Thailand - Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Chiang Khong
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Just before we left Australia we heard news of catastrophic flooding in northern Thailand, and had even worked out an alternative route from Thailand to Laos to avoid going into the flooded area. Our first priority was to find out if the train was running all the way up north, so even before going to our accommodation we went to the metro station where 12go were located to ask about the train and pick up our pre-ordered tickets. Luckily the train was running again and we didn not have to re-route our trip.
From the metro we decided to walk to our accommodation, which was with a family in an airbnb. We used Google maps, but probably didn't enter the address quite correctly and it led us to a area where no-one had heard of the place we were to stay. However a group of locals gathered around, and one of them offered to take us to the correct location, having worked it out from my airbnb receipt. He walked back along the route we had taken about a kilometre and a half, and delivered us safely to the correct place - so kind, and so appreciated.
We spent our day in Bangkok by using the skyway and ferries to visit lots of the sights - markets, temples, the grand palace. One surprising group of tourists at all of these places were local Thai people (mainly women) in hired beautiful costumes, who were there partly to worship but also to have their photograph taken by professional photographers.
We ended the day by catching the overnight train to Chiang Mai. It is an open carriage with seats that convert to bunks, privacy provided by a curtain that shuts off the rest of the world.
We stayed in the old city in Chiang Mai. Lots and lots of temples to visit. Unfortunately we both caught some sort of virus along the way, and we did a lot of walking, but were both starting to get exhausted by the travel. Geoff developed a bronchial cough, and neither of us had any appetite, so it was a bit concerning. Normally we might rave about the Thai food, but we had both more-or-less stopped eating at this stage of the trip.
Our hotel was quite close to the night market, which was the
biggest market of that sort that we saw. The temples both inside the city walls and outside were amazing, and you
see so many of them that they blur into one another, but we took as many opportunities as we could to visit them.
Although the old city had escaped the flood waters, outside the walls there were many signs of the flood. Sandbags were still piled up, heavy equipment was working at clearing mud off the streets, and people had piled their sodden unusable household goods up, ready to be carted away. Locals told us that most people were volunteers - the government was slow to respond.
Our next stop was Chiang Rai. We were staying in a really interesting hotel - an old wooden building called the Golden Triangle Palace Hotel - great name. Chang Rai has a few temples, but is known for the White Temple, south of the town. This is a gaudy, brilliant white series of buildings, set with sparkling reflective inlays, and heavily decorated - it is a major tourist drawcard! Nothing very temple-like about it, but it was worth the bus ride out to look.
We also sought out the clock tower. Okay - it didn't sound like a tourist attraction to us either, but there it was, in all it's golden glory, at the other end of the rather decorated street we were staying on. Not a real attraction, but it made a spectacular roundabout!
The other must-visit for us was a cat cafe. I’d read about it on the internet, so we had to go and have a very overpriced smoothie while cuddling a cat. There were about twenty very laid-back, relaxed cats around the room.
Unfortunately our health wasn’t good while we were in Chiang Rai. Kaye was getting really sick, and we both had
no energy and no appetite. We discussed giving up and going home, but decided it was just easy to go ahead and
fly back from Laos if we didn’t improve. We stayed an extra day in Chiang Rai for Kaye to recover a bit, then went
up to Chiang Khong, where we were supposed to stop overnight before going on to Laos. In the event Geoff
started to feel totally exhausted, so we checked out of our cheap lodgings
and moved to a more comfortable and organised hotel across the road. We ended up stopping two extra
days in Chiang Khong, needing the time to be fit to travel on. In that time Geoff went to the local hospital to see a doctor, who
prescribed a number of medications, one of which worked! We ate dinner
on our last night in Thailand watching the moon rise over Laos, on the other side of the river.
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