Twenty-one today! (and the next day)

Checking out of the hotel in Luang Namtha, the guy on the desk was very slow, in fact he had to get out of bed to serve us. Then our breakfast was slow arriving, which meant that we missed the Sawngthaew that had been filling up with people when we first went out. We had been planning to travel with the two Dutch girls from the trek, but they were on time for the first one. Luckily the next Sawngthaew to arrive did not insist on waiting until full, because he knew we were trying to get to the bus station early enough to catch the bus to Huay Xai and cross to Thailand. At the bus station, a couple in front of us in the queue were also going to Huay Xai, then when it came to getting on the minibus it was already full. This caused a bit of a commotion as one employee told us we had a ticket for this bus so we could go, meanwhile another told us we could wait for the big bus which left several hours later and arrived in Huay Xai after the border was closed. We were keen to get on this one. While we were trying to work out what to do, more people arrived and the conductor even sold one old Thai lady a ticket, after they knew the bus was full! Shortly after this she pulled three large rice sacks up to the bus and indicated to the driver she wanted them to be tied to the roof with the other luggage. When he shook his head, she produced a 10000 Kip note, but he still shook his head. When she produced a second 10000 Kip note he stopped shaking his head an started heaving the bags up top. When it was clear the minibus overflow could not easily be resolved, they got everyone off the bus and rechecked their tickets, which did mean a few more people getting on the bus, so some must have been on the bus without a ticket, however when it came to us the conductor shook his head and pointed to a line drawn underneath our ticket numbers on the his clipboard. Apparently the woman at the desk had oversold the tickets and there were only enough seats for everyone up to, but definitely not including, us. The Dutch girls, the couple in front of us in the queue and, oddly, the old woman who bought a ticket long after us made it onto the bus, but after a 20000 Kip bribe I don't suppose the driver would kick her off. We really need to learn when to bribe.

With the new arrivals at the bus station we tried to argue that they should just use the big bus now and use the minibus later in the day, after all surely they can't have as many people who want to go to a border town after the border has closed. Apparently not, it needed to be this way, and how could we know whether they needed the big bus to stay here so it could be used later? A pushy guy I took to be Italian, found out from the incompetent, over-selling woman behind the desk that we could charter a minibus for double the price each that the bus would have been, and he confirmed that we would be refunded our ticket money. Feeling a bit bullied, we agreed because it would otherwise be even more expensive for the others he had involved in his scheme, and he'd gone to all this bother. We didn't really want to spend the night in Huay Xai, but doubling the cost was a strain on our budget. We did want to meet up with the Dutch girls in Chang Rai for Willemeijn's birthday. I asked the “Italian” I was now starting to suspect was maybe Argentinian whether he had bargained before settling on the figure, but apparently he'd just agreed to the first price she suggested and handed over the cash. When the minibus arrived and we were just about to put our luggage on, the woman from behind the counter rushed over and told us we could have the big bus leaving now (instead of several hours later when it was meant to leave) for the same price as the minibus. It didn't take long before we replied “Why would we want to do that?”. Apparently they could have spared the bug bus after all, in which case they could have fitted everyone on it. Why had they allowed the smaller bus to go, leaving behind several passengers, who were now being offered the whole bus to themselves? Presumably they could make more money this way, and if we took the big bus, they could fit some more people on who would pay the normal ticket price. We just wanted to go, and did not want to play their silly games!

It turned out quite well, apart from the extra cost, because our minibus overtook the small scheduled bus with the Dutch girls on it, and dropped us right at the border, which was just a short ferry crossing over the Mekong. It was another really hassle-free border crossing. It seems to be any crossing that involves a river is really straight-forward. Or maybe it has to be the Mekong! From Chang Khong on the Thai side of the border it was hassle-free to draw money and get the cheap “normal” bus to Chang Rai for only 70 Baht or about one pound forty, for a three hour journey. The bus was a nice change from all the VIP buses and first class we had been coerced onto so far: no freezing air-conditioning, just rotating fans over every second row, and instead of uncomfortable shaped reclining seat, which I hate, it was nice simple comfy bench seats, padded but not reclinable: a bus not a coach. The difference on this side of the border was clear very quickly. Thailand is much more developed than Laos. The houses are much bigger, more modern, and more substantial, with very few wooden ones on stilts, which is the norm in Laos. The roads are actually clear of livestock, whereas in Laos the road is always covered in dogs, pigs, chickens, cows, goats, and so on, even in towns. We met a couple of people in Laos who were scared to take tuktuks because it seemed every time they got in one the vehicle ran over a chicken. We didn't ever have such bad luck, apart from the calf getting killed by the vehicle our luggage was in in Luang Namtha. On the journey our bus was totally drenched by people throwing buckets of water all over it. We had to change sides on the bus, because the off-side wasn't as close to the pavement, so not so much water would come through the windows. Clearly Songkran (Thai New Year) was even more in full-swing than Lao Songkan.

Chiang Rai clocktower

When we arrived in Chang Rai a misreading of the guide book meant that I asked the tuktuk driver to take us to the wrong guesthouse, but having arrived there we decided to stay anyway. It was a bit out of the centre and a bit more expensive that we had anticipated, but it had a swimming pool and the guidebook said that the food in the guesthouse was good. I was keen to get some real Thai food into me, so after we checked in, we ordered some food. I ordered red curry which I remembered from my previous visit to Thailand as being searingly hot. I couldn't wait. When it arrived we were very disappointed. I couldn't understand it, but there didn't seem to be any chilli at all in the food. On my last visit to Thailand I was amazed how spicy all the food was. OK I deliberately ordered hot food, and in places that asked “you want for Thais or for farangs” I said Thais, but it was consistently incredibly hot. This was different, it was not. We'd had such high expectations of Thai food and our first meal was fairly tasteless. Lao food was nicer than this meal by a mile!

Teepee bar owner (or manager?)

After our disappointing meal we headed off into town. It wasn't too far, but it was a mile or two. We stopped at a place with draft beer, which we soon realised was a Dutch place when we saw bitter ballen on the menu, so I ordered some. After only a few minutes, the two Dutch girls from the trek, Sia and Willemijn, walked past and we attracted their attention and called them over. They spent quite a while leafing through the extensive menu, saying “wow” and giggling at all the comfort food from home they have been missing. They had been travelling for a couple of months, and were taking a similar route to ours, except they were much more disciplined and didn't hang around anywhere too long. We had a few drinks with them and ended up going to a strange little rock bar called the Teepee Bar on the main street. After it was midnight Willemijn announced that it was now her 21st birthday so she was going to drink now. The Teepee bar is run by a rather strange character of a Thai guy, with very long hair and that night, leopard print spandex trousers (Joanne says they were velvet leggings, but I disagree). He really seemed to believe in 80s rock kitsch and the whole bar was decorated in a similar vein and played rock classics all night long. The next day we met a girl we'd previously met in Luang Phabang who told us she'd heard of the Teepee bar, and that they have a rabbit with dreadlocks somewhere up the stairs. We didn't see that, but we did see plenty of strange memorabilia. When the strange guy tried to shut his bar, Willemijn complained that it was her birthday and she hadn't drunk enough yet, which got the rest of the customers onside who started to heckle the owner to stay open later. The owner was getting a little bit upset that all his customers were trying to make him breach his licence, so his compromise was to give Willemijn two free drinks and then herd us all down the road to a later opening bar. We didn't get home until about three, and the next day Joanne and I agreed we were too old to be drinking with 21 year olds, or 20 year olds as Sia, Willemijn's cousin still was.

21st Birthday party in the Teepee Bar

At least we got to sleep in late because, unlike Laos, Thailand does not have really loud cockerels absolutely everywhere throughout every city, just dying to start your hangover early for you. Another difference from Laos is that spirit houses are much more common in Thailand. Outside almost every building, whether someone's home, a commercial building, or an official building, there is something that usually looks a little bit like a bird table. Outside houses it's usually about the size of a large bird table, except that the little house on legs often looks more like a small temple, but sometimes it looks like a miniature copy of the house itself. The little building is usually surrounded by a patio, and on that or inside you will see little models of people dancing, sometimes elephants or other animals, and usually incense, some food, and glasses of clear liquid, rice spirit I believe. Outside commercial or official buildings these structures can be many times larger and the whole scene on the table can be much more grand. These are spirit houses and part of Thai religious belief unconnected to Buddhism. According to the Lonely Planet, the idea of a spirit house is to make a very attractive and comfortable dwelling for spirits near, but outside your house. This way, the spirits will prefer to stay there than in your own home (or business etc), where they would cause lots of trouble and bad things would happen. The incense, food, and drinks are regularly replaced (every day I think, before 11am apparently), to keep the spirits pleased with their surroundings. If you make renovations to your home, it is necessary to make improvements to the spirit house as well, otherwise they'll want to move in and take advantage of your new bathroom or whatever.

Willemijn argues her case

Determined to carry on the bit of effort I had made with Lao, I soon had my Thai phrase book out and was trying to relearn everything. Thai is very similar to Lao, and culturally Lao is really just a subset of Thai. The food is very similar, the demeanor is very similar, although Thais maybe seem a bit friendlier, probably because they are more used to tourists. The dialect of Thai they speak in the north is apparently indistinguishable from Vientiane Lao, but more generally Thai has only five tones where Lao has six, so it's easier to speak. Ponsa had told me that the languages are similar enough that they can all understand Thai, but he didn't think it works the other way around as Thais are not exposed to as much Lao. The one major problem with learning Thai properly would be the fact the written language is not phonetic: the language is apparently peppered with words lifted directly from Sanskrit and although the have changed pronunciation massively in Thai, they are still spelled using the original Sanskrit spelling, simply transliterated into Thai characters. It sounds worse than English!

Before we ventured out, I decided to take the precaution of putting my camera inside a plastic bag to protect it from water, since there had been quite a few people throwing water the day before. We hoped we could find some nice authentic Thai food to help clear our 21st birthday headaches but, after wandering around the city for a couple of hours, we had not come across a single Thai restaurant. All we could find were places boasting of their extensive (and also expensive) western menus. Eventually we ended up back at the same Dutch place we had started at the day before, because their menu said they had a real Thai chef and there were plenty of not too expensive Thai dishes on the menu. The food was actually quite good although not really very spicy. On our way back to the hotel a gigantic cloud of dragon flies started passing overhead. I'm not sure how closely I could estimate their numbers, but it must have been something like tens of millions. The cloud was thick enough that they disappeared vertically into little black dots, pretty close together, and it took about ten minutes for the main clump of the cloud to pass over. So impressive was this cloud that I wanted to take a photo, which was when I reached into the plastic bag and felt grit as well as my camera. I had used the plastic bag I had hastily put my muddy flipflops into when leaving Luang Namtha, to “protect” my camera. It was broken. The lens cover that had been a bit sticky since beer was spilled on it was now refusing to open at all! I'd broken my camera trying to protect it from Songkran.

We had arranged to meet up with the girls at the Dutch restaurant for Willemeijn's proper birthday, so we bought her a water pistol and a little cake. It was her birthday so she chose pizza, which was way out of our budget range, but it was her birthday so what the hell, we decided. My pizza was actually very nice seafood tom yum flavour, which is normally a soup, but worked very well on a pizza. We were relieved to find out that Willemeijn was feeling a bit worse for wear after the previous night, so she was laying off the alcohol. However after a couple of Coca Colas she decided to get stuck into the drinking again. This time we were joined by a French guy called Lambert, who seeemed to be trying to hit on the girls. He had cycled across much of Laos on a very poor looking bike, not at all suitable for long distance travel. This time we stayed out until about 5.30am. I was shocked how much the Sangsom now costs. This is a (maybe the) Thai spirit, not sure whether it's supposed to be a brandy or a whisky, but when I was last in Thailand it costs less for a half-bottle (300ml) of Sangsom than it did for one beer. I remember my guide book at the time said something about beer not really being part of Thai culture and the government trying to discourage western influence by taxation. In fact our Rough Guide from just last year says that beer and Sangsom cost about the same, but the typical price we found was that it now costs three times as much for a small bottle of Sangsom as it does for a beer. This is much more in line with the UK, but a huge price change in one year. What has happened to Thailand since I was last here? The food is no longer spicy and the spirits cost more than the beer!

written by

The Happy Couple on April 10, 2009 from Chiang Rai, Thailand

from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon

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