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Wilson's World Tour
Rather than just heading to some gorgeous sandy beach and staying there for a month, we decided to be a bit more adventurous and head up to North Thailand and hopefully absorb a bit of the real Thailand and visit some hill tribes, see some remote Wat's and immerse ourselves in Thai life. We then plan to find that gorgeous sandy beach when we go back down to see Sam's dad !. Afterall we don't want to return to England without a tan !.
Our destination was Pai, a fairly remote village about 600km from Bangkok. We decided to break the journey up a bit as we were in no rush and discovered there were some pretty amazing things to see along the way.
The first leg of our journey we took by train. It was pretty good, certainly no worse than the trains in the UK and had AC of sorts. The journey took about five hours and they even served us a meal all included in the price of the ticket which was less than 5 pounds each ! We got off at Phitsanlock, made famous by it's flying vegetables !(more on that later !).
We hadn't booked any accomodation so had a quick look in the lonely planet and right on cue a 'taxi' man appeared. His 'taxi' was a motorbike which had been seriously converted. The back of the bike was fairly standard, the front however was a little different ! The front wheel and forks had been taken off and a rectangular platform with two wheel at the front had been welded on. The handle bars where incorporated into the 'platform' and so the 'platfrom' steered the bike. It also meant that as passengers you were at the business end of things and I'd imagine wouldn't make very good crumple zones !
Anyway, we got to the hostel, it seemed pretty good, the only trouble was the old guy who ran it, didn't speak a word of english. A half hour game of charades ensued and we eventually established a price, a remote for the AC and that we didn't want a motorbike or a massage !.
We headed out in the evening to have a look around, Phitsanlock like a lot of towns is situated next to a river and it appeared most of the entertainment and social activities were based a long it. As we approached the river we became aware of some really loud speed garage type music being played and someone shouting over the top of it. We got closer and realised it was the towns keep fit class ! There must have been several hundred women working out, following a typically over enthusiastic instructor. We carried on walking and next came across a group of six men playing a cross between basketball and keepy up. They appeared to be in three teams of two all stood in a circle, opposite their other team member. In the middle of the six was a basket suspended from a tree branch. The idea then seemed to be to get the ball in the basket, but without using your hands and without the ball dropping on the floor. Some of them had head pads and shoulder pads, they looked pretty ridiculous, but it was quite addicitive to watch.
A little further there was a big group of people sat around low tables, I thought they were having a picnic, but on closer inspection they were having a painting competition !. There were also BMX'ers and skateboarders and a lot of people jogging along the rivers toepath. It was such a brilliant sight to see, the whole town seemed to be out doing something.
We carried on along the river and found a floating restaurant. The food was good but I was suckered into having a beer which cost as much as the food put together ! Still, it was still a lot cheaper than a beer in the UK !
We walked back down the river looking out for the legendary flying vegetables, we found them ! It originally started when a rather flamboyant chef used to 'fling' his cooked food out of his wok onto a plate. They've then taken this and made it into a bit of an artform. So that now the chef stands with his back to the catcher, who stands a good 20ft away on top of a platform, hurls the cooked food behind him and the catcher lands it on a plate. Is was quite funny to watch, but sadly also felt a bit like being in a TGI fridays when they all sing happy birthday.
The next morning we left for Suckhothai, this time by bus and gladly only one hour away. Suckhothai was the historical capital of Siam. As a result it is now a world heritage site and contains hundreds of wat's and ruins ! It covers such a large area you need to hire a bike to see it ! We caught the local bus from our hostel and got dropped off at the entrance to the old city. We had been told to rent a bike from inside the city as they were better and cheaper. So we set off on foot in the sweltering heat, only to discover half an hour later that where we had been dropped off was where we should have rented the bikes ! Once we'd walked back and got the bikes we began to enjoy the place. Sadly a lot of the areas are in a pretty poor state of repair, but you can imagine how impressive the area must have been in it's heyday. There were some huge Buddhas, beautifully carved and a lot of them had moats around them. We cycled around for a couple of hours, but eventually the heat became too much and we retreated to the relative cool of our hostel.
The next day we got another bus to Chang Mai, the major city in the North of Thailand. It took about five hours and wasn't particually comfortable, but five hours isn't the end of the world !. We didn't want to hang around for too long as we knew we'd be flying back down to Bangkok from here in about ten days time when we'd have a couple of days to explore. So we found a hostel and just tried to relax, before the final leg of the trip to Pai.
The bus to Pai left at about 1130 the next morning, we assumed we'd be able to get a bus with AC, but sadly not. We were able to sit near the front, but we had about 12 inches of leg room, enough for a Thai, but not two 'big boned' English people. So the four hour journey winding through the foothills, wasn't the most comfortable experience, its times like thoes I wish I did yoga ! The only positive was that beacuase the bus was so old and clapped out, the driver couldn't go fast around the hairpin bends a la South America. We eventually got to Pai, a little stiff but excited to be there.
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