Thailand

So, we finally decide to make the break and leave for Thailand. We had planned to wait another 5 or 6 days in Malaysia to see how the politicos resolved their ‘issues’ but the weather was (uncharacteristically) so bad that another week on the beach didn’t seem like such a good idea after all. The information we were getting from people arriving from Thailand was reassuring as, apart from the disruption to travel plans in and out of Bangkok, there were no stories of any difficulties for travellers. A lot of people in Langkawi were only there because of the lack of flights into Thailand, and there were many conversations about plans of how to get around the after affects of the blockade.

As I was feeling a bit culture-deprived we agreed on a North to South itinerary with Wats (temples) and history before our next beach sojourn.

A quick jaunt on the ferryboat took us away from Langkawi just across the Thai border. Here we encountered the first major mishap of our trip. The Thai authorities had brought in a change THE WEEK BEFORE to the visa regulations and, because we had arrived through a land border rather than by air, we would only be given a 15 day visa exemption rather than the 30 day one we were expecting. This would require some careful planning as 15 days was nowhere near the 38 days we had planned on staying here! More on this later ...

We were then squeezed (i.e. 13 adults, 2 children and enough luggage to stock Maceys) into one of the local minivans. Luckily it was only a short 1 hour trip to take us to the nearest city where we could link up with transport further afield. Hat Yai, is a medium sized city catering primarily as a transport hub between Southern Thailand and the rest of the country. The buildings were fairly careworn but the atmosphere was OK and there was enough to keep us fed and sheltered until the following day when we would fly out to Chiang Mai in the North. A good meal followed by a foot massage and a beer/cider (what bliss) wasn’t a bad way to celebrate our arrival in Thailand.

However, here we also encountered our first experience of the seedier side of Thai tourism as we managed to end up in a bar where a couple of Thai women were playing tag ‘seduction’ with a Norwegian man on the last night of his holiday in Thailand. In fairness he was a willing participant, indeed he let us know of his other “girlfriends” around Thailand and it seems that having the company of these Thai women had been part and parcel of his holiday. Over the next few days we see a lot of Western men with Thai women. This is the first time that we have seen local women with Westerners since we started our trip and, inevitably, we are drawn to the conclusion that this is part of Thailand’s notorious sex industry.

We take a mid-morning flight out of Hat Yai and arrive in Chiang Mai in the North West of Thailand in time for a cup of coffee beside the river at the guesthouse we had booked. For once the guesthouse has lived up to its internet description and delivers a beautiful, tiered Thai style building with lots of teak and bamboo and a gorgeous garden that edges up to the river. It is a peaceful oasis amid the city clamour.

We spend the first 12 hours after we arrive trying to sort out a solution to our visa problem. We wear out at least 3 computer keyboards looking at the different visa regulations for the neighbouring countries and travel times and prices to see where we might easily go so that we can re-enter the country through an airport and get the extra 30 days that we need. Unfortunately, the advertised cheap flight fares are so loaded with airport taxes that it soon becomes depressingly obvious that a ‘visa run’ would cost over 300 quid. The cheaper 12 hour round trip by minvan to cross into Laos or Cambodia begins to look attractive until we realise that a) we would miss out on half of our itinerary because we would have to stay in the North of the country an extra week until our visa runs out and b) we would be spending Christmas Eve doing the visa run and Christmas Day recovering from it!!!!! Plan 452 variation 64 therefore becomes a morning in Thai immigration to extend our current visa by 10 days with an overland visa run from the Southern Islands back into Malaysia just after the New Year. This means that we can still have our Christmas on the beach (hooray, what a huge relief I hear you all echo) and will probably be able to do it by boat or at most 4 hours in a minivan rather than 12.

Chinag Mai is a delightful historic city. It was once a walled city with the added bonus of an inner moat to protect it. It is a mixture of old wooden, stilted houses and more recent two-storey, balconied terraced houses with an abundance of trees, ferns, bamboo and vines shading courtyards and gardens everywhere.

Although it is a large city with some bigger, busy main roads there are many small higgledy-piggledy lanes and cross streets. There are very few buildings over 3-4 storeys (mainly just the new bigger hotels) which helps to maintain a lovely old town atmosphere. Although tourism is a mainstay here (with bars, guesthouses and internet cafes all around) you don’t have to go too far off the main streets to be immersed in local life where no-one speaks English and you are obviously one of very few foreigners to be seen from one month to the next. The Thais that we meet are unfailingly polite and smiling – if a little bemused at our swivel necked walking style, gawping at the sights that they doubtless no longer see.

The streets are teeming with cars, autorickshaws, millions of mopeds and lined with eating stalls. Most of the local shops are the typical one room, one family enterprises that have become familiar to use all over Asia so far. A couple of the bars are obvious throwbacks to the backpacker trail and look as if they have been lifted from an old John Wayne movie set; after they had been neglected for 40 years.

The main sights and experiences revolve around the old Wats, elephants, and traditional Thai craft industries. We have managed to visit quite a few Wats as they are on practically every street corner.The architecture, decorations, temple guardians, Buddhas and mosaics are truly breathtaking.

Disappointingly, it seems that the remaining hill tribe villages have been co-opted onto the tourist trail with trips to vist them all neatly packaged into tour days that we are inclined to give a miss. Instead we have planned to hire a car with a driver for a day and will bribe them if necessary to miss every factory outlet and craft performance on the way.

The other tourist must-do is SHOPPING!!!! There are so many market places and stalls here that Brett, whose shopping tolerance is limited to 45 minutes on the Gloucester Road, is soon reduced to a pitiful wreck that even the best cafe latte can’t lift. As the shopping highlights are silk, silver, pottery and sculpture I am going to have to ditch the boy one of these days for some serious retail therapy. Ok – I’m not actually in need of the therapy part of it really but my shopping DNA is screaming at me to indulge and who am I to argue!!

Today is “Sunday Walking Street” day where they close off one of the main streets and have stalls and performances of local arts, crafts and traditions so we will give that a go and let you know anon...

Tomorrow (Monday) is a red letter day with the political situation here as the opposition party will know whether they have enough members to form a new government. Whichever way it goes there is no way to know if there will be any major repercussions so we will have to wait and see. In general, any major events have always tended to centre around Bangkok and we are optimistic that we will be able to avoid any potential fallout. If necessary, we can leave overland very quickly if things get too risky or we can hunker down out of the way of any trouble until it is resolved.