2007 Thailand's Chiang Saen - A Mekong River Town

May 9, 2007 – Wednesday

The Mekong - by Ajarn Charlie

It has been a whirlwind few days, but today finally finds me looking out my 200 Baht a night bungalow onto the waters of the Mekong River. Not exactly sure what it is that keeps bringing me back to these waters, but it always leaves me with an inner calm whether on the banks in Phnom Penh, Vientianeor now here in the small Thai river town of Chiang Saen.

Chiang Saen is an obscure little place that most try to tell you to avoid but what for what reasons I fail to understand since I have found it to be a lovely little river village with warm, gentle and smiling people. Everywhere I have gone, people once getting over their initial shyness of being faced with a ‘farang’ or foreigner, light up with a smile once you smile at them. The children, as I have found so many times in my travels are always willing and wanting to have their photos taken in some silly pose that only they know why they are doing it, but nevertheless I absolutely love them all.

I spent most of the day exploring by bicycle as the rains have let up for a bit and the temperature is very pleasant with a slight breeze pretty much through the entire day. I had started to try and rent a motorbike but once again, like in Chiang Mai, unless you are willing to fork over your passport, even at 180 Baht a day, you can’t rent one. After all these years not having to give up my passport in ChonBuri for a motorbike, I am still fighting this. I have lost my passport twice in previous adventures and times and now after 911, the thought of loosing it again is terrifying. I opted for a 80 Baht a day bicycle instead.

My days riding took me east along the Mekong as well as around the old walled city. Seems there was at one time a large fortress for some imperial leader back a few centuries or more ago. I was really impressed with the size of both the wall and the moat which at one time was obviously filled with water. Several curs in the wall showed that it was mostly built up with earth, capped with a meter or more of locally made brick. There is a museum in town as well which I did not opt for this day but noticed from the sign they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

I also had the distinct pleasure of talking for a few hours with a Thai woman named Khun Sureeluck who now owns a resort, Sunshine Kitchen or 'Home Train Restaurant' overlooking theMekong which I stumbled into for no other reason than it looked interesting. I guess I have a nose sometimes for these things.

As it turned out, Suree’s English was exceptional and when we met, she was actually tutoring a young girl who was a senior at the local high school.

The conversation was actually quite long and I was always surprised to hear the clock chime each hour along with a single chime on the half hour, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised with this as I later discovered her husband lived in Switzerland and she was also able to speak German! What was highly unusual about this information however was that when she showed me the resort and I saw here office along with photos of her family, her husband was Thai, not Swiss! Hmmmm…has to be an interesting story there I thought.

I also learned she had been educated in law at a Thai university and her father at some time was working as a professor inBerlin. It seems he wanted her to follow in his footsteps but she got married, obviously to a Thai, and somehow ended up back in Bangkok working for a travel agency as a guide, eventually ending up with this resort on the banks of theMekong 4 years ago. (I managed to sneak out of here her age and it is now 58). Tomorrow at 11:30 I promised to help her get an email address and introduce her to the world of the Internet so I guess my trip further down the Mekong will be delayed a few hours of so. She is a nice lady to meet and she can be reached via email now at mekongsuree@gmail.com or via phone in Thailand at 01-9341524.

After a dinner of fried rice and chicken around 5PM, the weather and winds kicked up and threatened to rain but it appears as I type this that this particular ‘Mekong Squall’ as I call them, has shifted to the south.

Some of the more technical details of the trip up from Chiang Rai included a 7AM departure from the bus station there, costing only 43 Baht for the 1 hour and 15 minute ride. Quite pleasant actually but the bench seats are jammed tightly together so you are forced to turn your knees sideways. You wouldn’t want to ride this way for longer than an hour or so….and you definitely don’t want to take these roads without some form of legal ID and are Asia as checkpoints are numerous and they pull people off the buses if anything is out of order. But as usual, being a foreigner, no one even looks at you during these police and military inspections.

The guesthouse in Chiang Rai last night was about as convenient as you can get as I stayed at a really clean and reasonably cheap guesthouse in the plaza called the ‘Orchid’. Easy enough to find as almost everything that can be seen from the bus station parking lot is purple with a room with a fan, cable TV and double bed going for 300 Baht. Bathroom was down the hall but extremely clean and nice. The only thing I can say that might border on the negative was my 4^th floor windows overlooked the night market plaza and stage and until midnight, there was Thai music (quite good actually) that was impossible to avoid. Sleeping was not an option until the band finished.

I might also mention that the night market in Chiang Rai was one of the most exceptional that I have found in Thailand for its handicrafts. Table after table filled with some of the most unique things that I have seen with prices seeming to hover in the 20-40 Baht range. If I didn’t still have allot of miles ahead of me, I would have bought some things.

I guess the north for me is the nicest. Yeah, Pattaya is great for an escape and a place you can get lost in the ‘noise’ as we call it. And TQ in the afternoon around 3 or so is about as good as it gets for a cold beer and a diversion from the heat that sometimes sucks the life out of you, and of course Bangkok is the place to play if you are doing business, but the north has a magic to it that I really haven’t found elsewhere in Thailand, including other renowned places such as Phuket in the Andaman Sea (I also spent a long time there.)

And as I type this, the evening rains have begun, almost like a Swiss clock starting to patter down on the tin roof over me at exactly 6PM. If you come here in love and they are with you, this time of the evening could be quite magical I am sure.

May 8, 2007 – Tuesday

Sitting here again high up over another Thai city. This time Chiang Rai. Rains have let up for a bit with a sun peaking its head out now and again. Looks like maybe it might be a pleasant evening.

The trip up was uneventful and pretty much on time. 169Baht bought me a 1^st class airconed coach ride for the 3:30 hours north from Chaing Mai to Chiang Rai. Bus was full as are most Thai buses no matter what class or where you go. That always astounds me.

After taking a walk around the city, I ended up socializing at what probably is the best place in Chiang Rai to do just that, ‘Bo’s Place’. As it turned out it was just dumb luck but after several hours there talking up a storm and listening to other tall tales from the other locals, it was obvious this was the place to be in Chiang Rai if you wanted to get the latest scoop on who was where doing what.

As I learned, Bo is the name of the Thai lady who owns the establishment and she is married to the Dutchman behind the bar. Apparently 6 months or so ago, they had a daughter whose name is Amy and both her and her mother were in and out as the evening progressed.

Although I was unable to acquire my favorite beer in these parts, Beer Lao, I settled on Singha and drained the last few drops of some rotgut tequila that I had never heard of, consuming only a single shot for the evening. Guess that is a good thing as the night before in Chiang Mai, I drained 4 tequilas in the ‘Number One’ before making my way home…..

Anyway. Chiang Rai and the people there seemed to be quite an eccentric mix. One rather nice gent I talked with, who was obviously an American, was a lawyer. After listening to him for a few hours, I found out he was from Denver originally and seemed to at one time, or maybe even now, had a law practice in Los Angeles. He obviously also had a Thai wife a couple of kids along with that package as well. I could also swear I knew him from somewhere before and it most probably had been from Cambodia. His name was ‘Michael’.

There were a half dozen or so other characters there as well. Just about every nationality and variations of English was being spoken, along with Dutch of course as well as German. English pretty much however ruled the roost for the most part of the evening.

Another thing that continues to astound me is just how good I am finding the English to be from the local Thais. Whether it is the wife, a waitress, someone on the train or even the tuk tuk driver, the English is much better here than many places I travel around Thailand.

May 7, 2007 – Monday

Chiang Mai

Rain, rain everywhere. Seems a tropical depression either followed me from Pattaya or is so hugh it is over most this part of Asia.

The 15 hour trip up from BKK was pleasant enough although longer than advertised. Cost for the 2^nd class, airconed sleeper was 861 Baht which seems higher than what I remembered from past years but what isn’t?

Met a Thai gentlemen on the train in my coach using a laptop even before I had got my things settled. Both before we went to sleep for the evening and after we awoke, we had long conversations about everything from politics to technology spending allot of time talking about Thai politics, past and future. His name was Goson and was working as a trainer for an NGO.

The King’s coronation day was on the 5^th and yellow shirts representing the Thai king were everywhere in both Pattaya and Bangkok. The Thais do love their King and rightly so.

May 5, 2007 – Saturday

Rain continues. Just finished my 120 Baht breakfast in the ‘dining car’ on my train heading north to Chiang Mai. At 07:30 in the morning having just awoke from a less than perfect night of sleep, being slammed by Thai country music that is so loud you can’t have a conversation rather assaults your senses, but maybe it keeps the staff awake for the 15 hour trip?

10:15 – Arrive Chiang Mai Train Station

Late but safe. As usual there are the folks gathered to sway you to use this guesthouse, taxi or tour. Not too intimidating and rather civilized as such things go. I settled on going to the Royal Guest House near the old city and moat where I had stayed before. 300 Baht for a room with a fan and the hotel has a pool as well. Decent enough place with Internet, movies, laundry, etc. although a towel costs 20 Baht extra and laudry is 40 Baht a kilo.

The rain continues of course but I got out a bit to explore the streets in the area, discovering some of the most amazing book stores I have ever been in. Here books are cheap and there is no lack of them. One store in particular, DK Books has an amazing collection that would make any library or research archive proud. Their used book center had just about any paperback in English you might have seen in recent years at 50 Baht each, or around a Euro each.

Another decent Guesthouse I have stayed in across the moat is the Smile Guest House. Much smaller and more intimate than the huge Royal GH and it also has a pool. Many bookstores such as Gecko on the same street.

Renting a motorbike in town these days has turned into a pain however. Seems everyone wants a passport that they will keep which I refuse to do. First time I have ever had this problem here in Thailand. Even the Royal refused to rent me a bike even though I am ckeced into the hotel and all my bags, cameras, and laptop are upstairs. Whatever. I can walk.