Thailand (and a bit of Myanmar)

I went hungry on the train trip to Bangkok.

One of the "clever" things I did before leaving home was to gather up the drips and drabs of foreign currency I had from places I planned to visit. Between that and the ease of finding ATM machines most places, I got a bit complacent. So, I managed to board a train in Malaysia bound for Thailand thinking I had some Thai currency that I did not. I charged around the first train station into Thailand and found an ATM machine that wouldn't accept the card I was using. This of course was worse than not finding a machine - that whole dashed hopes thing.

Mind you I am carrying more than adequate stored energy here and there on my person. This was a limited tragedy. Yet it left scars.

Basically, on arrival in Bangkok, I fell into a pool of self-indulgent activity notable even for a person on holiday. And those who know Bangkok know opportunity abounds. The self-indulgence really hit its pace when I moved, two days after getting to Bangkok, from a modest hotel into The Oriental.
The Oriental is an ideal place to address the wounds of a missed meal. I am pretty sure I did most everything The Oriental offers to apply balm, from spa to the French restaurant.

I know I spent more in two days at this hotel than I did in a month of hotels in Sumatra.

I had a very nice dinner with an old work colleague at a Mediterranean restaurant.

Between meals I snacked.

I also shopped. One of the good fun activities of Bangkok is the Weekend Market at Chatuchak. I have been a few of times before, and I keep going back to be taken advantage of by maybe the same Burmese ladies cheerfully selling lacquer products of dubious vintage from the same stalls (Mom, I sent two more boxes home). I'm sure I saved lots of money taking the subway, so that must even out.
I did eventually stir to see some more culturally beneficial sights. The water taxi's in Bangkok are a must do by themselves, given the activity on the Chao Praya and the historic buildings on its shores.

I think I did the basic places of interest: The Grand Palace, The National Museum, Wat Po and Jim Thompson's House. I don't know much about what I'm seeing, but I can at least in the moment feel the sense of beauty and reverence the Buddhist temples inspire.

The museums are good for getting some hints about what this style of Buddhist image versus that style of image looks like and when and where it started. I like it a lot more when I've got a couple of tidbits of information about what I'm seeing.
I did not shop between cultural sights. I did observe the markets. I think shopping is one of those crimes of intent, so my state of mind is critical. I was not shopping. It may also be that the amulet stalls seemed very much for locals (Thailand seems to have some maybe true maybe myth advise. Right up there with "never touch a Thai on the head" - how often do you do this to strangers? - is "you can't take a Buddha image from Thailand". I have tried to live according to both these rules.) Some of the other items available seemed best left for others. I am a firm believer in "bespoke" and not "off the peg" when it comes to dentures.

I rolled out of Bangkok on March 10 on a night train to Chiang Mai. I made sure to have dinner before boarding. And to pack a snack. And say yes to just about everything I was offered on the train. I learned a valuable lesson on the train from Malaysia.

The train was good. I had a first class compartment to myself for several hours. We made a stop about 10 PM. I jumped off to walk on the platform. When I got back to the compartment the lights were out and a disembodied voice said, in a Germanic accent "I am ill and need to sleep." OK.

In the morning the disembodied voice got attached to a very nice ex-footballer from Berlin.

Chiang Mai is full of beautiful temples. I enjoyed seeing them.

And I climbed the steps to get to some of them. I ate a bunch of fried banana's for energy. I mean bananas. That has got to be healthy.

After Chiang Mai I took a taxi to Chiang Rai. This is a three hour trip. I bought a bus ticket first. I have it as a souvenir. However, I would have had to wait an entire hour for the bus to leave, and I could only get a seat on a second class air conditioned bus at that. Jeez. Who would?

Chiang Rai is the capital of a province of the same name in the far north of Thailand. It has a long history as part of a Northern Thai kingdom named Lanna, Burma and Siam. It sits in a large valley surrounded by hills. In the hills are many villages of hill tribes of various names and traditions.

More beautiful temples. An absolutely noteworthy municipal clock. A small but interesting hill tribe museum.

And what may be the single most fun shopping experience to date of this trip. Chiang Rai has a Saturday night street market, the Kaat Jiang Hai Ramleuk. Lots of stalls selling all kinds of things to a mainly local audience, food that tempted me into indiscretion, two band stands with a goodly number of happy dancers, and the odd hill tribe person in traditional dress. I believe this woman to be an Akha tribe member. I am a hat fan. This one needs to be seen up close to be fully appreciated.
The next morning I took a local bus to Mae Sai, Thailand's northern most town and a border crossing place for the Shan State in Myanmar. I'd been to Mae Sai twenty years ago. Then it had a couple of dirt roads and a handful of shops and temples. The bridge over the border was closed to foreigners, though I could stand on it and watch women wash clothing and little kids splash around in the stream of suspect water.

I believe that 10 years before that, the whole region was closed to foreigners. This was very much the center of the old Golden Triangle.

Now the town has a six lane road through its center and the border crossing is open to foreigners. I went through passport control on both sides, and paid $10 for a visa to Myanmar at Mae Sai's Myanmar sister city, Tachileik. I did not get my passport back. That is kept at the border to keep me from wandering away from the couple of places I was permitted to go. I then got assigned a combination guide and keeper. I had not expected this development. Myanmar apparently really wants to make sure foreign tourists behave.

My assigned guide, Kyaw Zay Ya, turned out to be very pleasant company and a real help. So guys and gals, next time you find yourselves in Tachileik needing a guide, look him up!

My aim was the Shan city of Kengtung (or Chiang Tung or Kyaingong - lots of choices given the number of languages spoken in the area). This turned into another 5 hour bus ride.

The bus ride went through 3 security check points (the morning ride to Mae Sai had two on the Thai side). Kengtung is in a valley in hills, smoky this time of year with the fires from the area's farm villages. It was once a capital of a Shan kingdom. It has yet more beautiful temples. There is a small lake. We ate dinner at a table on its edge. The next morning (after a misadventure of my own making - the big drama of this side trip) I saw the local market, with the types of things a morning market should have and a few things it should not. This gentleman was cheerfully selling bear noses and tiger pelts and who knows what else. The temples are not as carefully maintained as most of what I've seen in Thailand. As a simple tourist, I liked their lived in quality. They were beautiful within and without, and carried a sense of age and long reverence.

With the help of some motorcycle taxis, I got to see some local villages. More of those wonderful Akha hats! I was now in an Akha hat frenzy. Well, I was interested in seeing if it would be possible to buy one. Well, I was in a hat frenzy.

And as luck would have it, back in Kengtung there was a shop ....

The next morning I checked out of the Kyainge Tong New Hotel. This might have been dire. The first night there I had managed to melt a chunk of the carpet, maybe 2.5 inches across.

Electricity is not available in the late night in Kengtung. The screen on the window in my room was not without its problems. I had bought some kind of nifty smelling mosquito repelling incense in Bangkok and had yet to try it out. I put the incense on a saucer. I managed some but insufficient foresight in deciding that the saucer might get hot enough to worry the surface of the wood furniture. I suppose it would have.

In the morning I was concerned to see that the incense had kind of made a sticky mess in the saucer. And then I picked up the saucer and eek! Kyaw Zay Ya carried the unpleasant news to the front desk. I think he undersold the problem. They said they'd look at it but I shouldn't worry. My many thanks to the understanding staff of the hotel for putting up with my idiocy when they would have been in their rights to be very difficult about it.

OK. Kengtung to Tachileik to Mae Sai and back to Chiang Rai. I was in time for some walking around town and a massage and dinner at the nightly market (not to be confused with the glories of the weekly Kaat Jiang Rameuk, but still nice), which features, at least that night, entertainment.

And that brings me to today. I am heading toward the border with Laos to see if there is enough water in the Mekong to take a boat to the south. If not, then something else.

Best regards,

Sam