Thailand!

Hello Blog.  I've been remiss.  We've been in Thailand for a whole month and I haven't written.  It's not that I haven't had stuff to write about.  It's been fabulous - we still love Thailand, even more than before if that's possible.  But when I think about writing how great it is, it feels like gloating.  Or when I want to complain about something (like when Matthias and I want to kill each other) I think, who am I to complain about anything?!  Then again, I'm the main audience for the blog - the only one who reads it (more than once, anyway) and it's my memory bank and photo album,..so here goes.  And it's a good day.  I don't hate Matthias and he doesn't hate me - yet.

A particularly good moment on the river in Lampang

We have loved our time in Thailand, and are quite sad that we have to leave because our 30 day visa is up. We planned to make a day trip over to Myanmar to extend our visa (and spend the day in Myanmar) but we heard while we were here that you can't extend your visa that way anymore.  There are other ways to extend a tourist visa, but we're too cheap to pay the $100+ for just a few days more.  So, tomorrow we're going to Cambodia.

Thinking we had more time in Thailand, we took our time heading north - taking short train/bus hops instead of the overnight train.  After Lopburi, mentioned in the last post, we stopped in Phitsanulok, which was okay, and then spent five nights in Lampang, which was great.  Lampang is a nice smallish city with a river flowing through it, great tourist facilities (the tourist office "rents" bicycles for free) and cheap/nice accommodation (Pin Hotel - recommended!).  It was also far enough north that the weather was nice - not too hot.  One day we rented a motorbike and rode out to the elephant hospital, another day I took a bicycle along the river.  Other than that, we just walked around and enjoyed the sights, smells and tastes.

Bike Ride in Lampang

Baby Elephants at the elephant hospital

Wooden Temple (Wat) in Lamang

After Lampang we decided to head to Phayao, a lakeside Thai resort town (not too many foreigners) where we had been two years ago.  High season was in full swing and I felt fortunate to be able to get a reservation for three nights at a nice hotel there.  The hotel provided free bikes, which we used to ride around the town one day.  The next day we rented a motorbike and took a ride around the lake and through the countryside.  We spent Christmas there (celebrating with a fish dinner) and then we set out for Chiang Rai, where we rented motorbikes for our ten-day tour.  We were doing the golden triangle again, but in the opposite direction as two years ago with a few extra/different stops.

Sunset over the lake in Phayao

Yummy Khao Soi in Phayao - the best we've had

On the motorbike ride in Phayao

Our first ride was to Phu Chi Fah - a mountaintop resort area with spectacular views of the Mekong - or so we're told.  It was quite busy, but we were able to get a bungalow in the village before heading out to the mountain's peak (steep ride plus short hike up to the viewpoint).  Unfortunately, it was really foggy and we couldn't see much.  It was still pretty cool though (actually quite chilly).  We had a nice open-air dinner overlooking the valley and got to watch a cool rainstorm (under cover).  The big thing to do at Phu Chi Fah is to go up to the viewpoint early in the morning to watch the sunrise over the Mekong.  But we decided to skip it since it was so foggy (yeah, and because we were too lazy).  

The "view" from Phu Chi Fah - the Mekong is down there somewhere!

In the clouds at Phu Chi Fah

The next day we rode down the mountain to Chiang Khong, a riverside town with access to the Laos border. Chiang Khong used to be busier because tourists often spent the night before catching an early morning ferry to Laos. However, the opening of the new Friendship Bridge in 2013 8km south of town made it easier for people to make it to Laos in one day from Chiang Rai or Chiang Mai.  As a result, I think, the accommodations were plentiful and cheap - we scored a place for about 8 bucks (Boom Guesthouse - no A/C needed) and had a nice dinner across the street at the Jam guesthouse.

Easy to see the Mekong from here

We rode a short 50 km along the Mekong River the next day to the town of Chiang Saen, one of our favorites from our 2014 trip. While the place we stayed last time - run by an elderly Singaporean man - was not in business anymore, we found an even better place ("Room for Rent" - no English name) about a two minute walk from the riverside night market.  We spent new years eve there and enjoyed riverside dining, lantern lighting and random fireworks displays  Also I "won" a Chiang Beer at the local bar, just as Matthias was ready to head home, so that kept him with me until midnight.

Lighting our New Year's lantern

I won a beer!

After two days in Chiang Saen we rode to Mae Salong - a mountain village settled by Kuomintang Chinese and surrounded by hill tribe villages.  Being the new year's weekend, the busiest holiday week in Thailand, it was chock full of (Thai) tourists.  But it was still nice. We retraced our journey from two years prior, riding on small lanes through hilltop villages.  The next morning - my birthday - we started off with a delicious Khao Soi for breakfast and rode a short distance down the mountain to Tha Ton, a lovely and quiet village on the Mae Kok river.  We "splurged" for the $17 riverside hotel room and took a beautiful ride through the hills near the Myanmar border.  Then we enjoyed a few beers and a lovely and delicious riverside dinner.  A great birthday!  We decided to stay another day and ride through the nearby villages and rice paddies, along with another trip up in the hills.

Best birthday breakfast - Khao Soi!!

Birthday dinner on the river

Morning view of Mae Kok river from our hotel

Morning view from the Wat

We wrapped up our ten-day tour with  two nights in Fang, which doesn't see a lot of tourists but made a great base for a (steep and windy) ride up to Doi An Khang, another mountaintop village near the Burmese border.  Had a good lunch up there (Khao Soi, of course) and I visited the agriculture park/botanical garden while Matthias stayed outside in the plaza to warm himself up in the sun (he was really cold but I think he also didn't want to pay the entrance fee.)

Selfie in the Agriculture park

English Rose garden, Thai style

We really wanted to keep going, but we needed to start heading south toward Cambodia as our Thai tourist visa was about to expire and we had already applied for our Cambodian visa. So we took our motorbikes back to Chiang Rai (with a quick trip up the river to see our elephant friends in the Karen Village) and prepared for our journey to Bangkok.  I had absolutely no desire to go to Bangkok, but Matthias convinced me it was important to go to the dentist to get our teeth cleaned.  I did have fond memories of the overnight train ride, so I was excited about that.  But as things tend to turn out - the train ride was somewhat of a disappointment (no beer available, food wasn't included and we didn't bring any of either) but Bangkok was fun!  We stayed near the backpacker ghetto close to (but not on) Khao San Road and found a dentist right away who was able to squeeze us in that day (fortunate, as two other people were turned away while I was waiting).  Okay, the teeth cleaning was not fun, and it turns out that I may need a filling or two, but the rest was quite nice.  We enjoyed walking around Banglamphu by day and people watching at night.  On our second day there, we took the express boat up to a nice morning market in Nothanburi and in the afternoon took a bus to a huge weekend market (Chakuchak market, I think), which wasn't really our thing but somewhat interesting.  After another evening of cheap beer, grilled fish and more people watching, we caught a minibus for the five-hour journey to Trat the next morning.

Elephant village by Chiang Rai

Bangkok from the express boat

People watching in Bangkok

While we were less than enthused about leaving the lovely cool weather in northern Thailand for the sweltering heat of the south, we found Trat to be lovely  Trat is known as a necessary stopover on the way to Koh Chang, a popular island.  But since Koh Chang wasn't our goal, we decided to stay two days.  For its size Trat has a quite a large day market, and a bustling night market with great food.  On our second day there, we rented a motorbike and rode out to a local beach....and OMFG, we instantly got over our sadness about leaving the north! The beach was gorgeous - and nearly deserted! And the restaurant serving seafood noodle soup was open!  After that, I started to question our decision to move on to Cambodia. But move on we did (since I started writing this post) to where we are right now.

The beach by Trat - Au Ton Ku

That little dot is Matthias in the water - Koh Chang is in the background

It was an easy trip from Trat through the border (since we pre-purchased our Cambodian visas) to the small town of Koh Khong.  This is another town that doesn't see a whole lot of tourists because it's possible to get to the seaside resort town of Sihanokville in one day.   But we've got 30 days to spend in Cambodia and we decided to take our time.  Found a lovely hotel here right by the river - quite a big river as we're close to the sea - and although it's very hot here, the breeze on the river is nice.  We rented bicycles today and rode out to a mangrove park, enjoying the quiet roads and smiling faces Cambodia has to offer.  Glad we came and glad we decided to spend two days here.  We're off to Sihanokville tomorrow.  Perhaps I'll have more time and more desire to write on the beach.

Welcome to Cambodia - sunset on the river in Koh Khong