Back on the mainland now, having left Koh Tao behind. I find it depressing, even a little distressing this mask wearing business. I would say that at least 90% of Thai’s wear a mask constantly. Whether they are inside, outside in wide open spaces, on the beach or riding a motorbike. Even little children are often masked, which is awful. Their government has really done a number on them and they truly believe it does them some good. Despite the fact that no foreigners that I have seen, whether from Europe, the Americas or Australia wear one here, me included. This means in some popular tourist areas the majority are unmasked and yet the penny doesn’t seem to have dropped with the Thai’s, apart from a hardy few, that nothing bad will happen to them.
First stop of the day was to pick up some headphones I’d left in a hotel on the way down to Koh Tao and then head off to Hua Hin. This is a few hundred km north of Chumphon and is a popular tourist destination. It’s on the sea, but we didn’t get down to the beach as it was getting late. We walked close to it and there are many seafood restaurants that have jetty’s jutting out into the sea where you can sit and eat. The electricity pylons here are a real birds nest of wires, how it all works without exploding is a miracle.
There is a big western influence here, but I found an excellent soup that had tamarind in it, which changed the flavour quite a lot from the usual Thai soups. There was a good night market, with a great selection of clothes and I bought a white linen collarless shirt. The seller thought to persuade me to buy, by telling me they were made in Chang Mai, which is known for making these types of shirts. I said to him, perhaps I should wait to buy one as I would be there in a few days. He promptly shut up, but I bought it anyway.
Next day was onwards to Ayutthaya, the former capital of Siam(Thailand) as was, until the 17th century. It’s about a hours drive north of Bangkok.
There are numerous ruined temples dotted all over the town and they are definitely worth a visit. Before this we stopped off at Khao Wang, which hosts several ancient and ruined temples itself. They are perched on top of a hill overlooking the town and the hill is crawling with monkeys, who are quite naughty. They will steal anything and they grabbed a banana out of my friend’s hand and ran off with it.
There is a cable car that you can take to the top. I normally would walk, but it’s midday and very hot.
It appears that variable pricing has finally made it over the border from Laos to Thailand as there is increasingly a tourist price and a Thai price. I paid 5 times as much to go up to the temple as my Thai friend and this carried on at all the other temples we visited in other towns. It appears we tourists are regarded as nothing more than cash cows to be fleeced at every opportunity. My friend was very embarrassed about it and kept apologising for the disrespect shown to me and all the other foreigners, by her countrymen.
After enjoying a mid afternoon traffic jam around Bangkok, we arrived in Ayutthaya. We had a lovely little hotel with a balcony overlooking the river and in close proximity to the ruined temples of which there are dozens dotted all over the town. The centre of the town is surrounded by various rivers on all sides, sometimes there is a river and then another river outside of the first river, so the town is ringed twice in many places. You cross a river and you think you have made it out, but no you haven’t. It’s nigh on impossible to get in and out of, especially after my phone ran out of battery and therefore a map! The words of the song Hotel California came to mind!
I thought that a photo shoot and or an advert were being filmed at some of the temples as there were quite a few Thai’s wearing beautiful traditional dress, while they were being filmed or photographed. Actually I discovered that you can hire the outfits just for fun and have some souvenir photo’s taken. The Wat’s (temples) are impressive and reminiscent of Ankor Wat in Cambodia, albeit on a much smaller scale. Some aren’t really all that old though, as quite a few date from only 400 years ago. My house is around that age and in a lot better condition, well most of it anyway! Some however are a lot older.
There is a little floating market on the edge of town, although the only thing floating about it is that it’s by a river. There are also lots of elephants there, which made for an amazing sight. For lunch we had the Ayutthaya boat noodles, which are famous throughout Thailand. I had them in a broth of the most wonderful tasty soup, very spicy and they were really excellent.
Not much in the way of nightlife here or places to eat and the second night we ate a takeaway on the balcony overlooking the river with the stars twinkling overhead. The food was stlll great though as it was various grilled Thai meats and vegetables.
Today I’m in for the long haul and heading north to Lampang, which is around 550km north of here and only 100km south of Chang Mai. The vehicle overloading here is classic, god knows how much all that beer weighed, but it was nearly touching the ground. I wish I’d got the photo of the one with the chairs piled at least 4 metres high above the car.
It’s a long way, but we stopped for lunch at one of those market/motorway service stations and had some fabulous deep fried chicken with a spicy dipping sauce. The vendor chopped it into pieces and added a little wooden skewer so it was easy to eat.
I really like Lampang, there was an amazing night market that stretched along the whole length of a long road and up some side streets too. Before that we stopped at a bar for a well earned drink after 7 hours on the road. The seats were so comfortable and the ambiance so nice that we decided to eat there as well. It was mainly a Japanese restaurant, but incredibly good prices. Five decent size pieces of tuna sashimi was about £3, the wasabi came in a pot and you spooned it into a little bowl adding the soy sauce and mixing it yourself to the strength you wanted. Wasabi, which is a type of horse radish, for those of you that dont know, is seriously hot! I added some kimchi and a couple of other vegetable dishes for another £2. Not only was it amazing value , but the sashimai was excellent as well.
We went back in the morning to the street with the market on and it was abandoned. To think they set it all up every day, hundreds and hundreds of stalls. Stopped off for an iced coffee before hitting the road again.
It’s an easy drive up to Chang Mai from Lampang and it took about and hour and a half. On the way I was bemused to see a road sign that I can only describe as telling you not to play the trumpet. It was the usual type of sign, circular and white with a red border. It’s a very long time since I did the highway code, but I don’t remember being told not to play the trumpet while driving down the motorway. It soon became clear, at least my interpretation of it. Just afterwards there was another sign warning of elephants and a nearby elephant sanctuary. They were obviously concerned that trumpet playing passers by might be mistaken for another elephant. I wonder if I would have trumpeted in an english accent ?
Another sign warning of potential elephants on the highway certainly puts our warning signs of deer to shame.
Chang mai is busy, busy, busy despite it being a sunday and parking is difficult. Luckily there was some space by the hotel, but driving around in the car will be difficult and I plan to hire a motorbike tomorrow. The hotel is just by the night market and our room has two balconies overlooking the action. Its a big room and even has two bathrooms. The decadence of it 😉 See you in the next post !
