After a few days of apathy in Bangkok it was time to move on. I decided to catch the overnight train up north to Chiang Mai. The train was considerably smaller than those in India and hot as blazes but still comfortable. About an hour before we reach Chiang Mai I started talking with my neighbor passenger, Chris, who turned out to be from San Diego and had been traveling for the past six months in Fiji, New Zealand and Australia, mostly surfing. We ended up at a cheap guest house, $4/night, but were kicked out 2 days later when we didn't sign up with them for an over priced trek.
Chris and I spent about four days in Chiang Mai getting late, lazy starts, walking around and viewing lots of the Temples throughout the city, and having a few 'Monk Chats' with local monks. We looked at a few multi-day trekking options but couldn't make up our minds and decided to try and find one further north of in Laos.
One day we rented scooters and drove out of town to Doi Sutep, a large temple on a hill. Sunday night we took in the large night market and some local cuisine including crickets, bamboo worms, and ant and bee omelettes, and I finally had my first thai massage...for the $5 it cost for an hour I can't really complain, but it was lacking any real method. When we arrived in Chiang Mai we noticed that there seemed to be a lot of pollution in the air, it turned out to be inversion ('An atmospheric condition in which the air temperature rises with increasing altitude, holding surface air down and preventing dispersion of pollutants') caused by slashing and burning that was going on in Laos. On day four the inversion became bad enough that we decided to head further north in an attempt to get away from it.
We ended up in Chiang Rai, halfway between Chiang Mai and the Laos border. Unfortunately for us the inversion proved even worse in Chiang Rai, and worse still there was nothing to do or see in the more expensive town...to paraphrase the Lonely Planet, 'Chaing Rai is more suited for living than visiting'.
And so we headed out the next day to Chiang Khong and the Laos border. We got a room at the charmingly rustic 'Bamboo Guest House', with what would have been a great view of Laos sans pollution and where much to my surprise I had the best Mexican food I've had on this trip! A day wandering around Chiang Khong and breathing in the increasingly worse inversion was enough to see everything and push us to cross the border into Laos.
Photos: Chiang Mai, Chiang Khong
Chris and I spent about four days in Chiang Mai getting late, lazy starts, walking around and viewing lots of the Temples throughout the city, and having a few 'Monk Chats' with local monks. We looked at a few multi-day trekking options but couldn't make up our minds and decided to try and find one further north of in Laos.One day we rented scooters and drove out of town to Doi Sutep, a large temple on a hill. Sunday night we took in the large night market and some local cuisine including crickets, bamboo worms, and ant and bee omelettes, and I finally had my first thai massage...for the $5 it cost for an hour I can't really complain, but it was lacking any real method. When we arrived in Chiang Mai we noticed that there seemed to be a lot of pollution in the air, it turned out to be inversion ('An atmospheric condition in which the air temperature rises with increasing altitude, holding surface air down and preventing dispersion of pollutants') caused by slashing and burning that was going on in Laos. On day four the inversion became bad enough that we decided to head further north in an attempt to get away from it.
We ended up in Chiang Rai, halfway between Chiang Mai and the Laos border. Unfortunately for us the inversion proved even worse in Chiang Rai, and worse still there was nothing to do or see in the more expensive town...to paraphrase the Lonely Planet, 'Chaing Rai is more suited for living than visiting'.
And so we headed out the next day to Chiang Khong and the Laos border. We got a room at the charmingly rustic 'Bamboo Guest House', with what would have been a great view of Laos sans pollution and where much to my surprise I had the best Mexican food I've had on this trip! A day wandering around Chiang Khong and breathing in the increasingly worse inversion was enough to see everything and push us to cross the border into Laos.Photos: Chiang Mai, Chiang Khong
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