Here are some photos from the temple on the mountain.
Just five weeks until Sarah and I are back in the USA! We can't wait, it's going to be awesome.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Doi Suthep
Hello! I know it's been a while since we've posted anything. We haven't really taken any trips recently, but we did visit Chiang Mai's most well known temple. Sarah's friend was visitng for a few days and we took a taxi up the mountain to visit Doi Suthep, which overlooks the city. Chiang Mai is actually in a sort of valley. It's flat, but all around the city are mountains in every direction.
Here are some photos from the temple on the mountain.
Just five weeks until Sarah and I are back in the USA! We can't wait, it's going to be awesome.
Here are some photos from the temple on the mountain.
Just five weeks until Sarah and I are back in the USA! We can't wait, it's going to be awesome.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Golden Triangle
The last day of our trip we made a side journey to the "Golden Triangle" - the area where Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos meet. I sort of thought you'd be able to stand in all three countries at the same time, but there's actually a river separating the countries. SO it's more of a tourist trap, but at we can now say we've been to the exotic "Golden Triangle." It was so exotic, we had a choice of at least 20 t-shirt stands to get our memorabilia from. The Golden Triangle actually refers to the much larger region that used to be one of the main opium trading zones, before Thailand made it illegal, turned all the opium growers into coffee bean growers and forced the industry into neighboring countries.
We took a songtaew out from Mae Sai at around 10am from trucks that had "Golden Triangle" painted on the sides as one of their destinations. The ride took about an hour. We weren't expecting much, just about an hour's worth of walking around before taking a songtaew back. Little did we know it's impossible to get a ride back to Mae Sai...
After a couple songtaews passed by that either refused to take us or just didn't stop, we started to freak out a little. We stopped into three different "taxi" offices but none of them were even open. We only had an hour and a half to catch our bus from Mae Sai and we were an hour away with no ride! As we grew more desperate I stopped into one of the boutique hotels and asked them if they could give us a ride. They said yes, but for 800 baht! (FYI the ride there was only 30 baht). We had no choice - we had to either accept the ride or be stuck in the Golden Triangle overnight, 7 hours from Chiang Mai, missing work the next day. Yikes!
We accepted the ride. Thinking we'd get a deluxe hotel taxi ride, we were a little surprised to see that our ride was a beat up pickup truck that belonged to one of the hotel's employees. During the ride back in this guy's pickup, we saw a snake crossing the road which was interesting. We finally arrived in Chiang Mai at around 8pm. It was raining, we were tired.
Look in the background, that's Laos! Or maybe Myanmar.... it doesn't really matter.
Here's a map of the Golden Triangle
Not to be confused with an actual house of opium, this is just a (museum).
It's not every day that you see signs for an opium museum.
Big buddha!
Goodbye GT (golden triangle)!!!
We took a songtaew out from Mae Sai at around 10am from trucks that had "Golden Triangle" painted on the sides as one of their destinations. The ride took about an hour. We weren't expecting much, just about an hour's worth of walking around before taking a songtaew back. Little did we know it's impossible to get a ride back to Mae Sai...
After a couple songtaews passed by that either refused to take us or just didn't stop, we started to freak out a little. We stopped into three different "taxi" offices but none of them were even open. We only had an hour and a half to catch our bus from Mae Sai and we were an hour away with no ride! As we grew more desperate I stopped into one of the boutique hotels and asked them if they could give us a ride. They said yes, but for 800 baht! (FYI the ride there was only 30 baht). We had no choice - we had to either accept the ride or be stuck in the Golden Triangle overnight, 7 hours from Chiang Mai, missing work the next day. Yikes!
We accepted the ride. Thinking we'd get a deluxe hotel taxi ride, we were a little surprised to see that our ride was a beat up pickup truck that belonged to one of the hotel's employees. During the ride back in this guy's pickup, we saw a snake crossing the road which was interesting. We finally arrived in Chiang Mai at around 8pm. It was raining, we were tired.
Look in the background, that's Laos! Or maybe Myanmar.... it doesn't really matter.
Here's a map of the Golden Triangle
Not to be confused with an actual house of opium, this is just a (museum).
It's not every day that you see signs for an opium museum.
Big buddha!
Goodbye GT (golden triangle)!!!
Monday, August 4, 2008
Mae Sai
After our night in the mountains of Mae Salong, we headed further north to the Thai/Myanmar border town of Mae Sai. After a really long songtaew ride (converted taxi pick-up truck) back down from the mountains, we boarded a bus at the side of the highway and took the 1hr trip north.
Westerners/tourists/teachers usually go to Mae Sai only to renew their tourist visas (crossing the border into Myanmar gives you a 30 tourist visa upon coming back to Thailand). It's a strange town. Sarah and I were completely unaware that the town basically shuts down at 6pm and becomes a creepy ghost villa. People are there for the day to renew visas and hang out in Myanmar (which supposedly has loads of bootleg goods and casinos). I think a lot of the street vendors live over the border and need to return before it shuts for the night at 6pm. If they don't make it in time, they probably turn into pumpkins.
There are a few guest houses however, and we stayed in one called Monkey Island, run by an ex-German engineer who retired to Thailand. The whole experience was weird, and we didn't really like being in an abandoned-by-night town overall. The guest house had only four rooms and a communal bathroom. Along with our room key, we also had the keys to unlock the front entrance! (the owner seems to leave around 7pm or so). We had to walk through a "lounge" area with a pool table, bar, and bikes/motorbikes to get to the stairs leading up to the rooms. The dude who runs the place really trusts people I guess. The worst part was the bathroom. In order for the light to go on, you had to be inside and close the door behind you. After a few-second delay, you get a few horror movie flourescent flashes where I totally expected the girl from The Ring to emerge from the toilet with her black hair in her face. Yikes, not cool!
In the end, it was all good once it was over. We woke up the next morning with one final mission - - to visit the Golden Triangle! (photos coming soon)
the road to Myanmar:
a closer shot:
abandoned guesthouse across the street from Monkey Island:
the streets of Mae Sai, before everyone disappeared!
looking at Myanmar from Thailand. Country borders are strange...
Westerners/tourists/teachers usually go to Mae Sai only to renew their tourist visas (crossing the border into Myanmar gives you a 30 tourist visa upon coming back to Thailand). It's a strange town. Sarah and I were completely unaware that the town basically shuts down at 6pm and becomes a creepy ghost villa. People are there for the day to renew visas and hang out in Myanmar (which supposedly has loads of bootleg goods and casinos). I think a lot of the street vendors live over the border and need to return before it shuts for the night at 6pm. If they don't make it in time, they probably turn into pumpkins.
There are a few guest houses however, and we stayed in one called Monkey Island, run by an ex-German engineer who retired to Thailand. The whole experience was weird, and we didn't really like being in an abandoned-by-night town overall. The guest house had only four rooms and a communal bathroom. Along with our room key, we also had the keys to unlock the front entrance! (the owner seems to leave around 7pm or so). We had to walk through a "lounge" area with a pool table, bar, and bikes/motorbikes to get to the stairs leading up to the rooms. The dude who runs the place really trusts people I guess. The worst part was the bathroom. In order for the light to go on, you had to be inside and close the door behind you. After a few-second delay, you get a few horror movie flourescent flashes where I totally expected the girl from The Ring to emerge from the toilet with her black hair in her face. Yikes, not cool!
In the end, it was all good once it was over. We woke up the next morning with one final mission - - to visit the Golden Triangle! (photos coming soon)
the road to Myanmar:
a closer shot:
abandoned guesthouse across the street from Monkey Island:
the streets of Mae Sai, before everyone disappeared!
looking at Myanmar from Thailand. Country borders are strange...
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Our bike
Sarah and I are officially owners of a motorbike! We got it through a friend of a teacher I work with. Here it is:
Isn't it nice??? It's a Yamaha Nouvo. Are these kinds of bikes even available in the US?
Isn't it nice??? It's a Yamaha Nouvo. Are these kinds of bikes even available in the US?
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