Friday, December 26, 2008
The lost boys
We left Luang Prabang via slow boat to the Laos-Thailand border on December 19. Our journey along the Mekong River spanned two days, with an overnight stop at the tiny, generator-powered town of Pak Beng.
Arriving finally at the Lao border town of Huay Xai past sunset, we spent our last night in Laos at a very good, and surprisingly well-priced, restaurant -- after I’d had my requisite hot shower, of course.
Early the next morning, we were ferried across the Mekong River towards Chiang Khong in Thailand. As we approached the immigration post, Jim and I caught sight of two Argentinean girls, each struggling to drag a backpack, suitcase, and duffel bag up the muddy slope. I photographed the scene to document the classic example of over-packing, but soon paid my karmic dues as my camera went missing that very afternoon in Chiang Mai.
We reached Chiang Mai after a painful five hours on an overcrowded minibus, passing an incredible number of flags, images of the King, and other such patriotic displays along the way. Once in Chiang Mai, we farewelled British backpacker Nash, who we’d met on our first day on the boat and had become a reliable card-playing sixth throughout the journey.
Nestled in the mountains of Northern Thailand, the city of Chiang Mai is home to about 1 million people. Once the capital of the 13th century Lanna kingdom, modern Chiang Mai is built around a moat and defensive wall, within which are remnants of a dilapidated old city.
While it lacks the high-rise cityscape that characterises a metropolis, Chiang Mai is a decently sized, well-developed city, complete with operational traffic rules, international restaurants and franchises, and true high-speed Internet. With life in Chiang Mai costing a fraction of what it would in comparable Western cities, I could see how it had become a modern-day Isle of Circe in Mik’s and Eli’s Odysseys.
We saw Mik for the first time in several months by Chiang Mai’s busy Sunday Market. Arriving on his ‘baby’ scooter, he packed us onto a songthaew (a taxi of sorts) and checked Max, Jim and I into the very nice Baan Chinnakarn guesthouse.
THB 250 (AUD$11) per night bought us a large double room at the guesthouse that featured a hot shower, TV, bar fridge, fan, outdoor washing area, dressing table and wardrobe. An additional THB 50 would buy us wired Internet access; however Jim and I chose to dine at the neighbouring Mexican restaurant and access its wireless network from our room instead.
It is wintertime in Chiang Mai, but we wouldn’t have known it had we not seen Eli wearing a ski jacket and two pairs of trackpants to dinner on Sunday night. I, in a knee-length skirt and loose-fitting shirt, had barely thought to bring a jacket that night, and afternoons are so warm for Jim and I that we have often sought sanctuary in air-conditioned cafes.
During the lead up to Christmas, we spent our days ten-pin bowling, bar-hopping in the Old Market, playing pool and marvelling at the numerous bar girl-Farang (white-skinned foreigner) pairings at a bar called Number One, and getting our boogie on at Spicy’s, a dodgy nightclub said to be one of the few open past 2am.
On Christmas Eve, Mik, Eli, their group of young expatriate friends and Thai girlfriends introduced us to the wonders of Mookata. Held in a warehouse bustling with no less than 300 patrons, Mookata is an all-you-can-eat hot pot-cum-barbeque. Each group of two to four diners gather around a coal-heated, steel pot in and on which food is cooked, while meat, seafood, vegetables, noodles, sauces, pre-cooked entrees and desserts are displayed buffet-style on rows and rows of tables.
We met up with the same group of people for Christmas lunch, which was on a floating restaurant in the nearby national park. After lunch, Mik led Joel, Viren, Max, Jim, myself, and his girlfriend Zuki on a fireworks-shopping expedition and three-hour-long pyromania session by the Military Hotel to herald in Boxing Day.
Joel, Viren, Max, Jim and I were spending a lot of time together, and differences in personalities and lifestyles were putting a strain on the group dynamic. On Christmas night, after a particularly polarising evening and a little too much drunken ‘banter’ from the boys, I decided that I needed a little more time alone.
Meanwhile, in a hotel room not too far away, Max had made a similar decision. And so the group split into three the very next day, with Max heading to Koh Samui with two other Australian friends he had bumped into in Chiang Mai, Mik leading Joel and Viren southwards to Bangkok, and Jim and I heading straight to our New Years destination, Lonely Beach on Koh Chang.
Arriving finally at the Lao border town of Huay Xai past sunset, we spent our last night in Laos at a very good, and surprisingly well-priced, restaurant -- after I’d had my requisite hot shower, of course.
Early the next morning, we were ferried across the Mekong River towards Chiang Khong in Thailand. As we approached the immigration post, Jim and I caught sight of two Argentinean girls, each struggling to drag a backpack, suitcase, and duffel bag up the muddy slope. I photographed the scene to document the classic example of over-packing, but soon paid my karmic dues as my camera went missing that very afternoon in Chiang Mai.
We reached Chiang Mai after a painful five hours on an overcrowded minibus, passing an incredible number of flags, images of the King, and other such patriotic displays along the way. Once in Chiang Mai, we farewelled British backpacker Nash, who we’d met on our first day on the boat and had become a reliable card-playing sixth throughout the journey.
Nestled in the mountains of Northern Thailand, the city of Chiang Mai is home to about 1 million people. Once the capital of the 13th century Lanna kingdom, modern Chiang Mai is built around a moat and defensive wall, within which are remnants of a dilapidated old city.
While it lacks the high-rise cityscape that characterises a metropolis, Chiang Mai is a decently sized, well-developed city, complete with operational traffic rules, international restaurants and franchises, and true high-speed Internet. With life in Chiang Mai costing a fraction of what it would in comparable Western cities, I could see how it had become a modern-day Isle of Circe in Mik’s and Eli’s Odysseys.
We saw Mik for the first time in several months by Chiang Mai’s busy Sunday Market. Arriving on his ‘baby’ scooter, he packed us onto a songthaew (a taxi of sorts) and checked Max, Jim and I into the very nice Baan Chinnakarn guesthouse.
THB 250 (AUD$11) per night bought us a large double room at the guesthouse that featured a hot shower, TV, bar fridge, fan, outdoor washing area, dressing table and wardrobe. An additional THB 50 would buy us wired Internet access; however Jim and I chose to dine at the neighbouring Mexican restaurant and access its wireless network from our room instead.
It is wintertime in Chiang Mai, but we wouldn’t have known it had we not seen Eli wearing a ski jacket and two pairs of trackpants to dinner on Sunday night. I, in a knee-length skirt and loose-fitting shirt, had barely thought to bring a jacket that night, and afternoons are so warm for Jim and I that we have often sought sanctuary in air-conditioned cafes.
During the lead up to Christmas, we spent our days ten-pin bowling, bar-hopping in the Old Market, playing pool and marvelling at the numerous bar girl-Farang (white-skinned foreigner) pairings at a bar called Number One, and getting our boogie on at Spicy’s, a dodgy nightclub said to be one of the few open past 2am.
On Christmas Eve, Mik, Eli, their group of young expatriate friends and Thai girlfriends introduced us to the wonders of Mookata. Held in a warehouse bustling with no less than 300 patrons, Mookata is an all-you-can-eat hot pot-cum-barbeque. Each group of two to four diners gather around a coal-heated, steel pot in and on which food is cooked, while meat, seafood, vegetables, noodles, sauces, pre-cooked entrees and desserts are displayed buffet-style on rows and rows of tables.
We met up with the same group of people for Christmas lunch, which was on a floating restaurant in the nearby national park. After lunch, Mik led Joel, Viren, Max, Jim, myself, and his girlfriend Zuki on a fireworks-shopping expedition and three-hour-long pyromania session by the Military Hotel to herald in Boxing Day.
Joel, Viren, Max, Jim and I were spending a lot of time together, and differences in personalities and lifestyles were putting a strain on the group dynamic. On Christmas night, after a particularly polarising evening and a little too much drunken ‘banter’ from the boys, I decided that I needed a little more time alone.
Meanwhile, in a hotel room not too far away, Max had made a similar decision. And so the group split into three the very next day, with Max heading to Koh Samui with two other Australian friends he had bumped into in Chiang Mai, Mik leading Joel and Viren southwards to Bangkok, and Jim and I heading straight to our New Years destination, Lonely Beach on Koh Chang.
# posted by liz : 4:48 PM
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