I neglected to post this in chronological order because I am an idiot. It belongs in between the Bangkok and Prachuap Khiri Khan posts; I went from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi to Bangkok to Prachuap Khiri Khan.
Anyway, Kanchanaburi, Thailand...
I had heard about Kanchanaburi and the waterfalls around it from many people so it was on my list of places to make a significant effort to go to. My visiting friend was more interested in nature than cities so leaving Bangkok to see some waterfalls seem to make senses as well.
Kanchanaburi contains more than its fair share of war museums and cemeteries and a "death bridge," more commonly known as The Bridge Over the River Kwai, which, yes, is where the book/movie got its name and is about. (A photo, a walk over, and done.) Neither of us were too interested in becoming more depressed than are normal selves so we skipped all of this kind of stuff except for the obligatory photo. We spent most of out time wandering about, either on foot or motorbike.
What I had heard from others was that there are two main waterfalls; one that the tourists go, which is also the more beautiful of the two, and one where the locals bring their families. Which you prefer depends on the person and the circumstances/situation when you are there. I could not remember, by name, which was which but this hardly mattered since I wanted to visit both anyway.
The first we went to see was the "more beautfil" one and that it was. There were tons of people there. It was impossible not to see another person unless you went off the track (or into the information office), both of which we did. The vast majority of the people were Thai, probably 90%, but there were still plenty of Westerns. The crowds diminished the experience a little, but it was still enjoyable.
The waterfall is seven layers and took us about an hour from the bottom layer to ascend to the top as there are plenty of turns, uneven steps, and distractions. Once at the top we put our stuff down and went for a swim. Working our way down we went on some offshoot of the path we discovered and followed it. It did not take us anywhere particularly exciting but it was nice to get away from the crowds for a bit. Once we returned to the main path we continued descending stopping periodically for another cooling-down swim. At one such stop there were rocks to skip down, much like the ones I encountered in the north of Thailand in Pai. Of course, I indulged again and, I was later told, I received the biggest applause of all rock-sliders for my head-first plunge into the water below. It was not particularly special other than the fact that I am white. Apparently, however, that is nearly all it takes.
The second waterfall was less spectacular but still nice. Other than the two of us we saw a couple other Westerners but everybody else was Thai and most of them were with their families. We did not swim here as the sun was getting low and did not want to be all wet for the motorbike ride back. We explored the area some but there was not much to write about.
After some trouble locating where we parked the motorbike (near the 7-11 did not prove as helpful as we had hoped it would be) we headed back to town. As today was my friend's first time riding a motorbike and he had never ridden at night, it was decided that I would ride back. (I need to write this here before I forget: earlier in the day, either the first or second time he drove the motorbike, my friend was past by an ice cream truck. It was funny.) About 30 seconds after we started our way back, it started raining. It was just a light drizzle and did not phase my confidence or comfort level of riding so we pressed on. Then it rain picked up and I no longer felt we should continue. I verbalized this concern saying I would pull over at the night place I saw we would could eat so that we would have an excuse to sit for an hour while the rain passed. Unfortunately no restaurant materialized. My friend sitting behind me had his eyes closed because the rain was coming down so hard. He told me afterward he did not know how I was able to see let alone drive in that rain. To be perfectly honest, I am not sure how I did either. When the rain was strong, I just slowed down. After awhile, the rain eased and then it was just the drizzle it was before. We made it back safe and sound and with a cool story.
Kanchanaburi was a pretty cool place. I wish we had an extra day or two in the area so that we could have gone to Sanghlaburi, which I had also heard good things about but because of my expiring visa and my desire to minimize backtracking it just could not happen. Maybe people get more out of the town by going to all the depressing stuff but I am happy with the decision to avoid it and stick to the natural beauty of the area and getting caught in the rain on a motorbike, of course.
16 May 2010
10 May 2010
Ranong, Thailand
Another visa run.
The reason I was moving so fast in my previous few destination was because I needed to back it to a boarder town by the end of my then-current visa and I did not want to have to backtrack too much along the way. It was a pretty rushed week, especially for the friend that is visiting. He observed that we spent far too long on buses during that time and I could not agree more but I think it was the best plan given the circumstances.
Ranong is a bland, dull town that exists seemingly exclusively for people to do visa runs into southern Myanmar. We arrived at 1AM, after some sleep, I ventured off alone to do my visa run, we spent that night there, then we left. Pretty simple.
The visa run itself, however, was kind of interesting. The going rate for a visa run service in Ranong is 400THB (about US$12). This sounded reasonable to me but I was confident I could do it myself for less so I declined the effortless visa run service and went for by my lonesome.
I got a ride to the pier without issue. At the pier I met up with three other people doing a visa run as well. We could save money by splitting the cost of the boat we needed to take to get to Myanmar. One of the three needed to buy US dollars from me and did so at a rate that was favorable to me so, other than the cost of the Myanmar visa, the cost of the visa run nearly paid for itself. I got to run the mile I run in each country I visit in Myanmar. The boat back to Thailand went off without a hitch and I got my new 15-day Thai visa no problem. Everything was perfect.
This is when things got interesting. The guy that had to but the US dollars from me had an issue, however. Myanmar forgot to stamp his passport so he had to go back to Myanmar because Thailand would not given him a new visa without the stamp indicating he actually was in another country. (Worked out for me; he needed to buy more US dollars.) He went off back to Myanmar and I headed to my guesthouse in Ranong, Thailand.
Getting to the pier took about 15 minutes. Getting from the pier to my guesthouse, which was right next to the bus station, took 3 hours. My first effort to get there took 1.5 hours but because I had arrived at night I did not recognize the bus station and refused to get off. He took me back to the pier. The next effort took me to the same place, quickly this time, but I obviously still did not recognize it and again refused to get off. The driver eventually pulled over to speak to somebody that I guess he knew spoke English. I told him that I was not actually going to the bus station but that where I was staying, Kiwi, was right near the bus station. He said Kiwi was in fact right near the bus station. The same bus station that I had already been to twice. I finally got off and walked. Eventually I made it there. The visa run portion of my visa run took 2.5-3 hours but in total I spent about 5.5-6 hours in total to actually get back.
As there is not much in Ranong, we left pretty much as soon as we could to go to Krabi.
The reason I was moving so fast in my previous few destination was because I needed to back it to a boarder town by the end of my then-current visa and I did not want to have to backtrack too much along the way. It was a pretty rushed week, especially for the friend that is visiting. He observed that we spent far too long on buses during that time and I could not agree more but I think it was the best plan given the circumstances.
Ranong is a bland, dull town that exists seemingly exclusively for people to do visa runs into southern Myanmar. We arrived at 1AM, after some sleep, I ventured off alone to do my visa run, we spent that night there, then we left. Pretty simple.
The visa run itself, however, was kind of interesting. The going rate for a visa run service in Ranong is 400THB (about US$12). This sounded reasonable to me but I was confident I could do it myself for less so I declined the effortless visa run service and went for by my lonesome.
I got a ride to the pier without issue. At the pier I met up with three other people doing a visa run as well. We could save money by splitting the cost of the boat we needed to take to get to Myanmar. One of the three needed to buy US dollars from me and did so at a rate that was favorable to me so, other than the cost of the Myanmar visa, the cost of the visa run nearly paid for itself. I got to run the mile I run in each country I visit in Myanmar. The boat back to Thailand went off without a hitch and I got my new 15-day Thai visa no problem. Everything was perfect.
This is when things got interesting. The guy that had to but the US dollars from me had an issue, however. Myanmar forgot to stamp his passport so he had to go back to Myanmar because Thailand would not given him a new visa without the stamp indicating he actually was in another country. (Worked out for me; he needed to buy more US dollars.) He went off back to Myanmar and I headed to my guesthouse in Ranong, Thailand.
Getting to the pier took about 15 minutes. Getting from the pier to my guesthouse, which was right next to the bus station, took 3 hours. My first effort to get there took 1.5 hours but because I had arrived at night I did not recognize the bus station and refused to get off. He took me back to the pier. The next effort took me to the same place, quickly this time, but I obviously still did not recognize it and again refused to get off. The driver eventually pulled over to speak to somebody that I guess he knew spoke English. I told him that I was not actually going to the bus station but that where I was staying, Kiwi, was right near the bus station. He said Kiwi was in fact right near the bus station. The same bus station that I had already been to twice. I finally got off and walked. Eventually I made it there. The visa run portion of my visa run took 2.5-3 hours but in total I spent about 5.5-6 hours in total to actually get back.
As there is not much in Ranong, we left pretty much as soon as we could to go to Krabi.
Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand
In Chiang Mai one of the people from Washington DC that I met lives in the small town of Prachuap Khiri Khan and convinced me to go there while working my way south. I thought it would be a good idea to stop in a town that most tourists and backpackers skip over; a good opportunity to get a better feel for a "real" Thai town as opposed to one that so heavily caters to and depends on tourism. Well, am not sure Prachuap Khiri Khan does exactly that but it is probably the closest I am going to find so I will have to take what I can get.
The town is pleasant but small. There is not much to do. Renting a motorbike is the way to go, according to the guy, but I was not feeling up to that for no particular reason. So, my friend and I just walked around and absorbing.
We did make an effort to ascend what is called Monkey Hill. The 396 stairs on the way up and at the foot of the hill there are monkeys everywhere. We were warned not to bring any food because they will go after it and while it is very unlikely they will harm you it would be an intimidating experience still. Best to just avoid it all together. So we made sure not to have any food. Given that we were going up 396 stairs in heat of the day I brought a bottle of water; odorless, sealed water. I figured this would be OK. While going up a monkey looked at me, then at the water, then approached. I knew what was happening but kind of did not believe it. The monkey did not smell the water and we had already passed about 100 monkeys that had no interested in my water bottle so how could this one be any different? Well, it was. It reached for the bottle while in my hands, I let go, laughing because there is no way this monkey can drink the water because it is closed with a screw cap. We went a few steps up and then watched the monkey struggle with the cap. It knocked the bottle against the stairs. Then, by magic of some sort, it figured it out; the monkey unscrewed the cap. However, the act of pouring the water into its own monkey mouth was beyond the primate and it just dumped the water on the stairs and drank from there. I guess the monkey won but I sure got a good show.
From the top of Monkey Hill, where there are actually no monkeys for some reason, the view of the town is nice. Prachuap Khiri Khan sits on shore there is no beaches but looking out onto the water from there provided some nice photos.
I could not imagine living in Prachuap Khiri Khan as this guy is but it was a nice place to spend a night. However, I think that if I were to live there I would enjoy my time and discover more about the town to enjoy than I had a chance to during my brief stay.
The town is pleasant but small. There is not much to do. Renting a motorbike is the way to go, according to the guy, but I was not feeling up to that for no particular reason. So, my friend and I just walked around and absorbing.
We did make an effort to ascend what is called Monkey Hill. The 396 stairs on the way up and at the foot of the hill there are monkeys everywhere. We were warned not to bring any food because they will go after it and while it is very unlikely they will harm you it would be an intimidating experience still. Best to just avoid it all together. So we made sure not to have any food. Given that we were going up 396 stairs in heat of the day I brought a bottle of water; odorless, sealed water. I figured this would be OK. While going up a monkey looked at me, then at the water, then approached. I knew what was happening but kind of did not believe it. The monkey did not smell the water and we had already passed about 100 monkeys that had no interested in my water bottle so how could this one be any different? Well, it was. It reached for the bottle while in my hands, I let go, laughing because there is no way this monkey can drink the water because it is closed with a screw cap. We went a few steps up and then watched the monkey struggle with the cap. It knocked the bottle against the stairs. Then, by magic of some sort, it figured it out; the monkey unscrewed the cap. However, the act of pouring the water into its own monkey mouth was beyond the primate and it just dumped the water on the stairs and drank from there. I guess the monkey won but I sure got a good show.
From the top of Monkey Hill, where there are actually no monkeys for some reason, the view of the town is nice. Prachuap Khiri Khan sits on shore there is no beaches but looking out onto the water from there provided some nice photos.
I could not imagine living in Prachuap Khiri Khan as this guy is but it was a nice place to spend a night. However, I think that if I were to live there I would enjoy my time and discover more about the town to enjoy than I had a chance to during my brief stay.
Bangkok, Thailand
Everything was telling people not to go to Thailand and specifically to avoid Bangkok because of all the resistance from the red shirts. Ignored.
I arrived in Bangkok as scheduled. I got on the city bus 77 to the nearest BTS station to take it to the BTS station near where I was couch surfing (I am not sure if that is supposed to be one word or two so which ever one I type is the one I am going with for that instance). I got out of the bus at the BTS stop to discover that the BTS was shut down for the time being because of the red shirts/red shirt situation. So, I walked. I knew it was not far and that it was straight south down the road I was already on so I knew it would work out. I found the place no problem.
About my second couch surfing experience: awesome. My host, Peak, is a Thai American from California. She converted her family's 5-story building that was being used for storage as a place to host couch surfers. It is located between the N5 and N7 stops on the BTS route, and as there is no N6 stop currently, she named the place N6. Check out more information here if interested. It is in Bangkok, but not in the central part of the city and outside of the CSers at N6 and a few Westerners that live in the area full-time, there are no falang. I turned down another couch at a fancy apartment building because Peak's place sounded cool. She has beds for 15 surfers but often has as many as 30. The door is never locked and people are always coming and going. N6 was probably the highlight of my time in Bangkok.
That said, I did not do much in Thailand's capital city. The first couple days I was there I slept in because I needed some sleep and spent the time after I woke up lazing around. I explored the area a bit but avoided the backpacker mecca of Khao San Road except for one night out when I was just going with the crowd and did not even know I was in that area until I learned so the following day.
In truth, I did not enjoy Bangkok much. Most backpackers do not like big cities in general but I usually do but Bangkok just does not have any charm. The city is too spread out to explore on foot (plus it is too hot and humid) and a bike would be suicide. City buses would probably work out nicely but do not allow the opportunity do to anything other than look through the windows unless you want to keep getting on and off and pay another fare every time. I probably should have done something like this but I really was just not motivated enough.
After a few nights in Bangkok a friend from Chicago finally arrived in the city for a visit of unknown duration. One-way tickets are wonderful. After a somewhat complicated time meeting up, I brought him to N6, put his bags down, walked around for a couple hours, and then boarded a bus to Kanchanaburi.
After Kanchanaburi my friend and I returned to Bangkok for just a night before heading south so I will include that part here as well. It will be brief as there was only a few items of note.
The plan to get back to Bangkok in time for Jekky's birthday. Jekky is a friend of the CSing host, Peak, who comes to N6 nearly everyday after her work and cooks us dinner. It is pretty awesome of her and I liked the idea of attending the birthday celebration of a Thai person I barely know. However, I quickly learned that after her birthday dinner (which she cooked herself) she would want to go to a club and dance, which is not my scene. "Luckily" for me, I had an excuse not to go. My friend that visited got an infected wounds from his new sandals and was concerned about it. So, we made a quick jut to the hospital instead of the club. It turns out that some German guy also at N6 needed to go to the hospital as well so we were going to split a cab until some Thai girl that was attending Jekky's birthday dinner offered to drive us. The drive there took about four times as long as it should have because of all the increased security because of the red shirts. The hospital we were going to was right in the heart of the "action" and police officers were everywhere. We finally made it to the hospital, my friend got cleaned up and some medication without issue. The German guy refused to pay the cost of an injection he was recommended to get so the Thai girl drove us to another hospital, this one a government one that is less expensive. He ended up not getting the injection and I was not paying much attention when he told me what eventually happened. I hope he is doing well, though. While going to the hospital probably does not sound like a fun-filled evening it was actually cool to see the city at night especially because I had done so little exploring before so I ended up getting a free mini-tour of Bangkok.
Other than the BTS being shut down when I first arrived and the check-points when on the hospital excursion I did not feel the presence of the red shirts' resistance much at all. I assume that the police I saw everywhere I went on the side of the road are not normally there but that is pretty much it. I did not venture into the risk areas during the day, so my view it skewed but I can only judge by what I experienced myself so there it is.
The following day we headed south to the famous Thai islands and beaches.
I arrived in Bangkok as scheduled. I got on the city bus 77 to the nearest BTS station to take it to the BTS station near where I was couch surfing (I am not sure if that is supposed to be one word or two so which ever one I type is the one I am going with for that instance). I got out of the bus at the BTS stop to discover that the BTS was shut down for the time being because of the red shirts/red shirt situation. So, I walked. I knew it was not far and that it was straight south down the road I was already on so I knew it would work out. I found the place no problem.
About my second couch surfing experience: awesome. My host, Peak, is a Thai American from California. She converted her family's 5-story building that was being used for storage as a place to host couch surfers. It is located between the N5 and N7 stops on the BTS route, and as there is no N6 stop currently, she named the place N6. Check out more information here if interested. It is in Bangkok, but not in the central part of the city and outside of the CSers at N6 and a few Westerners that live in the area full-time, there are no falang. I turned down another couch at a fancy apartment building because Peak's place sounded cool. She has beds for 15 surfers but often has as many as 30. The door is never locked and people are always coming and going. N6 was probably the highlight of my time in Bangkok.
That said, I did not do much in Thailand's capital city. The first couple days I was there I slept in because I needed some sleep and spent the time after I woke up lazing around. I explored the area a bit but avoided the backpacker mecca of Khao San Road except for one night out when I was just going with the crowd and did not even know I was in that area until I learned so the following day.
In truth, I did not enjoy Bangkok much. Most backpackers do not like big cities in general but I usually do but Bangkok just does not have any charm. The city is too spread out to explore on foot (plus it is too hot and humid) and a bike would be suicide. City buses would probably work out nicely but do not allow the opportunity do to anything other than look through the windows unless you want to keep getting on and off and pay another fare every time. I probably should have done something like this but I really was just not motivated enough.
After a few nights in Bangkok a friend from Chicago finally arrived in the city for a visit of unknown duration. One-way tickets are wonderful. After a somewhat complicated time meeting up, I brought him to N6, put his bags down, walked around for a couple hours, and then boarded a bus to Kanchanaburi.
After Kanchanaburi my friend and I returned to Bangkok for just a night before heading south so I will include that part here as well. It will be brief as there was only a few items of note.
The plan to get back to Bangkok in time for Jekky's birthday. Jekky is a friend of the CSing host, Peak, who comes to N6 nearly everyday after her work and cooks us dinner. It is pretty awesome of her and I liked the idea of attending the birthday celebration of a Thai person I barely know. However, I quickly learned that after her birthday dinner (which she cooked herself) she would want to go to a club and dance, which is not my scene. "Luckily" for me, I had an excuse not to go. My friend that visited got an infected wounds from his new sandals and was concerned about it. So, we made a quick jut to the hospital instead of the club. It turns out that some German guy also at N6 needed to go to the hospital as well so we were going to split a cab until some Thai girl that was attending Jekky's birthday dinner offered to drive us. The drive there took about four times as long as it should have because of all the increased security because of the red shirts. The hospital we were going to was right in the heart of the "action" and police officers were everywhere. We finally made it to the hospital, my friend got cleaned up and some medication without issue. The German guy refused to pay the cost of an injection he was recommended to get so the Thai girl drove us to another hospital, this one a government one that is less expensive. He ended up not getting the injection and I was not paying much attention when he told me what eventually happened. I hope he is doing well, though. While going to the hospital probably does not sound like a fun-filled evening it was actually cool to see the city at night especially because I had done so little exploring before so I ended up getting a free mini-tour of Bangkok.
Other than the BTS being shut down when I first arrived and the check-points when on the hospital excursion I did not feel the presence of the red shirts' resistance much at all. I assume that the police I saw everywhere I went on the side of the road are not normally there but that is pretty much it. I did not venture into the risk areas during the day, so my view it skewed but I can only judge by what I experienced myself so there it is.
The following day we headed south to the famous Thai islands and beaches.
Sukhothai, Thailand
Ayuthaya may be more visited but the ruins in Sukhothai are better preserved. I wanted a stopping point in between Chiang Mai and Bangkok to avoid the exceedingly long bus ride and to actually experience some culture in Thailand I thought would be a good idea.
I am not an expert by an stretch of the imagination in ruins, history, or any of that stuff that I generally skated through during school but the ruins in Sukhothai are pretty cool and the area is very nice. The cost of admission is kind of outrageous by Thai standards, but I suppose if you are Thai you are not paying the foreigner entrance fee. The ruins are divided into five areas, each with the own entrance fee. I decided to forgo four of the sites as most and the best ruins are in the central region.
I rented a bicycle to explore and to help provide a little wind in the heat. This was a good call. I was able to see more and just riding makes going about more enjoyable. And, of course, the breeze was nice. The main part in the central region of the ruins is surrounded by a moat that was function back in the day and I guess still kind of is in that it prevents people from sneaking in without paying admission (I tried). However, it is now also used for kids to jump in and swim. I saw some kids climbing a tree and jumping in about 10 feet up. Not too high. Of course, I did the same. The water was gross and only a few feet deep but I managed to not injury myself or get sick from the water and was pleasantly cooled off.
I ended up only spending a single night in Sukhothai because I found a night bus to Bangkok. So I was effectively able to spend two days there and save the cost of a night's accommodation by taking the night bus. I would have been happy to spend a couple more days in the town though there is not much to do there but it would have been a nice place to just chill for a bit, at least partially because my room was cheap, spotless, free wifi, and cheap, good food. Alas, it was not to be and I boarded the 11PM, 2nd class bus to Bangkok, due to arrive at 5-6AM to couchsurf for the second time.
I am not an expert by an stretch of the imagination in ruins, history, or any of that stuff that I generally skated through during school but the ruins in Sukhothai are pretty cool and the area is very nice. The cost of admission is kind of outrageous by Thai standards, but I suppose if you are Thai you are not paying the foreigner entrance fee. The ruins are divided into five areas, each with the own entrance fee. I decided to forgo four of the sites as most and the best ruins are in the central region.
I rented a bicycle to explore and to help provide a little wind in the heat. This was a good call. I was able to see more and just riding makes going about more enjoyable. And, of course, the breeze was nice. The main part in the central region of the ruins is surrounded by a moat that was function back in the day and I guess still kind of is in that it prevents people from sneaking in without paying admission (I tried). However, it is now also used for kids to jump in and swim. I saw some kids climbing a tree and jumping in about 10 feet up. Not too high. Of course, I did the same. The water was gross and only a few feet deep but I managed to not injury myself or get sick from the water and was pleasantly cooled off.
I ended up only spending a single night in Sukhothai because I found a night bus to Bangkok. So I was effectively able to spend two days there and save the cost of a night's accommodation by taking the night bus. I would have been happy to spend a couple more days in the town though there is not much to do there but it would have been a nice place to just chill for a bit, at least partially because my room was cheap, spotless, free wifi, and cheap, good food. Alas, it was not to be and I boarded the 11PM, 2nd class bus to Bangkok, due to arrive at 5-6AM to couchsurf for the second time.
Chiang Mai, Thailand, Part II
I returned to Chiang Mai from Mae Hong Son with a "stop-over" in Pai for a few hours. The plan was to stay the night in Pai and catch a bus in the morning but I arrived in Pai early enough to get a bus that same day.
This stint in Chiang Mai was less fun but it would have been impossible to match the atmosphere of songkran so I was not surprised. The sole purpose of returning to Chiang Mai was to do a "visa run" to the Myanmar boarder. A visa run is leaving Country X into Country Y and then returning directly to Country X with a new visa from Country X. This is required when your Country X visa is at or near expiration. My Thai visa expired on 7 May so on that date or prior I needed to do a visa run in order to remain in Thailand past that date. Complicated stuff, I know.
Costs of visa runs vary widely depending on where you are, which boarder you are going into, how far the boarder is, how you are getting there, how you are crossing the boarder, the cost of the visa to the Country Y, and a few other things. Given that I was in northern Thailand the easily accessible boarders are Myanmar, Laos, and China. China requires a visa in advance, and it is expensive, so it was out. A Laos visa for an American is expensive and because I originally entered Thailand from Laos I have already made the trip, just in reverse. So, Myanmar is it. The boarder is pretty close, the cost of the visa is reasonable (US$10), and I was able to combine the visa run with a day trip of the Golden Triangle area so that I was not wasting an entire day merely doing a visa run but was also able to do a little sightseeing as well. That said, the Golden Triangle part of the trip was secondary to me priority of getting the new visa. In addition, the visa run alone costs 600THB (just over US$18) and the tour cost 750THB (about US$22) so I though an extra $4 was worth making a trip out of it.
The trip itself was OK. Nothing too exciting or interesting with the exception of the White Temple. Stunning from the outside, the White Temple really separates itself from other temples by the interior painting. The back of the room is where evil is and the front is where peace (Buddha) is. Makes enough sense except when you look at the paintings at the back/evil end. Here is a incomplete list of images painted at the back/evil end: Superman, Batman, Neo from The Matrix, the Twin Towers after the first hit with the second plane on its way, Chuck Taylor Converse All-Stars, and a gasoline pump. There are plenty more but those are the ones I can recall. It was weird.
The tour was fine and I got my visa no problem and that was all I really cared about so all worked out well.
This stint in Chiang Mai was less fun but it would have been impossible to match the atmosphere of songkran so I was not surprised. The sole purpose of returning to Chiang Mai was to do a "visa run" to the Myanmar boarder. A visa run is leaving Country X into Country Y and then returning directly to Country X with a new visa from Country X. This is required when your Country X visa is at or near expiration. My Thai visa expired on 7 May so on that date or prior I needed to do a visa run in order to remain in Thailand past that date. Complicated stuff, I know.
Costs of visa runs vary widely depending on where you are, which boarder you are going into, how far the boarder is, how you are getting there, how you are crossing the boarder, the cost of the visa to the Country Y, and a few other things. Given that I was in northern Thailand the easily accessible boarders are Myanmar, Laos, and China. China requires a visa in advance, and it is expensive, so it was out. A Laos visa for an American is expensive and because I originally entered Thailand from Laos I have already made the trip, just in reverse. So, Myanmar is it. The boarder is pretty close, the cost of the visa is reasonable (US$10), and I was able to combine the visa run with a day trip of the Golden Triangle area so that I was not wasting an entire day merely doing a visa run but was also able to do a little sightseeing as well. That said, the Golden Triangle part of the trip was secondary to me priority of getting the new visa. In addition, the visa run alone costs 600THB (just over US$18) and the tour cost 750THB (about US$22) so I though an extra $4 was worth making a trip out of it.
The trip itself was OK. Nothing too exciting or interesting with the exception of the White Temple. Stunning from the outside, the White Temple really separates itself from other temples by the interior painting. The back of the room is where evil is and the front is where peace (Buddha) is. Makes enough sense except when you look at the paintings at the back/evil end. Here is a incomplete list of images painted at the back/evil end: Superman, Batman, Neo from The Matrix, the Twin Towers after the first hit with the second plane on its way, Chuck Taylor Converse All-Stars, and a gasoline pump. There are plenty more but those are the ones I can recall. It was weird.
The tour was fine and I got my visa no problem and that was all I really cared about so all worked out well.
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