November 2016 - Page 2 of 2

Elephants (& tigers) & butterflies, oh my!

20161104_155550 — Riding elephants while they feed in the jungle

Today was the day we ride elephants in the jungle! We’d booked this outing months ago, deciding on Blue Elephant tour on the recommendation of my niece-by-marriage, Christie. This was something we really wanted to do, but there are a lot of elephant tours in the area–some of questionable repute–so it was good to have real data we could trust. We wanted a private tour, caring treatment of the elephants and extended, quality time with them. Christie didn’t steer us wrong!

Our day started at 8:30am with a pick-up by private car at our hotel. Our driver and guide for the day, Zen, turned out to speak good English and we enjoyed visiting with him about Thailand, America and children. (He has a teenaged daughter and son so we spent some time discussing university and job opportunities and costs in our countries.) We had a full day scheduled with the elephants to come at the end.

Our first destination was the temple at Doi Suthep on a mountain overlooking Chiang Mai. We could see the golden rooftops of the temple complex sparkling in the distance from our hotel balcony. The drive took thirty minutes or so after leaving the city, winding our way upward through lush jungle. Zen let us off at steps leading to a cluster of souvenir stalls at the base of the long stairway leading to the temple complex.

20161104_093101 — 400+ steps to Doi Suthep, flanked by the customary dragons

20161104_093453 — At the top of the stairs

20161104_093938 — View of Chiang Mai from the terrace of Doi Suthep

20161104_095845 — With our flower and candle offerings before beginning our ritual 3 circuits of the golden stupa

Zen gave us all the time we wanted to explore the temple complex. We did the ritual 3 circuits of the golden stupa with our flower and candle offerings which we laid before the Buddha afterwards. The weather was delightfully cooler up in the mountains and the crowds relatively light although more and more people arrived during our well-timed visit. At the rate the complex was filling, it looked to be crowded by midday.

Our next stop was an orchid and butterfly farm. I wondered if this might be a bit of a tourist trap, but it turned out to be a beautiful place, filled with orchids of many colors, and with no sales pressure whatsoever. The butterfly portion of the visit made me laugh out loud with delight. Butterflies were everywhere! I was some yards in before I registered the truly huge butterflies on the net roof above–mottled tan and at least 8″ across! I couldn’t resist pointing them out to 2 Chinese girls ahead of me who were equally amazed.

20161104_112755 — Orchids grown suspended with roots trailing

We next made a quick stop at a local market where Zen purchased fruit and sticky rice snacks for later.

20161104_125536 — Fruit and other snacks at the market

Lunch was scheduled for “Tiger Kingdom,” a stop I had some misgivings about. When we booked, I was told we could take advantage of this stop to take photos with tigers. In looking into this, I was put off by posed photos of people draped across tigers, pretending to bite their tails, etc. The only way this seemed possible was to seriously drug the tigers, something I wanted no part of. Sure enough, when we got to Tiger Kingdom, that was exactly what seemed to be the set-up. Dining areas were set up around large open-air pens where tigers lay sleeping until visitors were led in to pose with them. Sometimes, a handler would raise the tiger’s head and it would hold its head up, eyes open, but not moving. When the photo was taken, the tiger would plop its head back down, out again. A buffet lunch at Tiger Kingdom was actually very good, but we wanted no part of the tiger pics.

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Our next destination was Mok Fa Waterfall in a nearby national park. We changed into bathing suits, expecting to swim in pools like we’d found at Kuang Si in Laos. Instead, there was really only one swimming hole at the base of the falls. The falls were beautiful, no doubt, and I loved the idea of being able to get in and under a high fall like that…but not when I had elephant riding to do next. I just didn’t think I wanted a head of wet hair. David–whose hair is a lot shorter and quicker-drying than mine–did get in, enjoying the water with a group of tatooed French backpackers.

Finally, it was time for elephants! Zen gave us our traditional mahout (elephant handler) clothes to change into at the waterfall dressing rooms. We looked kind of ridiculous in the cropped blue tunics and huge, baggy knee-length pants. Oh well, we were all-in for the experience. Zen briefed us on elephant commands as we rode:

“sigh” (shake your right leg) = left
“kwa” (shake your left leg) = right
“bye” (push with both feet on the elephant’s ears) = go
“houww” (push down with feet) = stop
“toy” = back up (hop back with your body)
“dee dee” = “good elephant” (a praising phrase)
“bone” = lift trunk

The car rolled through rural areas, past several elephant camps, before pulling into the driveway of a building where we swapped the car for a pick-up truck for the final, bumpy stretch to the Blue Elephant camp.

We arrived at a dirt parking area around which a number of buildings clustered. Three elephants were in a clearing just beyond a long, open structure with picnic tables where we left our things. In no time, we were introduced to our elephants and led to a stand where we mounted and were on our way. We sat far forward near their heads to reduce the side-to-side motion of their walking. Our palms rested on the twin bumps atop their skulls, soft flesh under rough skin sparsely covered with thick, prickly hairs. We liked petting and stroking them, leaning over to rub their trunks or cheeks. On steep downward slopes, we could grab onto the loop of a rope around their middles.

The true elephant handlers walked with us as we rode, more in control (usually by grabbing an ear as they spoke) than we were with our newly-learned commands. It didn’t really matter much, though; the idea was to let the elephants graze where they wanted, within reason, in the jungle. I say “within reason” because there were a few times where David’s elephant drifted off up steep hillsides and where both of ours seemed alarmingly close to very steep drop-offs as they stretched and reached for the choicest flowers, banana trees or bamboo. At 2-3 tons each, the thought of tumbling downhill with one was sobering. I couldn’t even imagine the physics behind their natural counter-balancing, though, so had to assume they knew how far they could reach without falling. Their power was impressive as they ripped up huge chunks of bamboo, munching 1.5″ diameter poles like we would shredded wheat. At one point after David’s elephant was pulled back onto the trail with a big banana leaf and stalk trailing from her mouth, mine grabbed the other end, stripping the tasty leaves in a funny, lumbering tug-of-war.

20161104_162750 — I loved watching my elephant drag her trunk through the cool water as she walked; it obviously felt good.

We made our final way back to camp, wading through a creek. [There’s a video with the handler singing on the way back on Wanderwiles’ FB page. Beautiful!] We were handed baskets of cut sugar cane, a routine clearly familiar to the elephants as questing trunks reached up for the treats. We dished the sweet sticks out quickly as the demanding trunk made rapid trips from our hands to their mouths. As a final end to the experience, we waded into the water of a dammed spot in a stream to bathe a lucky elephant. She kneeled down to let us scoop water over her and scrub her thick skin with brushes. A perfect end to our elephant time!

20161104_163110 — Back at camp: Feeding the girls sugar cane treats after their dinner buffet

20161104_212211 — A bath after dinner is always nice!

After changing back into our own dry clothes, we found a feast of fruit and sweetened sticky rice treats laid out for us on one of the picnic tables. It was enough for 4 people and I couldn’t eat again until the next day. We had about a 1.5-hour drive back to Chiang Mai, putting us back at the hotel around 6:30pm.

The entire day with Zen and Blue Elephant cost 12,000 baht ($342.86) for the both of us (6,000 baht per person). We tipped another 1000 baht ($28.57), most of which went to Zen and 100 baht (Zen’s suggested amount) to each of the 3 elephant handlers. Blue Elephant offers 1-3 day tours. We chose the 1-day Elephant-Doi Suthep tour. You can learn more at: http://www.blueelephantthailandtours.com/index.php

Temples of Old Chiang Mai (& a prison lunch)

20161102_181156 — Wat Phra Singh on our first evening in Chiang Mai. A royal temple established in 1345.

Since our hotel, Rendezvous Classic House, is in the old city of Chiang Mai, we decided to spend our first full day here exploring some of the many Buddhist temples (wats) the city is famous for. A moat surrounds the brick walls of Old Chiang Mai, enclosing a maze of streets and narrow alleys. First impressions of this part of Chiang Mai were mixed as we discovered a serious shortage of sidewalks or safe places to walk, even on the main roads. Walking requires weaving around stalls, parked cars and scooters meaning you’re frequently walking among the swarming traffic. It’s hot, too. Still, we made our way to the first wat on our list, Wat Chedi Luang, without any real difficulty.

Wat Chedi Luang is renowned for two things in particular: the Vihara, a building that houses the “City Pillar” or Inthakhin Pillar, and the semi-ruins of a huge ancient chedi. The main temple is also impressive with its elaborate golden facade and soaring interior.

20161103_104134 — Inthakhin Pillar Vihara at Wat Chedi Luang temple complex

20161103_104127 — No women allowed. This kind of sexism gets a little old. Funny to read the semi-apologetic “rationales” on some of these sorts of signs, though.

20161103_104433 — Facade of the main temple at Wat Chedi Luang

20161103_104818 — Buddha in main shrine at Wat Chedi Luang

Behind the main temple stands the crumbling ancient chedi or stupa, the largest in Chiang Mai and the largest Lanna structure at the time it was built. An earthquake in 1545 destroyed the top 30m. The Emerald Buddha, which was housed there at the time, was afterward moved to Luang Prabang, Laos, before eventually finding its way to Bangkok.

20161103_105655 — Ancient chedi–the largest in Chiang Mai–at Wat Chedi Luang.

20161103_110556 — Monks at Wat Chedi Luang

The all-wood Wat Phan Tao lies just next door to Wat Chedi Luang. It is much smaller than Wat Chedi Luang, but is a beautiful example of classic Lanna architecture.

After leaving Wat Phan Tao, we continued our walk north. The day was gorgeous, but hot and we couldn’t resist ducking into an air-conditioned little cafe for delicious iced coffees. Coffee arabica is grown in northern Thailand and we’ve found the coffee here to be really good. Refreshed and recharged, we continued our walk on to Wat Chiang Man, a beautiful temple famous for the elephant statues surrounding its gold-topped stupa.

20161103_124032 — At Wat Chiang Man with the elephant stupa in the rear right

20161103_124656 — Elephant stupa at Wat Chaing Man

Our stomachs were indicating lunch was in order. On impulse, we ducked into a truly unusual lunch venue: the Chiang Mai Women’s Correctional Institute Restaurant. This nice little café, shop and Thai massage parlor is run by women from the local prison as an effort to train and rehabilitate them for employment after incarceration. We enjoyed our traditional Thai lunch and the friendly service. My khao soi was the best of the trip. Khao soi is a northern Thai specialty made with a mix of deep-fried noodles and boiled egg noodles, pickled mustard greens, shallots, lime ground chillies fried in oil, and meat in a curry coconut milk sauce served with yellow crisp-fried curry noodles. Uniformed guards checked up on us along with waitresses in simple beige pant-and-tunic outfits.

20161103_134259 — Servers at the Chiang Mai Women’s Correctional Institute Restaurant

Last on our list of must-see temples for the day was Wat Pra Singh. We’d actually seen a bit of this temple the evening before on our first stroll through Old Chiang Mai. (See lead photo above.) A large group of military-looking people in white uniforms with black arm bands were gathered there for some event. We’d peeked in, but decided not to risk intruding on what may have been yet another in the many mourning events going on around the country for the recently deceased and much-loved King Bhumibol Adulyadej (pronounced “poom ee poon ah doon yah day”).

20161103_125417 — David in front of Wat Pra Singh, draped in black and white mourning for the king

20161103_143608 — Golden stupas of Wat Pra Singh

After Wat Pra Singh, we called an end to temples for the day. We’d really enjoyed the temples of Old Chiang Mai, but we were hot and ready for a dip in the hotel pool. It is a vacation after all!

“VIP” bus from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai

20161102_123949 — Onboard the VIP bus from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai

All good things must come to an end, and our time at Chiang Rai was one of those good things. We’d loved the Maryo Resort Hotel, we’d had fun at the night market, we’d had some really good and inexpensive meals, but it was time to move on. Maryo quickly booked us seats on a VIP bus leaving the next day. The nice lady at the front desk said they’d had trouble using credit cards online so she gave us a printout of our booking, loaned us a couple of bikes and sent us to a 7-11 a couple of blocks away. (It seems nearly everything can be done at a 7-11 in Asia!) We pedaled to the 7-11, showed our printout and paid our 516 baht ($14.74) for two tickets on an air conditioned motor coach. (The “tickets” were actually a cash register receipt stapled to our original printout.)

20161102_131723 — Bus “tickets” (with green luggage claim stubs for bags stored below the bus)

Note: There is a much cheaper bus with no air conditioning, no assigned seats and no designated space for luggage. We saw a few of those, crammed full of passengers, and never even considered taking them. At only $7+ apiece, the VIP bus was a no-brainer.

The next day, Maryo provided a free shuttle to the Chiang Rai bus station, which it turns out is new and still under construction, so we asked around until we were pointed to a sign under a small white umbrella. An Australian waiting for the bus with his Thai girlfriend confirmed we were in the right place and soon the bus arrived.

20161102_124000 — Temporary waiting area in Chiang Rai for the VIP bus to Chiang Mai

We stashed luggage below and settled into our assigned seats, reclining in comfort as we pulled away. The 3-hour trip went by quickly as we sped through gorgeous countryside of rice fields giving way to jungle-covered mountains. Streams wound their way along the roadside, rushing over and around scattered boulders.

20161102_145948 — From the bus window: Between Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai

A lady provided cold bottled water, a large snack pack of faux “Oreos” and a cool towelette. Very civilized and comfortable. Our only complaint was the frigid a/c that could not be turned off or down. Wouldn’t you know it, for the first time in weeks, I’d stashed the scarf/shawl I usually had in my carry-on in my big suitcase.

Arriving in Chiang Mai, we dodged the inevitable private driver wanting sky-high prices as we got off the bus and headed to a taxi booth where we bought our 200 baht ($5.71) taxi coupon for the ride to our hotel in the old city.

20161102_131029 — Chiang Mai bus station with a VIP bus parked

Mae Fah Luang Art & Cultural Park in Chiang Rai

20161101_111254 — The Golden Pavilion as seen from the bridge

We debated renting a car or hiring a driver to do a day trip out of Chiang Rai to the Myanmar border to see the Princess Mother’s swiss-style villa and garden and the “Yunnanese” village of Mae Salong. But, the more we read about these destinations, the more they sounded like a long drive for not much that appealed to us. We were loving our hotel (Maryo Resort), enjoying the leisurely pace, and decided to stick closer to home. As I mentioned before, there’s not tons of must-see sights in Chiang Rai. It’s in the far north of Thailand and tourists tend to come for the White Temple and to explore the region’s parks and villages. We’d seen the White Temple and our share of villages, so what about Chiang Rai itself? I came across mention of the Mae Fah Luang Art & Cultural Park. “Mae Fah Luang” refers to the recently-deceased king’s deceased mother, known as the “Princess Mother.” The park contained a Lanna-style wooden “pagoda” or temple made of wood from 32 traditional homes and gifted to the Princess Mother on her 82nd birthday. The park also contained other structures and exhibits relating to Lanna culture. This sounded like the perfect, easy destination.

[Note: The Mae Fah Luang Art & Cultural Park should not be confused with the Mae Fah Luang Villa and Garden near the Myanmar border.]

The hotel happily informed us that they could book the same tuk tuk driver for 300 baht ($8.57) to take us to the park and wait a couple of hours, then take us to somewhere for lunch. Somehow David missed the identity of the driver and his face fell when he saw the speed demon in the ear-splitting tuk tuk from the day before. Oh well, in we climbed…only to discover that, while the tuk tuk was just as loud, our driver seemed much more mellow than on the previous day. We speculated whether he might have skipped his morning coffee…or taken his meds, but the ride out to the cultural park through bright green rice fields turned out to be more relaxing than we initially feared.

We pulled to a stop at the ticket booth where we paid a steep-for-these-parts 200 baht ($5.71) apiece before motoring past an empty parking lot to be dropped off at a pretty covered bridge over a lake. The setting was gorgeous, but the place was entirely empty of visitors save for us. Across the zigzag bridge, we came to another booth where a young woman came out to escort us into the huge wooden “Golden Pavilion” that lay just ahead. Although we could see that the building was large, the beauty and lofty size of the softly-lit interior still took my breath away. Beautiful!

20161101_112024 — Stairs to the Golden Pavilion

20161101_113522 — David at the doorway into the Golden Pavilion. The carving over the door is new; the one to the left is antique.

davidsgoldenpavilionpic — Central Buddha inside the Golden Pavilion

20161101_113741 — I loved this sign under the Golden Pavilion. There is a real reverence for trees shown here, particularly teak.

The young woman walked us around a wide raised walkway that circled the open center of the soaring building. She explained the origin and meaning of the various carved religious items that lined the walls in a soft accent that substituted “th” for “de” so that “wood” became “wooth.” Photos weren’t allowed, although David snapped one that hardly does the place justice. After we finished our little tour, the young woman turned off the interior lights then directed us on to wander the other buildings and plant-filled large grounds on our own. Most of the wooden, Lanna-style buildings seemed to be potential meeting and social sites, now empty.

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The only “museum” housed a tribute to the Princess Mother, all in Thai, and a bilingual exhibit of teak items, their place in Lanna culture, and related information about teak in general. The deceased Princess Mother is a revered figure in northern Thailand where she worked extensively to help the local people and steer them away from the opium trade.

20161101_121926 — In the museum: a spectacular carved “coffin” made by a husband for his wife’s ashes

In the museum, we finally came across two other visitors. The Mae Fah Luang Art & Cultural Park merits more interest, and I hope it gets it as the city moves from this shoulder season into high season.

20161101_121747 — Part of the teak exhibit

Colorful Chiang Rai: A black house, an emerald Buddha & a white temple

20161031_122409 — The White Temple of Chiang Mai

On our first full day in Chiang Rai, we opted to hit some of the city’s “biggies.” (By some accounts, we hit all of them; Chiang Rai is not a huge city and much of its tourist allure lies in the area around it.) The White Temple is the iconic Chiang Rai site, so that was definitely on our list, even though it’s really more a work of art that an active wat. I also wanted to see Wat Pra Kaew, the “Emerald Buddha Temple,” since it is a true wat and one of the most revered places in Northern Thailand. Despite warnings of temple fatigue on a trip as long as ours, it seems I don’t really tire of visiting temples. I am fascinated by the variations of religion from country to country, even within a faith, as older local customs become adapted to and incorporated within new ideas and belief systems. At the suggestion of a hotel staff member, we added the Black House to our list, a quirky art site I’d read about but wasn’t so sure was my type of thing. Still, some describe the artist who created the Black House as the national artist of Thailand, so how could I not take a peek?

The sites we’d chosen were in opposite directions from our hotel with the White Temple being a good 20 minutes away. Our hotel arranged a tuk tuk for us for 700 baht ($20) for the day. Our driver, a pleasant-faced middle-aged man, arrived promptly in a vehicle similar to Sawat’s small, puttering tuk tuk in Siem Reap. That’s where the similarity ended. We roared away from the hotel in a cloud of noise so loud David said it reminded him of high school when guys would drill holes in the mufflers of their cars for maximum machismo. This guy was a lot faster than Sawat, too. And impatient. We snaked through traffic, squeezed our way to the front of lines, drove on shoulders and thundered ahead of the “competition” at least until we got onto more open roads and the pick-up trucks could “take us.” Even then, though, our driver floored it, doing his ear-splitting best to keep up with the big boys. And, there we were in the open-air rear of the tuk tuk, no seat belts, no helmets, laughing and shaking our heads. I couldn’t help but imagine making this ride with my boys when they were younger on one of our many travels. I’d have been worried I was going to get them killed!

20161031_100214 — Getting a moment to catch our breath

We bumped our way to a stop in the parking lot of the Black House (officially the Baandaam Museum), chosen as our first destination by the driver for logistical reasons. As billed, this is a really strange place. The “main” building is in the form of a wooden lanna (the traditional local ethnic group) temple, but done all in black. Animal skulls and horns, furs and crocodile hides mingle with statues and art, that drift from “normal” to bizarre.

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Behind the main “temple” a number of other buildings are scattered around the surprisingly large grounds. Several dark wooden are on stilts, the space beneath them crammed full of various creations, often nearly identical pieces: horn chairs and the like, repeated over and over. There are glass-sided buildings with “furnishings” inside, often fur-covered horn beds with horn chairs or couches surrounding them. Some odd white half-domed buildings stand in a row, allowing similar glimpses through glass doors or windows.

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20161031_102145 — Peering into one of the buildings on the grounds of the Black House

At a far end of the grounds, I came across a modernistic black building, vaguely reminiscent of a squid or maybe Verne’s “Nautilus.” Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice would say. In thirty minutes, David and I had seen enough and headed back to the tuk tuk. [The Black House is free of charge although there is a gift shop selling all sorts of weird momentos.]

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After the strange artsy-ness of the Black House, I was ready for a real temple. Thankfully, our next stop was Wat Pra Kaew, the Emerald Buddha Temple. The wat gets its nickname from its famous history: In 1434, lightning struck its stupa, cracking it to reveal an emerald Buddha inside. This Buddha has been revered ever since and has made its way from Thailand to Laos and back. The original is now in Bangkok, but a replica was carved from jade and is ensconced in Wat Pra Kaew.

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A lovely little temple sits at the front of the wat complex and David and I couldn’t resist slipping off our shoes to look inside. Afterwards, as I was slipping my sandals back on, an older monk thanked me (for showing respect–I was also appropriately dressed to hide my scandalous knees) and asked me where I was from. He told me to be sure not to miss the Lanna Museum just around the corner within the complex. He made a point of telling me the replica Buddha was carved of Canadian jade, so he may not have understood when I told him I was American. Still, I was impressed with his friendliness and English, and David and I headed off in that direction. The two-story museum turned out to house an impressive collection in a beautiful wooden lanna-style building. Along with the Emerald Buddha replica, there are white-jade Buddhas from Myanmar, reliquaries, altars, offering containers, and other statues of sacred figures.

20161031_111155 — The Lanna Museum at Wat Pra Kaew

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We strolled along a flower-lined path, past shrines and the white stupa that replaces the one struck by lightning, but not venturing into the monk school that lies in the rear of the grounds. The main temple stands before the school at the top of a steep flight of stairs. Lit green tiles line the walls surrounding the Emerald Buddha, framing murals depicting scenes of the Emerald Buddha’s history.

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20161031_113930 — The new Emerald Buddha, dressed in golden “clothes”

Back in the tuk tuk, we made our high-volume way southwest towards our final destination. The White Temple (Wat Rong Khun) is really more an art project than a temple. It replaces a temple that once sat there and we still had to take off our shoes before entering (and I wasn’t supposed to take the photo inside that I did), but still, it’s art. There’s a definite Gaudí-esque feel to the place, although the lines are sharper. It’s a fantasy brought to life in stucco and mirrored tiles, a truth reinforced by the pop-culture characters portrayed at its periphery. A bronze version of the alien from “Predator” sprouts from the ground near masks of the “Terminator,” Spiderman, etc. hanging from a tree…which sits just in front of a beautiful covered walkway from the ceiling of which thousands of thin metal prayer offerings hang. Finally, a golden “temple” constitutes possibly the fanciest most improbable public restroom building ever.

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20161031_122816 — Inside the White Temple. I didn’t realize I wasn’t supposed to take a photo, but since I did, here it is.

20161031_124058 — The pubic toilets at the White Temple

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The White Temple recently started charging foreigners an entry fee, but at a mere 50 baht ($1.43), it’s hardly exorbitant and well worth it.

We stopped at one of several open-air restaurants on the way to the tuk tuk for a quick, tasty and very late lunch. I’d provide the name of the place but there was only Thai on the outside, so a photo will have to do. At 40 baht a plate ($1.14), we doubled the price of our lunch by ordering a couple of beers bringing the total to a whopping $4.57. I could get used to these prices!

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Chiang Khong: sleepy little border town

20161030_111452 — View from our balcony across the Mekong to Huay Xai, Laos

Our large “taxi” tuk tuk from the immigration bridge dropped us off at Day Waterfront Hotel at dusk. The proprietress could not have been friendlier, exclaiming, “There you are!” as we arrived. Nice to be expected. She offered us cold water and some of those delicious little bananas that grow in these parts as she recorded our passport info. Then, showed us to our spacious room with balcony overlooking the Mekong. The lights of Huay Xai sparkled across the river. The room was big, clean and airy and at 800 baht ($22.86), including a light continental breakfast of local sweets and coffee, it was a great bargain.

We quickly headed out again with 2 goals: get SIM cards and find dinner. I’d done research on Thai SIM cards and word was they were easy to get at any 7-11 or other convenience store and cheap. So, I’d opted to wait until we got to Chiang Khong to buy one rather than ordering one online like I did for Japan. After the easy SIM we’d picked up in the Luang Prabang airport–in and done in minutes–, I was hoping for the same thing in Thailand. Boy, was I wrong. After a hot stroll down a sidewalk-less street busy with roadside food stalls and buzzing scooters, tuk tuks and trucks, we struck out at both a 7-11 and a pharmacy across the way. Hmm. Maybe little Chiang Khong wasn’t like the rest of Thailand. Tabling the SIM card search for the moment, we turned to finding dinner.

Our friendly hotel hostess had recommended two places: Jam and Yim. She’d made Yim–the farther of the two–sound slightly more appealing, but we found it closed…and looking more like a potential mosquito haven than anything else. So, we retraced our steps to Jam which we’d passed just after we left our hotel. We ended up really enjoying our Thai meal and the friendly young Laotian waiter who spoke fairly functional English. As with many places we’ve found in this part of the world, the cooking at Jam was done on the sidewalk where customers could buy food to go as well as eat inside in the sheltered-but-open-to-the-sidewalk restaurant. We were the only guests on this sleepy Saturday evening. Chiang Khong seemed to be a place that closes up early. Oh well, dinner was all we really had in mind for the evening anyway.

We had a lazy next morning, too, enjoying local “pastries” and coffee in the open-air lobby of our hotel while we chatted with our hostess. The pastries were really gelatinous little rice treats in pretty colors, sweetened with coconut milk; no crust or dough involved. I’ve really come to like them. We’d ask our hostess to look into finding us a private car and driver to take us to Chiang Rai (a 2-hour trip) and take us to somewhere we could buy SIM cards along the way. There is a super-cheap bus option between Chiang Khong and Chiang Rai (pronounced “shang rye”), but it’s not air-conditioned and photos I’d seen raised some real questions about where we’d put our luggage in case of a full bus. This looked to be one of those times where throwing a little money at the situation made sense. Besides, we now knew how far our money could go in these parts and we really weren’t concerned at all about the extra cost in exchange for the comfort and convenience of an air-conditioned car and a driver who knew where to find SIM cards that would meet our needs. A door-to-door service (vs. bus station-to-bus station with the attendant need for transfers to and from the stations) sounded good, too. Sure enough, our hostess lined up a driver for 1500 baht ($42.86)–a fortune in these parts…but substantially less than I used to pay for cab rides between Charles de Gaulle Airport and our apartments in Paris. The added bonus to booking a private driver was that we could choose a departure time that gave us a little time to look around Chiang Khong. So, the driver was set to come at 1:30p.m., giving us time for a walk along the Mekong, a visit to a nearby Wat (temple), and lunch.

20161030_120657 — Chiang Khong waterfront

Chiang Khong, as I mentioned, is a small, sleepy little border town with not much in the way of must-see sights. We descended the sloping driveway beside the hotel to a pleasant flower-bordered walkway along the river. The stroll was pretty, but the heat was mounting quickly. By the time we made it to the steps to Wat Phra Kaew, I was back to my tuck-a-cold-water-bottle-in-my-bra routine.

20161030_121331 — Steps to Wat Phra Kaew from the waterfront

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20161030_121926 — Inside Chiang Khong wat with tribute to the recently deceased Thai king. All the country is in mourning for a much-loved monarch.

20161030_121957 — Although the previous official portrait of the king is the most common, I loved this old photo of the king in his days as a monk (a common service for Thai males).

We made our way through the wat pretty quickly, exiting on the far side to the food stall-lined road down which we’d walked the night before. A small mobile phone store across the way failed to yield a SIM card to meet our needs, so we walked back towards the hotel, stopping again at Jam for lunch.

So much for Chiang Khong. We were glad we’d spent the night rather than trying to push on to Chiang Rai after arriving near nightfall, glad we’d done our little walk, and glad we hadn’t scheduled more time there.

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On an entirely different note, we’re excited to try the Tile Slim and Tile Mate trackers. Using bluetooth and GPS, we’re hoping these tiny devices help us keep track of phones, wallets and keys. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.