Goodbye Eleanor, goodbye Thailand

Thailand oh Thailand, we are so happy to be back! Laos was great, but quite cold and we had enough of the roads, the sandwiches (however great they were) and the sights, which weren’t many considering we aren’t trekking lovers. Otherwise we would have had a great time, especially since there’s a national park there with wild tigers running around!

The crossing to Thailand wasn’t all that hard, just costly. Man, those Laotians know how to charge! A ferry ride lasting not even five minutes cost us 500 Baht (17,5 dollars). From Thailand into Laos it didn’t cost us anything! No hassles on the other side and we got a stamp for a sixty day entry, so no more worries about running out of time, visa-wise. First stop was Chiang Rai, described as insignificant and ‘make your way outta there fast’. It was OK for a night. We stayed at a dingy place (but it did have a TV with the tennis on, so that was not too bad) and had a devil curry. The spice still tasted on our lips half an hour after we had finished the meal (because you can’t throw away food – what a waste). We were excited about Chiang Mai, 200 km further south, Thailand’s second largest city, so we got out of Chiang Rai quite quickly. But not before having one of the best breakfasts ever; rice and roasted duck, cooked to perfection, yum!

(David, ready for another swim, needs to watch his head a lot!)

We got to Chiang Mai via a beautiful back road that led us into stunning mountain scenery. On the way we had lunch where we took a photo of that menu that was posted on the blog earlier. We had a good laugh about that one and choose the safest option, fried rice, which was excellent. In Chiang Mai we found a very decent place to stay for a few days with cable TV, so we watched quite a bit of the Australian Open, wonderful! When not watching a game we saw the sights around Chiang Mai, which consist of a lot of glitzy temples and Wats. Chiang Mai is a beautiful city, very well set up for tourists, but not in an annoying way. Remains of an old city wall and a moat enclose the old part of the city, which is where we stayed, excellent food was served both inside and outside the city wall.

Since we missed spotting wild tigers in Laos, we decided to cuddle little tigers at the Chiang Mai ‘Tiger Kingdom’. For 35 dollars we were allowed in the enclosure with four six month old tigers, one of them called Jenny. They slept the whole time and we weren’t allowed to approach them from the front, but we did have the chance to pet their super soft bellies and back paws. It was quite cute! In Chiang Mai we also got a bit greedy again, just like in Krabi, by seeing so many clothes and silverware at the street markets and many, many shops. We got another few shirts tailor-made for a song and once they were ready we were ready to go as well. Keen to ride our Eleanor a bit more. We got a feel for the price she might fetch in Chiang Mai, and got some good offers. So we left the city in good faith of future offers to come.

Phrae was our next stop. Just a stopover, really, because we wanted to see the ancient ruins of Sukothai, but that was a bit too far from Chiang Mai. Phrae is listed in both the Lonely Planet and Rough Guide, but we haven’t seen any tourists there. However, the local foodstall did have an English menu! One that was also decipherable. Food, shakes and ice coffee were incredibly good in Phrae, and cheap too, so we liked this little city. Accommodation however was relatively expensive and not too clean, so we left after one day, despite the amazing food.

There wasn’t much to do in Sukothai, other than seeing the ancient ruins dating back to the 13th century. It was quite impressive to see such old buildings still standing, hence this ancient city is a world heritage protected UNESCO site. Yes, we got another one ticked (and getting over them too). Having already seen the ancient city at sunset, we could move on the next day to go further south. We saw some more ruins and old city walls and eventually stopped at Nakhon Sawan, a city both guidebooks hadn’t bothered writing about. Finding our way around was therefore a bit more challenging, since we had no maps. Finding a hotel was also a challenge, considering every sign was in Thai writing – no English. We memorised the word for hotel (both written down and verbally) and we got ourselves a place to stay. A bit of a dive, but at least it had a huge screen on which we could watch more of the Australian Open. We stayed for another three nights when we found a really nice place. We mostly stayed in the room to watch the tennis with a beer or two. Very relaxing. Go Serena!

We found Nakhon Sawan quite nice. It scored high on our city rating list, thanks to the food, of course. We haven’t done much hiking, sight-seeing, city tours, river cruises or anything like that, but we have seen thousands of kilometers of Thai countryside (6000 km to be exact), thanks to our scooter and we have munched our way around the country. When we like a city, it is most likely because it has some excellent markets and loads of food stalls. According to our standard, a good market should have plenty of food to choose from; thanks to all the ‘meals on wheels’ carts that show up at any market (a scooter with a trailer attached, that consists of at least a gas bottle, stove and plenty of woks to cook in). A good market should have some deep friend stuff (chicken, flour balls, crab, squid on a stick, etc.), freshly cooked food (Chinese, Thai, seafood, chicken, pork, beef, veggies, rice, noodles, egg), fruit shakes and ice coffee stands, some fresh vegetable and meat produce (all body parts of the chicken, including head and feet, pork feet, livers, brains, hearts, fresh toads, insects, cockroaches, turtles) and of course the non-edible items; speakers screaming with nineties music, illegal copies of movies that are just showing in cinemas, loads of clothing, shoes, Tupperware, jewelry, make-up and toys. The markets really scores when they have a few elephants walking around as well, which happened in Nakhon Sawan a couple of times. For 70 cents, David got to feed and pet them!

In Nakhon Sawan, at any given time, three markets of which we were aware were running consecutively. The morning market would disappear at midday, making way for a smaller clothing market, that would transfer in the evening to an amazing food market. How is it possible to run so many markets in an average-sized city every single day and still get all the stalls running at a profit, or at least break-even (we figured; if they lose money, they wouldn’t have their stall at the market, so they must make some money)? No wonder there aren’t (m)any supermarkets in Thailand. Tesco seems to charge you a fortune and all the mini-markets and seven-elevens seem to have all the luxury items you’d want anyway (chips, chocolate). But why would you even touch these expensive western luxuries when, if you’re craving for sweets, there are drinks and snacks available so sweet it makes you think your teeth are going to fall straight out of your mouth. Or, if you’re in the savory mood, when there’s deep fried chicken or minced buns available on almost every street corner? And all this for five or 10 Baht per item! The seven-eleven probably exists here because despite of all these delicious items in Thailand, Jenny still can’t keep away from chips, nor can David stay away from Nutella!

But we’re happy to go back to Australia, too. We’ve missed the red wine, the strongbows, the cheeses (brie, camembert, blue vein) olives, anchovies, yoghurt, pasta, savoys, nutella to name a few (you can probably guess which items are on Jenny’s list). We had some very ambitious plans to go to India and even Kenya, but unfortunately we haven’t even made it to Cambodia or Vietnam. We have had a wonderful trip, though, and are ready to go back. We’re flying back to Darwin on the 3rd of February, and will be heading south-west towards Geraldton in Western Australia. We want to go back, but we also need to go back, because Jenny cannot stay out of the country for more than 90 days if she wishes to lodge her citizenship application this year. So we booked flights and all of a sudden our Eleanor was sold, too! We sold her in Nakhon Sawan to a very helpful private dealer and his sister (who could speak English and was our translator). They helped us prepare all the paperwork and even gave us a lift to the train station. So now we’re real backpackers again (we miss Eleanor already). We’re in Ayutthaya, where we have yet to visit another ancient city. Then a few days in Bangkok and then… back to Taj (our four-wheel-drive)!

Thanks for following our travels. Hopefully you will stay tuned for the ‘Around Australia’ trip, part two: Western Australia!

(Pimp my ride)