Wednesday 21 November 1990
Breakfast as served on the train to Chiang Mai was English style eggs, bacon and sausage but with coffee to drink. The train stopped at Utaradit just after getting up at 07:30, a town just north of the Sukathai so it would be a good choice for an overnight journey leaving Bangkok at 22:00 to this old capital. We thoroughly enjoyed that morning gradually rising through the jungle on the single track rail, writing as we reached 500m indicative of the flatness of much of Thailand.
I was reading Julian Barnes 'A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters' for the first time and reflecting on my choice of this book for a Christmas present to my bible incensed very religious dad. It is an amusing but clinical debunking of the Ark and the superiority of man exposed by a stowaway woodworm. In chapter 2 an Arab terrorist high-jack of a classical history cruise anti Israeli view, likening their tactics to those of Nazi Germany.
On arrival at Chiang Mai we were again met by the usual bury of touts. Joan chose the AT Guest House as did many others who met in the back of a songthaew, a mini truck. The room and the house were just clean enough but then for 80 baht with window and own toilet who could really argue. We spent the rest of the day walking to the TAT to get a street map and an invaluable bus time table and then to DK Books looking for maps but ending up with a selection of fabulous cards destined to convey Birthday and Christmas greetings.
We met up with Craig and Frances later that evening who had our 240 B refund from the trip to the elephant round up. They had signed up for a 1400B trek for four days and two nights involving elephant rides and rafting, we would have done the same but there were no more vacancies. They recommended DARETS Guest House 100B, two Americans had decamped from the AT GH to Happy Home where they were quite satisfied but paying 320B. We returned to the AT but found the beds hard and creaky.
Thurs 22 November
We went to catch a bus to San Kamphaeng but went with a songthaew we took us there for the same price 4B. At the factory we saw the complete silk manufacture process from the history of the moth/silkworm to the uncoiling of about 20 cocoons being inter-twisted into a single thread, it's dyeing and straightening before weaving into cloth.
Joan ended up buying £56's worth, half 4x1 metre for herself and a dressing gown in the same material for Judy.
The driver had waited over an hour and then took us to an umbrella factory where they started by making the paper heating bamboo into pulp in vats, the frames were also made of bamboo and the paper was attractively decorated.
Finally he took us to the lacquer factory a process starting with teak wood carved into objects and sealed with clay where the 5 coats of enamel drying and smoothing before a final two coats of gloss. The decoration was formed by etching back to the wood using eggshell and inlays with mother of pearl plus painting white or gold leaf. So were made the traditional impressive ornaments from beautiful simple boxes and trays to bracelets and rings on cores of silver, to large decorative wooden room screens.
That evening I chose a restaurant packed with Thai's in this very touristy town, a meal spoilt in Joan's eye when I followed the Thai habit of ordering a half bottle of whisky and virtually finishing it off!
23 November, Chiang Saen
We had decided to head north and spend a night at Chiang Saen on the so called Golden Triangle where the borders of Thailand Burma and Laos meet beside the Mekong river. First there was a four hour journey to Chiang Rai, pleasant enough until the AC system failed, the deliberate absence of opening widows left us very hot, luckily there was a bottle of iced water and croisants in the price. On arrival we changed bus and 90 minutes later were in Chiang Saen, where free mini cabs were offering to take us to the town's main GH where we found it full, probably a favour since the smaller nearby Suree GH was ideal.
A stroll to the beautiful banks of the Mekong, bought a few pieces from the small market. Got into the museum with just thirty minutes to go, like the town it was full of history. There were many ruins nearby, including the temple just outside our GH, a testament to the fact that this now tiny un-feted village had been a capital city 200 years previously.
Near the Mekong we came across a vert interesting Open Day for the local school with Physics exhibitions, English lessons with language labs, it was all there including Arithmetic and Art. At the heart of the exhibition was a modern Japanese instrument for automatically testing your eyes driven by a guy taking readings of the refractive index as he moved a target around the eye a complete circle. At the end of which there was a print out of your prescription with a graph of variation around the 360 degree circle. They even had a machine making your lenses but at £50 a shot they were not getting orders. Amazing to she such advanced technology at the smallest, most remote village we had visited in Thailand.
That evening we went back to the school to be blasted by the disco and entertained by the school kids dancing to singing rock groups. We retired to the refreshment tents before viewing our first Thai boxing match, the feet being used to trip as well deliver flying karate style kicks, and of course using the fists to punch as well. The bouts usually degenerated into wrestling with attempts to trip each other. Probably not Thai boxing at its most skillful!
Saturday 24 November
There were very powerful touristy boats at the small town of Sop Ruak in the Golden Triangle (for long a world centre of the Opium trade) offering round trips for 350B but we opted for a smaller one at 60B, sufficient nevertheless to get the feel of this unique meeting of the boundaries where the Mekong sweeps north in a change of direction. The influence of Burma was even more obvious in the long street market of tasteful souvenir shops and restaurants.
After walking for a mile, passing the market we watched a lady prepare the Thai spicy papaya salad delicacy of Som Tam for herself. She crushed ingredients with a pestle and mortar, chilli, peanuts, a small crab, dried shrimps, tomato, spices, papaya and soya. We bought which became a real favorite for me, a challenge at first though I suspect far too hot for Joan's delicate taste.
After that I got into a conversation with a group of young men and boys which helped greatly with my pronunciation of Thai. I had already developed a feeling for the importance of being able to speak local languages and had studied this one with the help of Linguaphone CDs. Though I never found learning foreign languages easy, whilst working I had got a good grade in O level Italian (which I took at the time because the evening classes for Spanish were full) and a median A level pass in French also from two years of evening classes. Later I was to add linquaphone Malay wishfully thinking it would cover Indonesian as well and finally Mandarin in preparation for our trip West to East across China in 2006. All now in 2017 forgotten - but I hope still recoverable.
As we were leaving the Som Tam encounters an English couple driving a canvassed pick up truck offered us a lift back to the Golden Triangle. We also arranged to meet later for a lift back to Chiang Mai where they were staying. In the meantime we bought an embroidered skirt for Joan and two Golden Triangle T-shirts. They picked us up as promised. Stopping at a remote one hut petrol station we were bought four small possibly plover eggs sold in a basket, thinking they were hard boiled I was about to break the shell, horrifying the small girl who had sold them - the real technique was to cook them in the hot spring with a well top lowering the basket on a fishing line.
We ate them with soya in the back of the van. We were very pleased for the lift arriving in Chiang Mai by 7pm rather than the 10pm of the bus, they refused any payment but we exchanged addresses. That evening we ate four dishes at the Thai restaurant noting we were getting a feel for Thai cuisine.
25 November, Pai
Picked up a van/cab for minimal charge to the silk factory to pick up Judy's dressing gown. Then thinking to assist him to get more rewards for introducing customers moved first to the lacquer factory where we bought another three bracelets for £15 for Christmas presents.
The final stop at the driver's request was a wood carving shop where the carvings in solid teak were attractive but the solid teak furniture was out of this world, though one would need huge rooms to justify purchase, for instance £2400 for a set of one large and two small coffee tables plus four easy chairs and a three/four person sofa, with lots of carving. Onto an ornate eight seater dining set but finally resting on a teak table of simpler design for £1868-£1762. Each placing had it's own built in drawer Very tempting the price included pacing and insurance but not freight charges. Looking back we realised how near we were to buying something too big for our needs, and still feel a sigh of relief.
Breakfast as served on the train to Chiang Mai was English style eggs, bacon and sausage but with coffee to drink. The train stopped at Utaradit just after getting up at 07:30, a town just north of the Sukathai so it would be a good choice for an overnight journey leaving Bangkok at 22:00 to this old capital. We thoroughly enjoyed that morning gradually rising through the jungle on the single track rail, writing as we reached 500m indicative of the flatness of much of Thailand.
I was reading Julian Barnes 'A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters' for the first time and reflecting on my choice of this book for a Christmas present to my bible incensed very religious dad. It is an amusing but clinical debunking of the Ark and the superiority of man exposed by a stowaway woodworm. In chapter 2 an Arab terrorist high-jack of a classical history cruise anti Israeli view, likening their tactics to those of Nazi Germany.
On arrival at Chiang Mai we were again met by the usual bury of touts. Joan chose the AT Guest House as did many others who met in the back of a songthaew, a mini truck. The room and the house were just clean enough but then for 80 baht with window and own toilet who could really argue. We spent the rest of the day walking to the TAT to get a street map and an invaluable bus time table and then to DK Books looking for maps but ending up with a selection of fabulous cards destined to convey Birthday and Christmas greetings.
We met up with Craig and Frances later that evening who had our 240 B refund from the trip to the elephant round up. They had signed up for a 1400B trek for four days and two nights involving elephant rides and rafting, we would have done the same but there were no more vacancies. They recommended DARETS Guest House 100B, two Americans had decamped from the AT GH to Happy Home where they were quite satisfied but paying 320B. We returned to the AT but found the beds hard and creaky.
Thurs 22 November
We went to catch a bus to San Kamphaeng but went with a songthaew we took us there for the same price 4B. At the factory we saw the complete silk manufacture process from the history of the moth/silkworm to the uncoiling of about 20 cocoons being inter-twisted into a single thread, it's dyeing and straightening before weaving into cloth.
Joan ended up buying £56's worth, half 4x1 metre for herself and a dressing gown in the same material for Judy.
The driver had waited over an hour and then took us to an umbrella factory where they started by making the paper heating bamboo into pulp in vats, the frames were also made of bamboo and the paper was attractively decorated.
Finally he took us to the lacquer factory a process starting with teak wood carved into objects and sealed with clay where the 5 coats of enamel drying and smoothing before a final two coats of gloss. The decoration was formed by etching back to the wood using eggshell and inlays with mother of pearl plus painting white or gold leaf. So were made the traditional impressive ornaments from beautiful simple boxes and trays to bracelets and rings on cores of silver, to large decorative wooden room screens.
That evening I chose a restaurant packed with Thai's in this very touristy town, a meal spoilt in Joan's eye when I followed the Thai habit of ordering a half bottle of whisky and virtually finishing it off!
23 November, Chiang Saen
We had decided to head north and spend a night at Chiang Saen on the so called Golden Triangle where the borders of Thailand Burma and Laos meet beside the Mekong river. First there was a four hour journey to Chiang Rai, pleasant enough until the AC system failed, the deliberate absence of opening widows left us very hot, luckily there was a bottle of iced water and croisants in the price. On arrival we changed bus and 90 minutes later were in Chiang Saen, where free mini cabs were offering to take us to the town's main GH where we found it full, probably a favour since the smaller nearby Suree GH was ideal.
A stroll to the beautiful banks of the Mekong, bought a few pieces from the small market. Got into the museum with just thirty minutes to go, like the town it was full of history. There were many ruins nearby, including the temple just outside our GH, a testament to the fact that this now tiny un-feted village had been a capital city 200 years previously.
Near the Mekong we came across a vert interesting Open Day for the local school with Physics exhibitions, English lessons with language labs, it was all there including Arithmetic and Art. At the heart of the exhibition was a modern Japanese instrument for automatically testing your eyes driven by a guy taking readings of the refractive index as he moved a target around the eye a complete circle. At the end of which there was a print out of your prescription with a graph of variation around the 360 degree circle. They even had a machine making your lenses but at £50 a shot they were not getting orders. Amazing to she such advanced technology at the smallest, most remote village we had visited in Thailand.
That evening we went back to the school to be blasted by the disco and entertained by the school kids dancing to singing rock groups. We retired to the refreshment tents before viewing our first Thai boxing match, the feet being used to trip as well deliver flying karate style kicks, and of course using the fists to punch as well. The bouts usually degenerated into wrestling with attempts to trip each other. Probably not Thai boxing at its most skillful!
Saturday 24 November
There were very powerful touristy boats at the small town of Sop Ruak in the Golden Triangle (for long a world centre of the Opium trade) offering round trips for 350B but we opted for a smaller one at 60B, sufficient nevertheless to get the feel of this unique meeting of the boundaries where the Mekong sweeps north in a change of direction. The influence of Burma was even more obvious in the long street market of tasteful souvenir shops and restaurants.
After walking for a mile, passing the market we watched a lady prepare the Thai spicy papaya salad delicacy of Som Tam for herself. She crushed ingredients with a pestle and mortar, chilli, peanuts, a small crab, dried shrimps, tomato, spices, papaya and soya. We bought which became a real favorite for me, a challenge at first though I suspect far too hot for Joan's delicate taste.
After that I got into a conversation with a group of young men and boys which helped greatly with my pronunciation of Thai. I had already developed a feeling for the importance of being able to speak local languages and had studied this one with the help of Linguaphone CDs. Though I never found learning foreign languages easy, whilst working I had got a good grade in O level Italian (which I took at the time because the evening classes for Spanish were full) and a median A level pass in French also from two years of evening classes. Later I was to add linquaphone Malay wishfully thinking it would cover Indonesian as well and finally Mandarin in preparation for our trip West to East across China in 2006. All now in 2017 forgotten - but I hope still recoverable.
As we were leaving the Som Tam encounters an English couple driving a canvassed pick up truck offered us a lift back to the Golden Triangle. We also arranged to meet later for a lift back to Chiang Mai where they were staying. In the meantime we bought an embroidered skirt for Joan and two Golden Triangle T-shirts. They picked us up as promised. Stopping at a remote one hut petrol station we were bought four small possibly plover eggs sold in a basket, thinking they were hard boiled I was about to break the shell, horrifying the small girl who had sold them - the real technique was to cook them in the hot spring with a well top lowering the basket on a fishing line.
We ate them with soya in the back of the van. We were very pleased for the lift arriving in Chiang Mai by 7pm rather than the 10pm of the bus, they refused any payment but we exchanged addresses. That evening we ate four dishes at the Thai restaurant noting we were getting a feel for Thai cuisine.
25 November, Pai
Picked up a van/cab for minimal charge to the silk factory to pick up Judy's dressing gown. Then thinking to assist him to get more rewards for introducing customers moved first to the lacquer factory where we bought another three bracelets for £15 for Christmas presents.
The final stop at the driver's request was a wood carving shop where the carvings in solid teak were attractive but the solid teak furniture was out of this world, though one would need huge rooms to justify purchase, for instance £2400 for a set of one large and two small coffee tables plus four easy chairs and a three/four person sofa, with lots of carving. Onto an ornate eight seater dining set but finally resting on a teak table of simpler design for £1868-£1762. Each placing had it's own built in drawer Very tempting the price included pacing and insurance but not freight charges. Looking back we realised how near we were to buying something too big for our needs, and still feel a sigh of relief.
No comments:
Post a Comment