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My Southeast Asian Swan Song: In the Heart of Thailand

Sunday, February 20th, 2005

So… I made my way into Ayuthaya iself on the back of a motorcycle with my big pack on my back to boot. This was much more harrowing than the motorcycle taxis in Cambodia since in Thailand the roads were good enough that they could actually drive fast. But, all the same, I was there.

I stopped in at my first choice guesthouse and much to my surprise ran into two of the Czechs I’d arrived in Sukhothai with. Sadly, there were no single rooms available there, so I was directed next door. They had one remaining 100 baht/night room, and while it wasn’t much in the spaciousness department it was clean and had a comfortable bed in it. Sold.

I spent most of the rest of the afternoon writing, before heading off to dinner where I ran into the whole Czech crew. They invited me to sit down with them and we managed to have an entertaining chat despite the fact that only a few of them spoke English.

I made an early night of it in hopes that I could get an early start on my explorations of Ayuthaya the next morning. While the room was hot and sticky (being on the second floor as it was) the fan provided adequate ventilation and I managed a pretty good sleep.
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Places in Northern Thailand That Aren’t Pai (Chiang Mai [again] and Sukhothai)

Wednesday, February 16th, 2005

With the length of time I spent in Sukhothai I (and any regular readers out there, doubtless) probably began to doubt if I’d go anywhere ELSE in Thailand. Though I did spend a lot of time there, it left me feeling re-generated (odd, given that the majority of my stay was spent either drunk, hungover or sleeping) and ready to hit the road again.

As discussed in my last entry, I climbed aboard the 12:00 bus from Pai to Chiang Mai. What was not discussed there was how difficult it was. The bus showed up with every single seat full (it originated in Mae Hong Son) and there were still a LOT of people who wanted to get aboard.

After hoisting my pack up to waiting hands at the back of the bus I squeezed myself in the front door and found a place to stand. I thought I’d had it bad on some of the bus trips in Cambodia and Laos, but they had nothing on this. There were 51 people on the smallish bus. It had seats for 26. I spent the entire trip standing up, usually with my legs wedged uncomfortably between people, seats or pieces of luggage. For a significant portion of the ride, one of my feet was stuck under a backpack that had someone sitting on it. Furthering the unpleasantness of the whole business were the puking baby and the fact that I was almost always out of reach of hand-holds, making it very difficult not to topple onto someone during the twisty, hilly, 4 hour ride.

It wasn’t all bad, however. I had a nice chat with a pair of women from Gaspé who, while appalled at the quality of my French, were gracious enough to speak English for most of our conversation.

Finally, after what felt like (and I know I use this phrase a lot, but that’s because it’s felt like it a lot) an eternity we arrived in Chiang Mai and disembarked.
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Life In Pai

Monday, February 14th, 2005
As discussed previously, I arrived in Pai (the P's pronounced sort of halfway between a P and a B) and was pretty happy with what I saw. I got my bearings then took a wander down to the river ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Back Into Thailand: Chiang Mai Re-visited

Saturday, February 5th, 2005
After crossing the Mekong (almost certainly for the final time on this trip) I climbed up the road and back into Thailand. This time my port of entry was the border town of Chiang Khong. Re-entering the country ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Northern Thailand’s Central City: Chiang Mai

Thursday, December 16th, 2004
Arriving in Chiang Mai International airport was almost an anticlimax after the beauty of Sukhotai Airport, but it was still a simple and painless experience. Our bags were ready for collection quickly, and the airport authority runs a centralized ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Bangkok: An Interesting, But Thoroughly Unmanageable City

Monday, December 13th, 2004
Within about half an hour of arriving in Bangkok, I'd already come to the conclusion that even visiting the place would take a lot of mental energy. And the only reason it took that long was because I spent ... [Continue reading this entry]

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