The trip to Thailand took two full days aboard a large slow boat up the muddy Mekong river. Along the way we passed lots of villages and fishermen using bamboo poles attached to fishing nets. There were also lots of water buffalo bathing on the silt beaches. Right now the river is very low and the banks and rocks were exposed but s impossible to imagine what the river in the monsoon floods would be like. We had an overnight stop in the isolated town Pak Bieg where the power turns off at night and travellers end up suck in the shower with no lights and no way finding a torch. Lucky for us our house had a generator which gave us lights for dinner. At we end of the journey we found a guesthouse to spend our final night in Laos. We went out for dinner with three other travellers at a buffet restaurant. The difference was we had to cook every think ourselves on small charcoal cookers at our tables.
The next day we crossed into Thailand and board a local bus to Chiang Rai. We then got lost because we arrived at a different bus station to the one on our french map. After asking around and borrowing a GPS we were still lost, thankfully a nice Thai lady gave us a ride in her air conditioned Hilux to a temple so we could get our bearings and organise a place to stay.
Next afternoon we went to the White Temple with a guide called 'Kai'. The temple is very modern and filled with murals which are traditional but also have symbolic, modern images like Superman, George Bush and the Twin Towers. The designer also had an art gallery beside the temple which had pictures of Buddhas and imaginary worlds which were magnificent and contained amazing attention detail. Kai then took us to his home of a drink and lake for a swim and we met his family.
The next morning we took a boat trip up a very shallow river as part of the deal we had to get out and push when ever the boat got beached. We then rode on elephants down the river and around the local village. Our guide Kai then drove us to the jungle where we hiked up into the hills, covered in bamboo forest. As we walked Kai and his helper 'Jumpa' used there machetes to make things for us from the bamboo and banana trees. He made rockets, walking sticks, hats and cups to name a few. We experienced Thai rain which bucketed on us as we walked and the thunder clapped and lighting flashed. The village was made of bamboo huts with grass roofs. The dinner was delicious cooked on a small fire we had rice with yellow curry and sweet and sour pork. To top it off we had fruit for dessert, sliced mango, watermelon, pineapple and lotus apple.
After a night in the huts we had fruit and eggs for breakfast and the walk across the valley through a tea plantation and more jungle. The villages were really friendly and we met some poor, refugees from Burma which had fled to Thailand to escape the troubles in the country. We stopped by a creek for lunch and made pots, bowels, cups and chopsticks etc. to use for lunch which was Noodle soup cooked on the bamboo fire. We went to a waterfall for a swim and visited more villages. One of the villages grew 'Leechees' which are jelly like fruit and taste like pears. To end the trip we stopped at some hot springs and soaked our tired limbs. Some of us would wished the water was cold!
The Nieuwys
