpacker-ville, I took a cab up to the normal bus station and booked a spot on a first class (although not VIP) bus. I was once again surrounded by Thai people, and although it is a bit more difficult to figure out what exactly I'm supposed to be doing or where I'm going, I have discovered that being traveling like a middle class Thai person is infinitely better than traveling like a backpacker.


When I went to Ko Phangan they picked me up at my hotel, and the first thing the organizer did was to put a sticker on my shirt. Branded appropriately, we cattle are much easier to herd towards the bus which was parked on a side street a few blocks away. When I bought my ticket to Chiang Mai, the woman asked for... of all things, my name... which she wrote on a ticket along with my seat number and the number for the spot where my bus would be parked. She then sent me on my way.


On arriving at the bus to Ko Phangan, the organizers started shouting, in their most delightful manner "Get on the bus, get on the bus now." as we crammed ourselves and our luggage into whichever spaces were available and settled in for the duration. There were a few scratchy, plaid, polyester blankets thrown over the seats. For the bus to Chiang Mai a uniformed bus-attendant checked my ticket and directed me towards my seat. There was a fake velvety blanket and lace-edged satiny neck pillow placed neatly at my seat.


As the Ko Phangan bus departed those of us smart enough to stop off at 7/11 first brought out our bottled water & various snacks. Shortly after heading for Chiang Mai however, the bus attendant walked by first to hand out little white boxes containing various Thai muffins and cookies (not all of which were exactly delicious... but thoughtful nonetheless), and moments later returned with a tray of beverages, ice water or Coke.


The soundtrack for the Ko Phangan bus was what could only be described as poorly covered 80s lite-rock. While I was tempted to sing along with the soundtrack to the Karate Kid 2, hearing "Somewhere out There" was just bizarre. On the Chiang Mai bus the videos were playing Thai Karaoke videos. One in particular was a melancholy tune sung as a woman in traditional dress engaged in various aspects of silk production, spinning, and weaving. Ok... so we'll call the music a tie - although the videos were kind of interesting.


The pit-stops! The Ko Phangan bus let us off at a disgusting little tourist trap where we were charged double & triple for fried rice, bottled water and a few packaged snacks like oreos or potato chips. The bathrooms were among the worst I've seen, a western style toilet with no seat, and a bucket for flushing in a dirty little shack out back. Ugh. Nasty! The Chiang Mai bus stopped at a brightly lit rest stop that also served overpriced noodles - but at least it looked clean and well maintained. The bathroom was limited to squatty pottys, but again, it was in an actual building & looked like it had been cleaned earlier that day. There was also an extensive souvenir shop where I could have, had I wished to have, bought a bag dried squid or various other tasty Thai snacks (including potato chips, ice cream, gum etc... but I have to say, the Thais love their dried squid). Fortunately I'd thought ahead and had stocked up at 7/11 earlier in the day.


I don't think I'll ever be able to sleep on a bus, there's just not enough room to get comfortable. But the bus to Chiang Mai was significantly less rockity, and I didn't feel quite like I was going down a heavily potholed dirt road.


And on arrival the Ko Phangan bus abruptly stopped and the organizers started shouting at us again "Get off the bus, last stop, get off the bus please." rousing us from whatever slumber we might have been attempting to enjoy. The bus-attendant on the Chiang Mai bus however, turned on the lights and since I had my night-mask on, gently shook my foot to wake me and handed me a prepackaged baby wipe with which to freshen up before arrival. She came by again a few minutes later with a tray of coffee and/or water. I mistakenly took the coffee, but it was no problem as she returned a few minutes later to collect all our trash.


All in all, if I have to travel again, I will do my best to avoid the backpacker tour-bus. I think the 1st class was all of $5 more expensive than had I taken a back-packer bus, but being treated like an actual human being made it absolutely worth it.


In both cases, however I arrived at my destination far earlier than would actually be useful. The ferry to Ko Phangan didn't leave for a good three hours after we'd arrived at the transfer station. And the Chiang Mai bus got me to the guest house about 3 hours before it opened. Gah! So I spent my first morning in Chiang Mai camped out in the outdoor lobby of a guest house trying to sleep on a wooden couch. And as luck would have it, they didn't even have a room. Fortunately the guest house next door did.

My room, at a whopping 300 baht (~$9) a night has a nice sized (if somewhat... solid) bed and beautifully clean modern bathroom with a fully-flushing toilet and hot shower. So I've decided to stick around for a while here.

Chiang Mai is LOVELY by the way. It's nice to be someplace moderately familiar again. And compared to Rayong everything is shiny and new. The restaurants have English menus, the dogs don't look rabid, and I haven't seen a single rat. Seriously though, it's nice... there are some cute little shops featuring local artists, and a LOT of second hand book shops, not to mention all the cafes. I plan on taking a cooking course here... maybe tomorrow. First order of business though, is sleeping and trying to get over the rest of this cold. And, you know, eating western food. Gotta put a little more weight on before coming home or none of my winter clothes will fit me. ;)


TAG: Code Sweet Chili Sauce