Dawn come very early, and for the second time in 3 days I am up at an ungodly hour, this time 6:20. I meet T downstairs at a few minutes after 7:00. We eat breakfast--again outside on the patio, where it is delightfully cool and fresh. We are actually ahead of schedule, so we take our time. Later I walk down to the main street (2 short blocks) and go to the ATM. The walk felt good! When I get back we get a taxi to the bus station, and soon we are on the bus and on the way! The bus actually leaves at 8:40, 5 minutes early. I guess all of the ticketed passengers were onboard!
I had hoped for a good view of the trip. But, the drivers seat is at a lower level than the passenger seats, and the top 10" or so of the windshield are blacked-out. If I scrunch way down in my seat I can see ahead, but it is too uncomfortable. Oh well, I can see well enough to my left side. We make one pit stop after about 70 minutes, and we then continue non-stop to Chiang Rai, where we arrive a few minutes early.
In phone conversations yesterday T had arranged for our hotel rooms tonight--at the Chiang Rai YMCA (500B each), and the hotel clerk had helped to arrange a car that will take us to Doi Tung, about 60 km north of town. So the car was waiting for us when we arrived at the Chiang Rai bus station. Actually, it was not a car--it was an 8 passenger van, very nice. I almost felt guilty that the two of us had this large vehicle to ourselves. At any rate, the driver took us to the hotel, where we quickly dropped our stuff, and then took us to the local mall, where we picked-up some fast food at the food court to eat in the car. We then started on our way to Doi Tung. The first part of the ride is on Thai Highway 1, but the last third or so is on a side road that takes you up into the hills. What a great drive! Scenic views every turn, beautiful forests, small rivers and streams. Very good!
Doi means hill in Thai, and Doi Tung is a very tall hill. On the hill are several attractions, including the Royal Villa (closed today because the King's daughter is there); the XXX Gardens, and the YYY. We visited a museum in honor of the King's mother, and also the gardens behind it. The King's mother, who died not long ago at age 98, was a very good woman, devoting herself to good works, especially here in northern Thailand. The XXX Gardens were very very pretty, probably the prettiest gardens I have ever seen. Adjacent we could jave see the roof of the Royal Villa. I can see why it is here. What a great spot!
Further up the hill is the Pra Tat Doi Tung, which is a very nice temple with an incredible view. See the photos. At the Pra there is a huge bell which you can ring. I did. The ringer was VERY heavy, and it tool several swings back and forth of the clanger to hit the side of the bell. I was standing directly under, almost inside, the bell, and the sound almost lifter me off my feet! Wow! The sound continued to resonate for a long time (or maybe it was just my ears ringing?).
When it was time to leave we walked down the 154 step stairway, and the driver met us at the bottom. The drive back to the hotel was just a beautiful as the ride up, and we were back at the hotel by about 4:40. After about an hour's rest we met downatairs and took a minibus to the downtown area of Chiang Rai. There is a night market there, and it was just setting up when we arrived. We spent the evening wandering thru the shops, and at about 7:30 we have dinner. I had a grilled whole fish--delicious, tender, tasty! 80B! Tastes even better! Similar to Chiang Rai there was live entertainment beginning at 8:00 PM. There are two food court areas, each with its own stage. Our stage had a young man with a guitar singing Thai songs. He was very good. The other stage had a cabaret show. Look carefully at the photos. It is hard to believe, but these are not ladies!
It was getting late, and so we finally took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel and called it a night. We will meet in the morning at breakfast (included with the rooms), and we will try to see some of the local wats before we go to the airport. The flight back to BK leaves at 3:50 PM, and so we should get to the ariport about 2:30.
I met T in the outdoor restaurant area at about 9:00 AM,. It was a very delightful day, sunny and cool, a little cooler than Chiang Mai. I had a choice of either American and Thai breakfast. I ordered American, and weas told that they were out of toast. OK, no problem, I had steamed rice instead. T had already eaten, and when I finished we got a ride to downtown Chiang Rai. We were dropped of near Wat XXX, and we then visited 3 different wats in central Chiang Rai. It is amazing that even a small town like Chiang Rai has so many wonderful and beautiful wats. It just demonstrates the central place that wats have in Thai culture and society.
After the third wat we took a samlor (a bicycle rickshaw) to the market area. A very pleasant, but slow, way to travel. It was nice to be in a quiet vehicle! When we got downtown I saw a barbershop, and so I took advantage of the opportunity and had a very good haircut for 50B! Wow! I cannot remember the last time I had a haircut for $1.30US! And to top it off, the haircut included trimming of nose and ear hairs, and a nice back and neck massage. I tipped the barber 20B. We were both very happy!
We then started walking generally north just to see more of the city. We found ourselves at a statue for a ancient king of Chiang Rai. It was then about lunch time and so we took a bus back to the hotel. We had lunch at the hotel restaurant. We met about an hour later for our ride to the airport (provided by the hotel). After checking in for our flight was walked thru the airport. It is, of course, quite small, but it is fairly new and seems just right for Chiang Rai. We then saw about a hundred (unarmed) soldiers go into the departure area. When we got to our departure gate we could see that their was a government plane parked on the tarmac, lots of soldiers lining up, and a smaller crew of soldiers laying out a red carpet leading to the stairway to enter the aircraft. We realized that the King's daugther, who was at the Royal Villa in Doi Tung yesterday, must be flying out this afternoon. I had hoped that we might see her board the aircraft, but we boarded our plane and lifted off with the red carpet still unused. Perhaps they were waiting until our plane was gone before they allowed the Princess to enter the airport.
The flight back to BK was quick, but even still we were served a snack--small cake, cookies, juice. Geez, sure wish the USA airlines did this! We landed at about 5:15, and our plane (a nearly full Airbus!) parked on the tarmac and we had to take a bus to the other end of the airport. It took at least 30 minutes for the luggage to arrive. We then walked out into the main domestic terminal area. I wanted to try to buy my ticket from Singapore to Chennai, India, but even though we walked over to the international terminal we were not able to find a ticket counter for Air India. Oh well. We then got a taxi, and after dropping T off I finally got back to the hotel about 8:30.
I checked in to the room, this time a similar but different room than last week. I was hungry, and so walked down the street to the Chaleena Hotel, where I had dinner in the café and listened to the band playing outside. While eating I met X, a singer who was waiting her turn to sing at 10:00 PM. She sings a mixgture of Thai and western songs 7 nights a week at this hotel, and she also sells jewelry at various local street markets every day of the week. A hard working woman! She does not have her own band--she is a freelance female vocalist, and she can sing either with CD tracks, or with whatever band happens to be available. The band tonight was also backing-up another female vocalist, and when X sang they would continue to do the same for her. X revealed that soimetimes the band just pretends to play the instrumental track, which is actually provided by the CD, but they usually do actually play and fill-out the CD track.
I sat and litened to X sing for a while, and then went back to the room after stopping at the 24 hour store and getting some chocolate. Later, after enjoying my bedtime chocolate I hit the sack.
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