In Thailand the Queen's birthday is celebrated on August 12. The royals are so popular here it means that Mother's Day is celebrated on this day and there is also a public holiday. Tom and Claire go to a bilingual school, so this was a big event. The regular mother's day stall and fanfare prevailed as well as a concert performed on the 11th. I was fortunate enough to be working, so Trev and Annie went in my place and the video footage they returned with was painful. I did forewarn them that these events are never run on time and the pot luck lunch that we needed to take a plate for would be bedlem with some families taking enough food and others grossly undersupplying yet still heaping their plates full. This did occur and at one stage it seemed there might have been some nasty words spoken. The loud sound system that had been ear splitting for the past 3 hours gave up the ghost just as Tom and Claire's class was about to sing. Tom and Claire came home bearing funny little hats as part of their costumes and some unique mother's days cards.
It was also my first week of school with students and some colleagues Katherine and Garry invited us out to enjoy a pork knuckle. Yes, Trev and I are still not over our year where we lacked in the pork supply although I am pleased to say we are limiting ourselves in the pork crackle consumption on our daily market trips. They took us to a place called the Country Garden which ironically was the first restaurant we ever went to when we came here for our honeymoon ten years ago. The table was full of pork legs and towers of beer with good conversation flowing freely. It's the wet season here and the heavens did open on us just as it was time to motorbike home, although this did not ruin a fantastic night.
Thursday morning we awoke ready for our first Thai roadtrip. Annie and Trev had been tasked the research for this during the week and had come up with a north eastern loop to include Chiang Rai, Mae Sai border town, the Golden Triangle and Chiang Saen town of ruins. We also needed to include an elephant ride for tourist Annie and we were sure this would not be a problem at all.
The problem came though in the amount of beer consumed on the Wednesday night from the fun beer towers. The road to Mae Chan leaving Chiang Mai is a bit windy and I get car sick when I am healthy. So with Claire and Tom both asking for toilet stops before we'd even made it off the superhighway it was going to be a long slow 180km to Chiang Rai. First tourist stop was the San Kampheng hot springs. Tom had flaked it in the car just before we arrived, so it was up to Claire to enjoy hard boiling some eggs in the bubbling warm water. The smell of sulphur was doing nothing for mine or Annie's head or stomachs but we endured this. A little further up the hill we came across the welcome to Chiang Rai province banner which advertised 3 must see sites. Lucky for us the first was another hotspring labelled as the highest hot spring in Thailand. I was not sure if this meant the geist spurting out went the highest or its physical location above sea level was the highest. It didn't really matter Tom and Claire got to finish off cooking their hard boiled eggs, while us adults enjoyed some noodle soup and roti.
Back in the car we were almost through the first windy section of road and spirits began to soar. We passed a place called "Cabbages and Condoms" which was some kind of organisation promoting alternative crops to opium as well as family planning and HIV prevention. A few funny signs including the The Rubber Triangle rip off of the The Golden Triangle were essential. Our eyes were now firmly set on the Chiang Rai Winery as our next stop. This meant about a 10km drive off the main road and as we got nearer to the final destination we noticed a distinct lack of grape vines, yet an overwhelming supply of rice fields. So the speculation and laughter began on what we would actually find. The Chiang Rai winery turned out to be a very nice setting amongst lychee and mangosteen orchards and yes were were drinking fruit wine. The kids had a terrific time playing with the dogs that were lazing around the wine cellar and a good run to stretch their legs.
Back to the car for a bit more windy hilly country to take us almost into Chiang Rai, we stopped for the obligatory corn cobs from street side vendors and soon found ourselves a little outside Chiang Rai. On our left was the second must see tourist destination from the banner we passed a few hours ago. It was an amazing white sparkly temple. Being a public holiday it was packed, however mostly packed with locals not overseas tourists. Some parts were closed but apparently there are some images of the twin towers and Neo from the matrix which aren't terribly common in these places. Again a few funny pictures were taken of signs, Trev got some odd looks as he took a "how to wee properly" sign in the men's toilets.
And then it was into Chiang Rai. Any royal holiday normally means that bars do not open because it is forbidden to sell alcohol on these days. The guest house researched and chosen was closed so a back up plan was quickly devised and we ended up staying at Jansom's which was a clean and tidy place. Dinner was at the Night Bazarre a much smaller scale place than Chiang Mai but nice and comfy all the same.
Next morning we headed north for about 50km to the the Mae Sai border crossing. Trev needed a new visa and Annie wanted a new stamp in her passport. The kids and I are still waiting for my work permit to be processed so we left the two adventurers to walk the bridge into Myanmar and we headed for Doi Tung (which is still in Thailand). At the top of Doi Tung is a royal villa that the King's mum had built when she returned from Switzerland and she also left a legacy of environmental protection and reforestation. In 1988 Doi Tung was a barren hill after it had been over logged by the locals. The King's mum in her 70s and 80s rallied for the reforestation of this area and today it is an amazing lush rainforest. The north of Thailand is also well known for its opium poppies and drug related problems so in recent years a push has been underway to convince farmers there are other financial crops. Doi tung supports both coffee beans and macadamia nuts now.
Back to Mae Sai to pick up the world travellers and then on to the Golden Triangle. Signs in Thailand are mostly in Thai language with the major destinations and big towns being in the pinyin form of Thai. We followed the signs to the Opium Hall of the Golden Triangle and found ourselves on a very muddy and slippery detour. Big trucks were losing traction and at some stages were wondered if the little sedan were were in was going to make it. Always though a Thai driving a big cat would call us through telling us it was safe to continue. We arrived in the town Sop Pruek which is where Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet. Some years ago Trev and I stayed in a fancy hotel so we revisited this just to see what the price was in the low season. The perk of the hotel was you could look over the river from your balcony or bathroom and see two other countries. It was insanely high for Thailand let alone in the low season so we continued on and chose to have a beer from a roadside vendor and do the same anyway. The weather was dismal and we headed on to Chiang Saen the town of the ruins for accommodation.
Chiang Saen is a not much town in good weather and in the rain is even more limited. We stayed at Gin's guest house which was comfortable enough but if you have the time I'd recommend seeing the ruins and keeping on going. We met a lovely dutch couple who were bicycling northern Thailand and some of Laos. I headed into town to pick up take away dinner and came back with a steamed fish inside a bamboo pole that had been in a charcoal fire, some corn, papaya salad, sam tom or it might be tom sam and rice (both sticky and plain) and greens with garlic. We had plenty of beer from the esky and sharing peculiar food and drinks is a good way to travel.
Next morning the kids were both up at sparrows, so Trev and I headed off for a quick drive before anything got going. A market stop and a coffee were needed and then we looked at the map for a destination for the day. We hear there are waterfalls and interesting places to visit in this area, although I am sure that this would be the case in good weather, but the mud and gunk were wearing thin. We headed back west to Mae Chan and then wound our way through some hills until we found an elephant park. Annie and the kids had a ride and then we stopped in at a few hill tribe places. Tom jumped around wearing a hat with bells all over it to the delight of the locals yet the appeal for us all was to head back to Chiang Rai and clean up.
We stayed again at Jamson's and then beelined back to Chiang Mai the next morning. No adults were suffering so the return leg was much quicker, although lil Claire may have experienced some queezy belly car syndrome so we stopped for a foot spa at the highest hot spring again and then down the last windy bit of road into Doi Saket. An afternoon at Dorklag's land near Doi Saket finished the long weekend with a bbq and Mae Sai plum wine.
