Today I took the 6 hours bus ride from Mae Sot and arrived in Chiang Mai at noon. Yesterday I took a little bit of relaxing and planning time, and decided to book a 5 days Traditional Thai Massage course in Chiang Mai, because I felt sick of traveling in crowded songtows through mountain curves and bumpy roads. A quick summary of my happenings alone in Thailand thus far follows.
My first day alone in Bangkok (2/11) was dedicated for shopping. My list of things to buy still had items in it when I finished, but I felt sufficiently stocked and ready to move on. Then I started to look for a nice place to eat and talk on the phone, but had no luck with the buses and with finding the tourist information office, and I also ran out of money without paying attention. So, by the time I came back to the hotel to pick up my luggage, I was desperate to leave the city and begin with my actual trip.
I ended up heading north to Lop Buri, town of monkeys and old ruins. I spent the night there, and in the morning of the following day (3/11) I went to wander in the town. See if you can find me in the picture (I will not tell you which one). I really enjoyed the ride on the commuter train, even though I bought a ticket for standing in a 3rd class car, and had to change places twice on the journey. The thing that made the most immediate impression on me was the warmth and the people's will to help. Thais are simply nice and helpful people!
Still on the same day, I boarded a train out from Lop Buri to the town of Phitsanulok, this time on a 2nd class car, with an assigned seat and lunch included, which I did not know of in advance. My original plans of staying in the town and visiting its little museums were altered when I met two couples from Spain and Italy and decided to join them, heading on to Sukhothai. We stayed together in a guest house in the new city, and on the next day (4/11) I went by myself to the old city, where I wandered on rented a bicycle between the old ruins.
I stayed for the night in the old city, and the next day (5/11) found me on the bus to Tak and on with the minibus (crowded van, actually) to Mae Sot. There is practically nothing to see in Mae Sot as a tourist, only a border town with Westerners who are here on NGO missions, but it is here, in Dave the Canadian's restaurant, where I met my first ravel buddies, a couple from Poland.
With my new travel buddies, I set off in the morning (6/11) on the 5 hours songtow ride to Umphang. As you can see in the picture, a songtow is a converted pickup truck with two benches in the back and a platform for luggage on the roof, on which people are often seated also. The road to Umphang is very scenic, and the views are dramatic, with the green country below, the clouds touching the mountains above, and the occasional Karen village with its wooden huts.
In Umphang we were joined by a couple from Greek and Turkey, and tailored ourselves a trek to Ti Lor Su waterfalls. The standard programme of all the trek organizers in Umphang includes elephant riding, camping overnight near the falls, visiting a remote Karen village, and staying overnight in their homes, in addition to what we did in our trek, which was riding in the trunk of a pickup truck, going to the falls, trekking in the jungle, and rafting down the river. The ride (7/11) in the trunk was bone rattling, as it went through rough terrain and muddy paths. In the falls themselves, we climbed barefoot right to the base of one of the bigger falls, where the water hits you like hail on the back. The trek in the jungle was 3 hours of climbing and then descending up and down muddy paths, occasionally sinking ankle deep in it. The Thai slang word for this mud is as same as for shit, no kidding. Then the rafting was a relaxing time after the trek, before riding in the trunk again.
We had to stay one more night in Umphang, and then took the first songtow in the morning back to Mae Sot, where we arrived yesterday (8/11) and said our goodbyes.
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