Days 45/46 - Chiang Mai/Pattaya
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Wednesday 21st September
Thursday 22nd September
The tour consisted of an Aussie family from Caloundra (Mum and Dad and two teenage kids - the boy was hoping to be drafted in the AFL, we talked footy a lot!) and myself. Getting set on our mountain bikes, we set off with our guide, Sun, to our first stop: a temple. This was a really cool temple, almost like a complex - as well as statues of 'Happy Buddha' and some areas for making wishes, there was a dragon which you could actually walk inside - the inner walls depicted the life history of Buddha. It was great being with a Thai person because he could actually explain to us all about Buddhism and the different rituals. For example, we learnt that Thais pray to a different God based on the day on which they were born. We also played a game a bit like pick-up sticks - you needed to shake one stick out of an urn, and the number on the stick you shook out told your fortune (apparently I will meet a guy who will be my companion and look after me for life. It was in Thai so I'm not sure how well it got translated).
We rode through ruins of the 'old city' - apparently 700 years old - and then down to a local market. In Thailand, the shopkeepers make money by selling back the soft drink bottles, so when you order a soft drink they tip it into a plastic bag for you and give you a straw! Our guide pointed out the Thai delicacies in the market, like scorpions and Thai sausages ... I passed on both counts.
I was at the train station early at about 4:15 - surprisingly though (since the train didn't leave until 5:55pm), the train was already there. I boarded and ate my sandwich as an early dinner, starving after the hours cycling in the sun, and set about finishing my latest book, 'The Time-Travellers' Wife'. After last week's effort in which the train was over five hours late, I wasn't expecting the train to be anywhere on time, and I settled into bed not knowing where we would be when I woke up ....
The train pulled into Bangkok at 8:15am, only an hour and a quarter late - not too bad. But my journey wasn't over yet - I still had to get to Pattaya. As it was peak hour, it took over an hour and a half for the tuk-tuk I hailed to get to the Ekimai bus station, where I caught a local bus (rather than a tourist bus) to Pattaya. The bus cost only 91 baht - about $3 - for the 133km trip to Pattaya. I asked how long it would take - "About 3 hours" was the answer. However, there's a reason why you might consider taking the tourist bus ("VIP") rather than the local bus - the local bus stops every 50m or so to pick-up anyone who's standing on the side of the road! I swear it stopped every two minutes, and the bus ending up arriving in Pattaya at 2:10pm. One motorcycle trip later (I wasn't sure how he was going to fit my backpack on, but he did!) and I arrived at my hotel famished and needing a shower. (I had been travelling since 5:50pm the previous day and it was now 2:30pm; and I hadn't had a shower since 6am the previous day!)
I checked that the TV had the Australian channel, so I'd be set for the Aussie Rules Grand Final on Saturday, and then went across the road to the shopping centre for lunch (spinach quiche and Pepsi Max; had about 2 bites and 1 sip and then threw it out, both tasted off!) As I was exhausted I then fell asleep for a few hours back at the hotel and woke up only enough for a quick walk and dinner on the main beach strip before falling asleep for the night.
Thursday 22nd September
I was awake at 6am to pack my bag, sneak in an early breakfast at the hostel, and then check-out. I needed to be at the cycling office by 8am, and having checked out by 7:20am, I thought I'd have no problem. Unfortunately, there were no tuk-tuks available! I walked for about 20 minutes trying to track one down, eventually finding one on a main street and making it to the office with 5 minutes to spare.
Riding in the Thai countryside was great. We were on the outskirts of town, and if you had of passed down the streets on your own in a car you would never have known what lay behind the walls, or the significance of the buildings. We stopped in at a crematorium (!) and then a school, where we just walked straight up to all of the classrooms and said hi to the kids and teachers. Although basic, the school still had all the same features as a Western school - i.e. computer lab, garden, science lab. One point of note though was that the kids don't get desks and chairs until they reach Grade 2 - all the young ones would just draw lying on the floor! Apparently they normally had the cyclists teach them English except the class where it was normally done was on a school excursion, so we missed out.
After that we called in a local bakery, where we could all pick out a treat. We all chose the donuts, except they tasted nothing like donuts - more like bread on the bottom, with icing on the top. A sweets factory and pottery barn were next, before we took a break from the heat at about 11:45am at an orphanage. The orphanage had been opened two years ago and was managed wholly by two couples, looking after 30 children in a large house. 50% of their costs were met by a Dutch charity, but to help fund the other 50% they had started serving lunch to visiting tourists. The lunch was delicious - noodles in curry with egg and some dried noodles on top. They even had a fridge with soft drink, all included with our tour cost!
Five and a half hours are starting out, we arrived back at the office, all quite grotty but exhilarated at the experiences we had had. The tour was that well organised that they already had a taxi waiting for us to take us back to our accommodation. I shared the taxi with the family but asked to be dropped off at the local shopping centre instead, as I wanted to purchase snacks for the upcoming train ride. I also bought a take-away sandwich from the 'Amazing Sandwich' shop I had eaten in the other day; purchased some US currency in preparation for Cambodia; and had a quick foot massage, partly to fill in time before the train.
I was at the train station early at about 4:15 - surprisingly though (since the train didn't leave until 5:55pm), the train was already there. I boarded and ate my sandwich as an early dinner, starving after the hours cycling in the sun, and set about finishing my latest book, 'The Time-Travellers' Wife'. After last week's effort in which the train was over five hours late, I wasn't expecting the train to be anywhere on time, and I settled into bed not knowing where we would be when I woke up ....
The train pulled into Bangkok at 8:15am, only an hour and a quarter late - not too bad. But my journey wasn't over yet - I still had to get to Pattaya. As it was peak hour, it took over an hour and a half for the tuk-tuk I hailed to get to the Ekimai bus station, where I caught a local bus (rather than a tourist bus) to Pattaya. The bus cost only 91 baht - about $3 - for the 133km trip to Pattaya. I asked how long it would take - "About 3 hours" was the answer. However, there's a reason why you might consider taking the tourist bus ("VIP") rather than the local bus - the local bus stops every 50m or so to pick-up anyone who's standing on the side of the road! I swear it stopped every two minutes, and the bus ending up arriving in Pattaya at 2:10pm. One motorcycle trip later (I wasn't sure how he was going to fit my backpack on, but he did!) and I arrived at my hotel famished and needing a shower. (I had been travelling since 5:50pm the previous day and it was now 2:30pm; and I hadn't had a shower since 6am the previous day!)
I checked that the TV had the Australian channel, so I'd be set for the Aussie Rules Grand Final on Saturday, and then went across the road to the shopping centre for lunch (spinach quiche and Pepsi Max; had about 2 bites and 1 sip and then threw it out, both tasted off!) As I was exhausted I then fell asleep for a few hours back at the hotel and woke up only enough for a quick walk and dinner on the main beach strip before falling asleep for the night.
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