Northern wanderings

Pick of the Day: Our hotel (i forget, its been weeks!), Phare

Style: Western Sit

Atmosphere: Oven

Extras: This bathroom appears to be a separate room. It isn't. It is the same size as the bedroom and separated from said bathroom by a wall half way to the ceiling. It was a very high ceiling. The room was cooking and this was no better. The toilet outflow also seemed to flow out over the floor. Fun.

01/07/13 to 13/07/13: Chang Rai, Lampang, Phare and Nan

With the arrival of Vi’s dad into Chang Mai in two weeks, we had some time to get in deep and see some of Northern Thailand. In March of this year my (ben) mums cousin, therefore my 2^nd cousin(?) had moved to the northern town of Nan and they very graciously welcomed us for a week prior to heading to Chang Mai. We thus spent the week before this hopping towards Nan enjoying some of the lesser visited towns.

First up was Chang Rai; only a relatively short bus ride from the border this town houses a number of Wats and a pretty feisty night market. We spent a couple of days seeing the sights with one day around town and the second taking a trip out to the “White temple”. Our day around town had the highlight of the tribal museum which was actually more of a “how to” guide on opium as the area was once a major grower of poppies. The museum itself is situated over an affiliated restaurant/bar called “Condoms and Cabbages”. 

Whilst not quiet causing a surge in appetite, it is actually so named due it being part of the sex education charity running in the area. It is fantastically decorated in condoms however.

Shame

The “White temple” conforms surprisingly closely to advertising for Thailand. It is a modern take on a wat, with impressive designs formed from concrete and clay. The inside of the temple is an altogether more surreal experience. Many wats have murals inside, but this one being modern has a modern twist. Along with all the classic deities we also spotted Michael Jackson, Darth Vader, Harry Potter and the twin towers being crashed into. Buddhists eh?

Knock these cones down at your peril

The White temple. A bit weird

The night market or Bazaar as it was called was fantastic. Hundreds of stalls selling all the tat you thought you’d missed in China and its own food court. All of the food stalls were arranged around a big courtyard which was filled with tables and chairs and faced a stage area. To the best of our knowledge this stage appeared to host a nightly talent show as the variety and quality of act was random at best. Vi did get her first ladyboy viewing though so she was delighted.

The Papaya salad obsession continues

Our next stop on the northern tour was the town of Lampang. This was really a reccon trip for when Vi’s dad arrived as there is a nearby Elephant conservation centre we wanted to visit with him. Lampang proved fantastic for two reasons. 1. We found a great place to stay in the Riverside guest house and 2. Round the corner is perhaps the nicest, fastest, cheapest restaurant in Thailand!

The guesthouse is a compound of teak buildings set along the river bank with plenty of seating and gardens to make it feel perfectly private. The restaurant is heaving with locals (always a good sign) and meal for 2 was under £2. We spent a cursory day wandering the town, but really just wanted to relax with our books at the guest house.

Sunset in Lampang

Taking us a step closer to Nan was the old walled city of Phare. Our first issue was in getting there as nobody had a clue what we meant. Lonely Planet had decided the pronunciation should be written in Roman as Phrae, whilst the real way was Phare (also Thais pronounce ‘ph’ as ‘p’ rather than ‘f’ which just adds to the confusion). However, we did make it there and checked into a cheapy just outside the walls.

Possibly the best loo sign yet

We had opted for the LP recommendation of a room at the back of the hotel to avoid the noise of the road. Unfortunately this meant that the room was solar heated all through the day to the point that when you went to bed it was hotter than it had ever been outside in the day! It cooled down around 6am. Those were hard nights.

The town itself was nice quiet and rambling. We spent our time wandering the streets finding some good coffee and a dog in a nappy. The night market was another chance for cheap Pad Thai. All in all the people in these northern towns had proved remarkable friendly and welcoming, if a little confused as to why we were here. Evidently not many tourists make it out of Chang Mai.

Waiting for Pad Thai, Phare

We made it to Nan easily enough and were thankfully picked up at the bus station by Linda who is a Canadian married to an American who was originally Thai. Between the 4 of us we pretty much made up all of the nationalities that Nan had to offer (being 4 of the approximately 8 ‘falangs’ in town). We were whisked off to their beautiful teak-on-stilts home on the outskirts of town set among rice paddies that were just being flooded ready for planting as we arrived.

A view from the house, planting the rice

Their house is perfectly designed to take account of the Thai climate, with the cooking and eating taking place downstairs which is mostly open and the upstairs having shutters to allow the breeze to pass through.

The second floor and view

We were welcomed just in time for a weekly family feast with Lee’s family, and so began a fantastic five days of seeing a slice of real Thailand. Being very much off the tourist trail, Nan has more of the friendliness and shyness that seems natural to Thai people but the absence of which makes the tourist centres so intimidating.

Representing

Linda and Lee were incredibly welcoming and generous hosts. We spent most of our days exploring the area around Nan by motorbike with Lee. He had just bought a big sports bike, and we used his scooter. It was great fun trying to keep up with something so fast on the little Honda which had about a sixth of the power!

Lee, a village chief/mayor, and Vi. This guy tell us shelter under his tree. Which was nice.

Lee, and his green monster. Note the detached wing mirror. Oops.

Nan. Its not Bangkok thats for sure. Thank god!

Linda has a job teaching English at the local school, and we took the opportunity to pop in one afternoon for two of her classes. I was totally unprepared for how intimidating this would be. Thai schools are huge and each year is split into ~9 classes in two tiers. The first tier is I guess like a 1^st class compartment and is composed of three ranked classes. These classes contain kids whose parents can pay for their education and so the kids are taught in air conditioned rooms with facilities that would I am sure rival a British school and are certainly better than a classroom I remember! The next 6 classes are more the 2^nd class coach load, non (or less?) fee paying. Within the tiers the classes are ranked according to ability at an early age with no real possibility of moving up set through the years. Can you honestly say you cared about your academic future as much at 11 as you did at 16? We met a class from each tier with the air con group not appearing far different from a class in the UK. The group from what I called 2^nd class couldn’t have been more different. Housed in a temporary (temporary for a whole school year), this class was a thin sheet of ply board from the class next door, the result of which was the kids at the back could hear the teacher next door more clearly! The kids formed a mixture of those who didn’t care, those who pretended they didn’t care but clearly did and those who really did care but where held back by the others.

A non fee paying class room

This is a scene of buddist hell. They bring school kids here from the age of 5. You think they'd work hard after that...

It was an odd system to see and I have a lot of admiration for Linda and the other teachers at going in everyday and not being more frustrated. I could imagine the effect of a school in the UK which had fee paying and non-fee paying sections and the effect this would have on the children.

As the price of food is so cheap (even for locals), we often ate out save for one night when Vi and I cooked, buyingin a kilo of tiger prawns for about £4. Bargain.

One of the town falangs is a brit and he makes his own sausages. They would win awards at home.

When it came time to meet Vi’s dad in Chang Mai, a good 6hrs away, Linda and Lee drove us over which was great and also gave Lee the chance to get some protective gear for his bike and pimp it out a bit too!

In true style, though I concede not his fault, Vi’s dad was late and so began the next leg.