Thread: Trip Journal 3- Tha Ton, Chiang Rai & Home

That night was spent having a Thai meal by the river- the gentleman courteously allowed the ladies to organise the food, and were rewarded with molten tonsils and streaming eyes- the experience reminded me of walking through a tear gas cloud, one of the less pleasant aspects of my naval training. Then on to get quite merry at Kwans- there were some other travellers there, and a good night was had by all. She had two types of brandy when we walked in, none when we left. It was a slow morning, but it evolved into Silly Hat Day, from Kwans. Fraternising with the natives-





Maybe I was still a bit drunk from the night before, or maybe theres some opium in the local air , but somehow I got the brilliant idea that everyone should buy a silly hat. And then float down the river on innertubes towards sunset with our silly hats on.

But first some Tha ton tamadah.









An easy afternoon, a few beers, a nice coffee shop, a nice beef noodle soup lunch, just wandering around.



^ Down this soi is a guesthouse were you can rent the innertubes, The Riverside. Everyone was up for it except Ms. Precious from Bangkok, so she took these fot's from our Guesthouse. Now I reckon floating down the river on an innertube (decent current here) is about as much fun you can have with your clothes on, especially if you do it with a silly Akha hat.

I suppose we drifted for slightly over a kilometre, the idea being we would land at the landing by the Apple resort. It was great fun, and the water was surprsingly not too cold.



Coming in now- thats me in front, Mrs sabang behind, Khun E has got some ways to go.





Now at this point we bade farewell to Khun E, last seen drifting in the direction of Chiang Rai. Perhaps I should have mentioned that innertubes are not the most manoeuvrable of vessels.

Going...



Gone....

KHUN E's EPIC ADVENTURE

A muddy, bedraggled and slightly scratched Khun E returned to us about 90 minutes later. Finding a suitable landfall was more difficult than he anticipated, and he was hoping the Hilltribe villages downriver would take pity on a Drifter. He had no money or mobile phone of course, and night was descending. He finally managed a succesful landfall about 1.5 kilometres downstream, and made his way back to the road via a farm. Even the cows looked amazed to see a muddy farang wearing an Akha hat and carrying an innertube, trudging through their patch. Khun E reckons the expression on the Thai farmers face was priceless.

Innertube rafting is quite the done thing in Tha Ton.

Silly Hat Day was of course followed by Silly Hat Night.

The Boys did dinner on their own tonight (still traumatised from yesterdays chilli factor). We had a nice Thai/Chinese by the river on our side of the bridge. The girls did their culinary thing in the town, I will spare you the details. Then we found a nice humble little place run by a Chinese refugee descendant, who spoke excellent English and kept us entertained. Last drinks on the verandah, a bit wistful 'cus tomorrow was New Years Eve and we were off too Chiang Rai.

I'll certainly be in for some fishing next time- I'll prolly bring some rods.

I do know there are two sorts of fish only found locally, because the girls wanted to find some and eat them. We found one variety which we had at a riverside restaurant, but it might as well have been pig fat for all you could taste through the strong chilli and sour broth on that night.

Wiki has a piece on Thaton- Tha Ton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nice trip report. Haven't been up there is a few years and I loved it. it looks like I stayed at a place up river from you, west (north?) of the bridge. inexpensive, river views. In Mae Ai we turned west down a soi up some hills and around a few switchbacks to get us to a village the border patrol sergeant told me was an old lookout point for Khun Sa.

We were in a stone sala that would have been a perfect lookout point it was surrounded by a low stone wall, looked like a god place for a gun or two. The village was actually three villages in one, there were Tai Yai, Karien and Lisu, I remember. There was no guest house hotel but I was told a home stay could be organized if I wanted.

While wandering around the hills up there I ended up in a small valley with the red flag of Myanmar perched on a hill to the left of me, the red white and blue of Thailand perched on a similar hill to my right. Both flags had a few concrete buildings, a few cannons. Think I was pretty close to the border... border patrol in Humvees with mounted machine guns roared up and down the dirt road on occasion, little or no notice was made of my presence.

Pics and narrative remind me; I gotta get back there. Every time I go I hate to leave beautiful area hope you got lots of pics of the road to CR from there.

Didn't make Doi Mae Salong eb- something for next time. I agree- it's a lovely part of the world frankie, and the fact that it's ethnically so mixed adds to the chilled out feel of the place. The drive from ThaTon to CR, just over 90 km, was indeed nice. Firstly, you drive through an alluvial valley before climbing back into mountains before Mae Chan. After you turn right at Mae Chan for the home stretch to CR things become more urbanised.

We wanted a few hours in CR to check out the place so we departed from the Apple Resort around 10 am.



Down here were some Hot Springs, but unfortunately a small bridge had partially collapsed, so it just became a quick smoke break-





We stopped at a '3 Tribes Village'. Frankly just a tourist trap- Little there of interest. Prolly the most interesting think was noticing that quite a few of the Locals were well spaced, Opium I presume.









Stopped at some Hot Springs for a while, to stretch the legs and relieve bladders. For a few baht you can bathe in the sulphurous water, and/or get a Thai massage.



Or buy some sulphur boiled eggs at the mildly extortionate price of 3 for 20 bht-



This small lake was teeming with a species of fish that obviously does not mind smelly water-



And so on to Chiang Rai, which I would describe as a pleasant if unspectacular town. The town markets were good and interesting, the night markets probably better than most- and around this area you find a few falang restaurants and pubs. After trying the Moon and Sun (full) we came across this place, the Mae Kok Villa's or resort (?), quite close to the markets, and quite adequate for 500 Bht for an aircon room- bear in mind this was New Years Eve.



The Old Wing I believe has cheaper rooms. Seemed to be a few long stayers here- you could probably negotiate a pretty good rate.-



But really the most memorable thing about the place was the proprietal families tribe of Daschunds-



New Years Eve was spent around the night markets area. Most of us had a steak meal, having been denied this particular delicacy for some days my Argentinian striploin went down rather well, assisted by some Spanish red. And of course, for research purposes, we had to check out CR's own small Soi Pattaya. It would appear a northern GoGo consists of gyrating in a small bar in a not so small bikini, but the girls had a nice pleasant attitude compared to their hard bitten cousins from Pattaya (or Bangla) and it was all good clean fun. We saw in the New Year in a beer bar here, grimacing at the loud firecrackers being let off everywhere but admiring the many fire lanterns drifting across the sky.

Passing the main produce markets around 2 a.m, the girls did a spot of early shopping fom the vendors there, already setting up for the next years trade. Ms. Bangkok showed fine initiative by managing to find a place to buy some whiskey, if not great sobriety. A few nightcaps at the Villa's, and to bed. Except for ms. Bangkok, who paid the next day with a whopping hangover but enjoyed her further nocturnal ramblings around the markets.

All good things must come to an end however, and we had to get Khun E to Phitsanulouk airport on the morning of the 2nd to fly to Bangkok, to get himself packed and organised for a few hours before flying to Euroland. Ms. Bangkok was predictably in a bad way (and mood) so Mrs and I just wandered around, drunk some coffee, and soaked up a bit more of Chiang Rai on this New Years morning 2008.

We set off around 12.30 - the Proprietess having done us a favour really by giving Ms. B her eviction orders late morning. Destination Utteradit for an overnight stop via Phrae. The pictorial section of my journey has now ended, just some brief impressions of the substantial drive home left.

Kind of interesting signpost, somewhere around Phayao I think



Phrae- great place to buy wooden furniture. The road through is lined with shops.

Phrae- Utteradit- Very nice drive, if slow. Some lovely wooded and mountainous scenery. Mostly single lane, but the road is gradually being widened. Saw a few accidents here, nothing major.

Utteradit- bustling railway town, nothing really to see but the town had some life to it. Stayed in a slightly fading 4 star hotel for 800 bht, and had a very nice Hot Pot meal in the local shopping centre.

Next days journey was a hard one. I was the sole driver, Khun E deserved some rest for his big day ahead. Destination Pattaya- the 2nd of January was the end of the New Years holiday. Probably the worst day of the year to be driving to Bangkok, plus Ms. B wanted to wish my mother in law a happy New Year. Dropped E at Phitsanulouk airport, not really looking forward to the drive ahead. It wasn't too bad actually.

Slow going through Nakhon Sawan, traffic noticeably getting denser as we went further south. Turned off the main Bangkok route at Singburi, met the Bangkok traffic again (from Isaan) at Saraburi. Slow going through this gritty cement town.

Then to Nakhon Nayok and Prachinburi, from whence down Route 331 to Pattaya. The area south of Prachinburi came as a surprise- lowlying but very scenic, and like stepping back in time a generation. Slow drivers, agricultural vehicles- then my wife told me the area was Laotian! Quite surprising a Laotian community would have made it this far from Laos, but it did explain the hicktown feel of this pleasant area. Note to self- must come back and check it out again, it's not that far from home.

The first thing I did when hitting Mabprachan area was enjoy a couple of well earned beers at a familiar bar (the Moonraker). Then a couple more at my local shop while Mrs sabang went home and unpacked. Then Home for a tired sabang to meet some some familiar faces-



As every Traveller knows, one of the joys of travelling is the Homecoming.
Hope you enjoyed the journey.

It was a joke... sorry sabang. I will never do it again . If you google Margrethe the 2nd you will see a lot of those small dogs just like you would see a lot of corgies around the other 2nd....