March 1st - 11th: Thailand is not Bangkok

Modes of transportation: Bike, bus, moto, pick-up (songthaew).

Places visited: Warin Chamrap, Ubon Ratchathani, Chiang Mai, Chiang Dao.

Costs of things: Beer ($1.25-$2.50), Meals ($1 to $5), hotel ($4 - $23)


As we sadly left Laos for Thailand on what our map showed as a 110km ride from Pakse to the first major town after the border, Ubon Ratchathani, we slowly realized that our map was not so precise and that we were in for a 140km day. At the border we met the same guy that we had befriended in Paksong (see the blog entry for February 25th to March 1st) who told us about a cool place to stay in a town a few kilometers outside of Ubon called Warin Chamrap. Upon leaving the border station, we realized a couple of things: we would have to get used to riding on the wrong side of the road again and the economic level of Thailand was far beyond that of Laos, made obvious by the quality of the roads and the groomed gardens on the medians.

Our opinion of Thai people was also upgraded quite a bit compared to the feeling we got from many of the people in Bangkok when we first arrived in Thailand back in December. Not knowing where to find the guesthouse that was recommended to us, we rode around town a bit until a kind man noticed us a couple of times and actually led us to the guest house on his own bicycle. He was so generous that he even offered to give us some money when we offered to compensate him for his time! After our experiences in Bangkok, we were expecting there to be some strings attached, but it turned out that he was just being genuinely helpful. We would go on to learn that Thais are generally very kind, friendly and giving.

The next day we rode into Ubon Ratchathani and secured passage on an overnight bus ride to Chiang Mai. With a few hours to kill, we went to a fitness park, where they had set up a whole array of exercise stations including a basic free weight gym. The following morning we arrived in Chiang Mai , the largest and most culturally significant city in northern Thailand. It was founded as the capital of the Lanna Kingdom in 1296 by King Menrai, who constructed a moat and a wall around the city to protect it from Burmese raids. While the city has expanded well beyond those walls and the moat, they still exist, making riding around in Chiang Mai a challenge until one gets a handle of which one-way streets go which way.

The best decision we made was to spend a little extra to stay at the Spicythai Backpackers hostel (http://www.spicythaibackpackers.com/). If you ever plan on traveling to northern Thailand, do yourself a favor and book a bed there, you'll be happy you did! The guy who runs it is named Pong and he has done an amazing job in giving this place the best atmosphere possible. He organizes many group outings, including going to an incredibly huge Thai BBQ buffet, hotsprings and to amazing bars. We were able to get three nights in the only private room in the hostel, but wanted to stay one more night before heading north, so we actually pitched a tent on the roof of the hostel!

Aside from enjoying our time and new friends at Spicythai, we spent a good deal of time in Chiang Mai getting our wedding plans underway, with the first step being to get affidavits signed at the Canadian Consulate. As we spoke with other travelers at the hostel, we got some good ideas of what we could do to make the day special and ended up enlisting Pong to help out as our pseudo wedding coordinator. Due to having a week long delay for the paperwork to get down to Bangkok and back for certification, we decided to go for a hike up a mountain about 75kms north of Chiang Mai, in a place called Chiang Dao.

It was nice to get out of the city after a few stressful days of wedding planning. The ride into a more mountainous region felt great, as we were missing the beautiful rides we had experienced in Vietnam and Laos. It turned out that planning an inexpensive overnight hike up Doi Chiang Dao (one of the three highest peaks in Thailand at 2285m) was not such an easy task, but with the help of a couple who own a restaurant and guesthouse in town (Mon, a local and Kurt a German-Canadian), we were able to get things done. The planning took a little longer than we expected so we had an extra day that we spent at a local hotspring (yeah, we like natural hotsprings).

Borrowing a tent and some blankets, we rented a couple of motos and headed up to the starting point to meet our porter. It was a long and difficult ride on the moto, bringing back memories of our ride in Cambodia up to Bokor (see blog entry for December 22nd to January 6th). While the hike was not as long as we had hoped, it did provide for some incredible scenery, including sunset and sunrise on different peaks. Sharing some local whisky and attempting to make conversation over dinner with our Thai-speaking porter was a lot of fun and we also got to introduce him to some good western indie music. Turned out that we didn't quite do the big hike that Kurt had described to us, but it was a cool experience nonetheless.