Sukhothai Historical Park

On Friday we spent the day touring the ruins of the old city of Sukhothai, the first capital of Siam. This city was established in the 1300’s and its architecture is considered to be the most classic of Thai styles. Here, there are 45 sq kilometers of ruins with the walls and moats, gateways still mostly intact! It was very surreal touching and walking through these ruins. It was hot as hell, but nevertheless, we rented bikes and rode through this park until we were on the verge of death and then finished the remote areas in our car. Ted actually rode his wife around piggyback on his bike all day! Pretty impressive! Roger’s day also included intermittent interviews by Thai school children that were sent into the park to find “falangs” and practice their English with a list of scripted questions!! At the end of the day, we met a cold Singha (Thai beer) and the swimming pool at the hotel with great enthusiasm!

Like a College Road Trip

On Wednesday evening we had a restful nights sleep at the very reasonable, nice for price, and centrally located Jansom House Guesthouse in Chiang Rai. Chiang Rai has a “night bazaar”, which we attended, similar to Chiang Mai (music, food, deals, etc) but less claustrophobic. Thursday morning, we arose a continued our college like road trip across northern Thailand. So far, we have covered close to 1500 Kilometers and it has been absolutely beautiful! The car rental is definitely worth it. If you haven’t done a bus or a train, you should….ONCE…….for the experience but if you can help it you won’t do it again!! Lol. On Thursday we drove from Chiang Rai to the city of Lampang. Here, we stopped for a few hours and checked out what is touted as the most beautiful wooden (teak) Lanna temple in northern Thailand, Wat Phra That Lampang Luang. We agree. It is also the oldest wooden building existing in Thailand. It was constructed in 1476 and has been very well protected and preserved and was unique in the sense of it’s age, open air interior, and wooden teak construct.

We then moved on to the city of Phrae, where we supported the local economy buying some indigo dyed cotton farmer’s shirts, or “seua maw hawm” which are only made here and are very popular throughout Thailand. This is also an area known for it’s teak furniture production, which was nice, however…..how can we bring it back??? Lol.

Alas, we ended up in Sukhothai at the Ruean Thai Hotel and slept like babies.

Phu Chi Fah

Phu Chi Fah is a very sleepy mostly Hmong town on the Laos border. It’s claim to fame is the alluring sunrise over Laos above the clouds with mountains peaking through the clouds. The pictures are truly stunning. We really enjoyed our night here in our little bungalow! IT was really peaceful, scenic, and yet again…..the local food was out of this world!!! At 5 am, a local boy that we hired, showed up and guided us up the approx 1 km incline (not bad at all) to the summit of Phu Chi Fah. All of the local boys seem to have discovered this lucrative way to make some extra baht and were guiding others, as well! Heck, there was even coffee being sold at the foot of the path by Hmong villagers! Once at the top, we enjoyed the sunrise and got some awesome pics! Unfortunately for us, the scenery was not quite what it could have been due to the burning process in the local agriculture. Most crops have been harvested and dried and they have recently been burning the areas to clear them for the next crop. This has made most of northern Thailand quite hazy at times. Nevertheless, it was like nothing we’ve seen before!
Afterwards we headed out of there and stopped in the small town of Waeng Kaen and visited Ted’s cousin whom he hasn’t seen since he was 9 years old! It was fun to watch them catch up! We didn’t stay long, however and drove on in to Chiang Rai for the night. Driving through northern Thailand mountains and countryside has been a definite highlight of this trip! If we had to do it all over again, we would make sure it wasn’t the burn season, so our views could be a little clearer but it has still been incredible. The mountains are lined with flowers, banana, mango trees with rivers and rice fields below. Driving along the Mekong on the northern Laos/Thai border was also spectacular! We didn’t come across any more dirt roads, thankfully!

The GPS tried to kill us

After the elephant camp we put in the coordinates for Phu Chi Fah National park and hit the road. It’s about a 3 hour very scenic drive from Chiang Mai. One 20 minute period of this drive was actually one of the scarier moments of our life! We were about 20 kms from our destination when we came to a point in the road that the concrete turned to dirt but there was a huge steel professionally made, painted sign (just like on US highways) saying “↑ Phu Chi Fah ↑ “ . It was very reassuring actually. After talking about it, sitting in our AWD Honda CRV, it lured us in and we decided to proceed. Surely the sign wouldn’t guide us into danger?!!? Right??? WRONG. A short ways onto this dirt road, the downward grade and the narrowness of the road became too much to stop or turn around. Then came an increase in the downward grade and multiple hairpin or winding curves! In addition, the road became one of two consistencies, either dry with 6 inch water furrows in it, or six inches of dry sand like dirt. If we stopped we would get stuck, we couldn’t turn around (too narrow), the bumps were so harsh at times we didn’t know if we’d blow a tire or knock something loose under the hood. Furthermore, we had no idea how long we would be in these conditions. The possibilities were much scarier than what actually happened, thankfully. Breaking down or becoming stuck on a dirt road in Northern Thailand mountains on the Laos border in the late afternoon with no cell phone was not appealing at all!!!! Thankfully, in about 25 minutes it became concrete again without incident but the GPS is not to be trusted again!!!!!!!! This is a picture after we stopped to catch our breath when we hit the sacred paved road again!

Mae Sa Elephant Camp

This morning we got up at the crack of dawn in order to catch the early show at the highly recommended Mae Sa Elephant camp. It was an excellent deal at the equivalent of about 3-4 USD per person. We were apparently the only one’s ambitious enough to attend the early show which was great because we got all the attention! Highly recommended if you ever visit the Chiang Mai area! First off, these elephants appear to be healthy, happy, treated kindly, and well taken care of which is all a must before we pay money to see animals in captivity. They are so healthy and happy in fact that one or two babies seem to pop up every year or so! Here they have elephants of all ages, sexes, and sizes that you can get up close and personal with and watch them do some pretty amazing tricks such as, play soccer, throw darts, dance, paint pictures, and bow after their performance! Here, Roger was entered into a dart throwing contest(by default) against Sedor “the elephant” and was almost beaten! It was a really fun time!!!!

Chiang Mai 2/23...not over yet!!!

Awesome day! We arose early to make the short but winding trip up to the local Wat Phra Doi Suthep, on top of Doi Suthep mountain. It is the highest peak in this area and gives beatiful views of the city of Chiang Mai from the top. Unfortunately for us, it was a little hazy at the bottom(pollution?) today and the view was not as clear as we would have liked. Beautiful, nevertheless. Roger managed to figure out the GPS and navigate us around perfectly, all day which is quite a feat considering these crazy ass no rules drivers around here...and don't forget driving on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right! We really like the new CRV we are driving and might look at one when we get back! We will have this vehicle for the next 5 days or so.

After driving to the temple and then climbing the 306 steps to the top, we were in for a treat! This temple, along with the vegetation around it and the views is spectacular. Definitely the hightlight of the Wats in this area. Even visiting monks had cameras! Afterwards we had a traditional Chiang Mai meal of Khao Soi (a chicken, curry, noodles dish) and then visited the summer home of the King and Queen, Bhuping Palace. Unfortunately, this is another country with a completely useless King and Queen that has nothing to do with government, however, this was entertaining and very pleasing to the eye. The grounds were immaculate and structures very ornate! This afternoon was reserved for shopping etc, which if we haven't mentioned already is fantastic here. Even Roger and Ted acknowledge this fact and they HATE shopping! Tonight, after dinner we are looking forward to a Muay Thai boxing match that we have tickets for!!!!! Should be fun! Tomorrow we head to the Chiang Rai and Phu Chi Fah areas. 2-3 days in Chiang Mai is not near enough!!! Would recommend 7 or 8 but we're thankful for what we have!

Sorry if these posts are becoming unorganized and brief but with so much to do, we don't want to spend but a brief period on the computer. Cya soon.

Roger and Seng

Chiang Mai, Thailand 2.22.09

Well, we made it out of Laos in one piece! On our way out we stopped at yet, another village on the Mekong in Laos to search out a long lost buddy of Ted’s whom he hasn’t been in touch with at all in 30 years. I’ll be damned if he didn’t find him!! It was fun to watch the surprise and recognition in the man’s face !

After crossing at Vang Tao, Laos to Chong Mek, Thailand we paid a driver to get us to the airport at Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand and successfully completed another smooth round of flying. It was uncanny how the moment we crossed the border, you could just sense a higher level of sophistication everywhere. Less trash around, healthier vegetation, paved roads (mostly), less poverty (although still widespread) etc. It just goes to show how much of a piece of crap the communist system is except for those individuals ruling the country. Look at North Korea. Look at Cuba. It hasn’t been too long since North Koreans were eating dirt to survive.

Today we got up and did a walking tour of the walled portion of Chiang Mai. The “original” and older portion of this city is in a complete square maybe 3 or 4 km across and is bounded by the remains old walls and moats on 4 sides. It’s a Great Wall of China type idea, but not in great shape. The modern city, however, does extend beyond these walls. The city has over 300 Wats (or Buddhist temples). Today we saw about 7 or 8 of the “wats not to miss” lol, most of which were very impressive but some of which looked gaudy and similar. The older one’s dating from hundreds and even thousands of years ago are our favorites. In the afternoon we did a boat tour of the Mae Ping river and then we topped off the day going to the Chiang Mai night bazaar which is really nuts. It is literally hundreds and thousands of feet of street vendors selling anything and everything. Lots of haggling and bargaining going on and delicious food and good live music everywhere. This “night bazaar” goes on nightly and is definitely a highlight of this town!! Great day but WAY different than Laos!

Pakse and Wat Phu Champasak

Today we arose after a restful night’s sleep at the Seng Aroun hotel in Pakse. The next time you’re in Pakse (ha ha), we would recommend that you stay here. For the USD $23, you get the equivalent of about $100 room in the US. It’s great! We’ve also decided that between the “big cities” of Pakse and Vientienne, Pakse is the nicest. Less pollution, less traffic, more water in the Mekong, downtown is a little less junky, widespread internet cafes, good coffee, etc. Also there is plenty to do in just a very short drive. Our one day was not nearly enough. So for those of you who have looked at your retirement account lately and are thinking about moving to Laos to live like a billionaire on virtually nothing, Pakse is a good choice.

The highlight of our day today was touring the ruins of Wat Phu Champasak, named a World Heritage Sight in 2001. This is an ancient, 3 level religious complex that stretches from ground level on up a mountain range to 1400m. The steps were ridiculously steep and original ( not level at all) so we got our cardio in today, for sure. Inscriptions in the ruins apparently verify that worshipping has been occurring here since at least the 5th century! This is sort of the Angor Wat of Laos although not as big. This complex is surprisingly well preserved for how unprotected it is. Also, the scenery from bottom to top and top to bottom is absolutely stunning and the symmetry is amazing! Awesome time and highly recommend this outing! We were sorry that we didn’t have time to tour the Bolavan Plateau while we were here but we’ll be sure to bring back what is supposed to be some of the best coffee in the world that is grown there!

Afterwards we did some driving around to find significant landmarks from Seng’s family’s past such as the re-education camp that Ted was held prisoner in and also the bamboo hut Seng was born in. Both spots were found, however, semi anticlimactic for all as nothing was left in either spot but trees and grass, or a rice paddie!!!! We later spent a bit watching the sunset over the Mekong and then had dinner at Seng’s uncle Vong’s house. Couldn’t help thinking while we were watching the sunset that the same sun that is disappearing on the horizon before our eyes is appearing before yours back in the eastern US! Weird, huh?

Well, this our last night in Laos. Tomorrow, we will cross the border at Chong Mek, Thailand…move on to the city of Ubon Ratchathani, and catch a flight to Chiang Mai, Thailand!!! We’ll try to keep you posted! Oh yeah….enjoy the picture of the cooked cecadas on a stick! Lol.
Roger and Seng