Just a couple more thoughts on Laos before we move on to the next chapter. This country had quite some surprises in stock for us, mostly due to the fact that before we did not know much about Laos. Except that the roads were bad and that they were worth it because of atmospheric mountain villages. As always, the real picture was more complicated than that. Sure, the roads of North Laos are nothing to shout about, but this will change soon, as there is loads and loads of road construction going on. And sure the villages are great, but after having seen those in East-Timor and Indonesia, this is nothing new to us. The things that we will remember about Laos are the following: the French colonial heritage, the communist flags, colourful hill tribes, strong coffee and the unexpected kindness of the strangers.
With lots of nostalgia we set off, once again towards Thailand, and made our last encounter with the great steamy Mekong river which marks a long stretch of Thailand's eastern and northern border. We took a heavily overpriced barge across it.
Soon enough we arrived in Chiang Mai, the Thailand's praised cultural capital. Our expectations were high, no doubt, with all the hype about all the temples and the sophisticaton to be found. The truth is, what we found was a regular hot, noisy and polluted Thai town. Maybe it is not meant for us to fall for Chiang Mai, or maybe it is simply too hot right now to fall for anything?
A couple of pics from Chiang Mai:
A real cookie shop.
Our first ever túk-túk ride
Phra Singh temple
Some monks were meditation in one of the most hyped temples, Wat Phra Singh:
Actually it seems that not only we do suffer from the heat, but the locals as well. For example it is now a couple of times that when we have enquired about the safe parking for the bike, the guesthouses' staff has told us: "Nobody steal your bike, your bike too heavy, the sun too hot, everybody so tired". Well, indeed!
We did not waste too much time in Chiang Mai, and instead headed to the famed mountains of the North. And what a better place to cool off than in a cave! We looked up the Lot Cave quite near the Myanmar border, hired a guide with a lantern, and a boatman, and our journey on the Nam Lang river on a bamboo raft could begin!
Inside the cave.
One mile inside the mountain...
We saw stalactites and stalagmites and made a stop in one of the caves that contains some two thousand year old coffins made out of teakwood. They are thought to have belonged to Lawa people who must have buried their respected members this way.
Pieces of over 2000 year old coffins in the cave.
Ceiling details.
And our exit over the underground river.
Our visit to the Akha village in Laos proved to be immensely inspiring, so that when we arrived in North Thailand, we could not help but to go looking for more tribal villages. A hand-drawn map in hand, we set off to explore the unknown. Different hill tribes live so close to each other in Thailand that if you have wheels, it is possible to see many of them in one day.
We passed a Karen village. The Karen have come from Myanmar and judging by the numbers, they are the biggest ethnic minority in Thailand, counting more than 300 000 people. In whole world there are some 14 millions of them, but despite all their efforts to establish a state of their own, this has not been the case, and many of them have fled from their homes.
Buffalos were a first good sign, that careful ethnic people's village is close.
Karen tribe lady.
The best known group of Karens are the people of Kayan. Their women wear brass coils aroung their necks whick make the necks look unnaturally long. The fact is, however, that by adding the coils (girls start wearing them from the age of five) the neck does not become longer, but it is due to suppressing the collar bone and deforming the rib cage that this appearance is achieved. There are many theories as to why the Kayan women wear the brass coils. One of them says that the long necks made the women unattractive to other tribes thus protecting them from becoming slaves. The more romantic approach is that the long neck makes women resemble a dragon, an important figure in Kayan tales. Either way, many women continue wearing the coils (which are now officially prohibited in Myanmar) as a part of their identity, others do it for the income (the "long neck women" are a big hit among the tourists).
Kayan girl making textile.
Kayan woman.
Then we found a Shan village. The Shan were actually here a long-long time ago, even before the first Siam kingdom was established in Sukhotai after the Khmers receded in 13th century. Today the majority of them live in Myanmar.
Yes, that's the "road" (read: trail) into Shan's village.
Shan's village panoramas - click to enlarge.
Shan woman.
Shan tribe girl.
Older women often chew betelnuts that have a slight narcotic effect.
Shan man.
And there were some Lisu and Lahu villages, but the promised mountain views of the North Thailand were nowhere to be found since it is the season when all the smoke from the slash-and-burn agriculture fills the air, reducing the visibility.
Lisu woman.
A Lisu village on steep mountainsides.
Hilltribe's village.
Woman delivering roof building material to her village. All is still bone powered here.
Lahu village panorama - click to enlarge.
Very good road between the hilltribe villages.
Smoggy Northern Thailand landscapes - supposed to be the most beautiful part of Thailand, but we've obviously have come on the wrong time of a year to see it.
Before returning to Bangkok we made a quick stop in Sukhothai, the first capital of Siam Kingdom, established in 1238, and its successor, Ayutthaya. Both of them contain some fine examples of the temple architecture from that era. Here are some pick from Sukhothai:
Big Buddha.
Cart transport.
By the way, the kingdom was called Siam more or less until 1949 when it was renamed Thailand.
Back in Bangkok, the current capital, we had to agree that today the kingdom's everyday life is disturbed by the rallies of the so-called red shirts. They claim the goverment to be too much on the side of the elite, thus their goal is to dissolve the government. Although the protest actions that we ourselves witnessed looked pretty peaceful, they also have taken some symbolically powerful steps, such as spilling the blood donated by the protesters in front of government buildings. Nevertheless, the government does not seem to be affected.
Just before reaching Bangkok and finishing the South-East Asian leg, our odometer clicked 100 000 kilometers of this expedition.
We spent one and a half weeks in Bangkok, organizing the transport of the bike to Nepal. As many of you know, there is no direct route from Thailand, unless you have a fat wad of cash to spare - Myanmar is under military control (mostly one has to use a military truck to transport the bike through the country), and China has some funky requirements such as a local drivers' licence or a 4x4 escort for US $400 per day.
Actually there was not much more to do in Bangkok but to wait for the necessary dangerous goods certificate to be arranged (and I'm telling you, Thai bureaucracy must be the slowest we've experienced so far), then to pack the bike and leave.
Here are the last sounds and pictures we took in Bangkok while waiting:
Bangkok traffic.
A blind musician on the street.
.::LISTEN::.
Anti-govermental stuff everywhere...
.::LISTEN::.
The packing of the bike involved removing the windscreen and the front wheel in order to spare some precious centimeters - in air freight they charge either according to the actual weight, or the volumetric weight, which ever is bigger, so our goal was to make the bike (and also the crate) as small as possible. I believe we saved some couple of hundred dollars by doing this.
A GS boxed.
We flew off on an old aircraft belonging to Nepal Airlines, a company that is thought to be pretty unreliable, but it was the cheapest option we could find, and the food was good.
Funky clouds somewhere above Myanmar (Burma).
So we arrived in Nepal, and the bike too, a couple of days later. The paperwork at the cargo terminal was, of course, all in Nepali language, so it was great fun, but luckily not too much, and we rode off some three hours later. Now it stands in the garden of our guesthouse, ready for new adventures!
Our Continental South-East Asian route in retrospect:
With lots of nostalgia we set off, once again towards Thailand, and made our last encounter with the great steamy Mekong river which marks a long stretch of Thailand's eastern and northern border. We took a heavily overpriced barge across it.
Soon enough we arrived in Chiang Mai, the Thailand's praised cultural capital. Our expectations were high, no doubt, with all the hype about all the temples and the sophisticaton to be found. The truth is, what we found was a regular hot, noisy and polluted Thai town. Maybe it is not meant for us to fall for Chiang Mai, or maybe it is simply too hot right now to fall for anything?
A couple of pics from Chiang Mai:
A real cookie shop.
Our first ever túk-túk ride
Phra Singh temple
Some monks were meditation in one of the most hyped temples, Wat Phra Singh:
Actually it seems that not only we do suffer from the heat, but the locals as well. For example it is now a couple of times that when we have enquired about the safe parking for the bike, the guesthouses' staff has told us: "Nobody steal your bike, your bike too heavy, the sun too hot, everybody so tired". Well, indeed!
We did not waste too much time in Chiang Mai, and instead headed to the famed mountains of the North. And what a better place to cool off than in a cave! We looked up the Lot Cave quite near the Myanmar border, hired a guide with a lantern, and a boatman, and our journey on the Nam Lang river on a bamboo raft could begin!
Inside the cave.
One mile inside the mountain...
We saw stalactites and stalagmites and made a stop in one of the caves that contains some two thousand year old coffins made out of teakwood. They are thought to have belonged to Lawa people who must have buried their respected members this way.
Pieces of over 2000 year old coffins in the cave.
Ceiling details.
And our exit over the underground river.
Our visit to the Akha village in Laos proved to be immensely inspiring, so that when we arrived in North Thailand, we could not help but to go looking for more tribal villages. A hand-drawn map in hand, we set off to explore the unknown. Different hill tribes live so close to each other in Thailand that if you have wheels, it is possible to see many of them in one day.
We passed a Karen village. The Karen have come from Myanmar and judging by the numbers, they are the biggest ethnic minority in Thailand, counting more than 300 000 people. In whole world there are some 14 millions of them, but despite all their efforts to establish a state of their own, this has not been the case, and many of them have fled from their homes.
Buffalos were a first good sign, that careful ethnic people's village is close.
Karen tribe lady.
The best known group of Karens are the people of Kayan. Their women wear brass coils aroung their necks whick make the necks look unnaturally long. The fact is, however, that by adding the coils (girls start wearing them from the age of five) the neck does not become longer, but it is due to suppressing the collar bone and deforming the rib cage that this appearance is achieved. There are many theories as to why the Kayan women wear the brass coils. One of them says that the long necks made the women unattractive to other tribes thus protecting them from becoming slaves. The more romantic approach is that the long neck makes women resemble a dragon, an important figure in Kayan tales. Either way, many women continue wearing the coils (which are now officially prohibited in Myanmar) as a part of their identity, others do it for the income (the "long neck women" are a big hit among the tourists).
Kayan girl making textile.
Kayan woman.
Then we found a Shan village. The Shan were actually here a long-long time ago, even before the first Siam kingdom was established in Sukhotai after the Khmers receded in 13th century. Today the majority of them live in Myanmar.
Yes, that's the "road" (read: trail) into Shan's village.
Shan's village panoramas - click to enlarge.
Shan woman.
Shan tribe girl.
Older women often chew betelnuts that have a slight narcotic effect.
Shan man.
And there were some Lisu and Lahu villages, but the promised mountain views of the North Thailand were nowhere to be found since it is the season when all the smoke from the slash-and-burn agriculture fills the air, reducing the visibility.
Lisu woman.
A Lisu village on steep mountainsides.
Hilltribe's village.
Woman delivering roof building material to her village. All is still bone powered here.
Lahu village panorama - click to enlarge.
Very good road between the hilltribe villages.
Smoggy Northern Thailand landscapes - supposed to be the most beautiful part of Thailand, but we've obviously have come on the wrong time of a year to see it.
Before returning to Bangkok we made a quick stop in Sukhothai, the first capital of Siam Kingdom, established in 1238, and its successor, Ayutthaya. Both of them contain some fine examples of the temple architecture from that era. Here are some pick from Sukhothai:
Big Buddha.
Cart transport.
By the way, the kingdom was called Siam more or less until 1949 when it was renamed Thailand.
Back in Bangkok, the current capital, we had to agree that today the kingdom's everyday life is disturbed by the rallies of the so-called red shirts. They claim the goverment to be too much on the side of the elite, thus their goal is to dissolve the government. Although the protest actions that we ourselves witnessed looked pretty peaceful, they also have taken some symbolically powerful steps, such as spilling the blood donated by the protesters in front of government buildings. Nevertheless, the government does not seem to be affected.
Just before reaching Bangkok and finishing the South-East Asian leg, our odometer clicked 100 000 kilometers of this expedition.
We spent one and a half weeks in Bangkok, organizing the transport of the bike to Nepal. As many of you know, there is no direct route from Thailand, unless you have a fat wad of cash to spare - Myanmar is under military control (mostly one has to use a military truck to transport the bike through the country), and China has some funky requirements such as a local drivers' licence or a 4x4 escort for US $400 per day.
Actually there was not much more to do in Bangkok but to wait for the necessary dangerous goods certificate to be arranged (and I'm telling you, Thai bureaucracy must be the slowest we've experienced so far), then to pack the bike and leave.
Here are the last sounds and pictures we took in Bangkok while waiting:
Bangkok traffic.
A blind musician on the street.
.::LISTEN::.
Anti-govermental stuff everywhere...
.::LISTEN::.
The packing of the bike involved removing the windscreen and the front wheel in order to spare some precious centimeters - in air freight they charge either according to the actual weight, or the volumetric weight, which ever is bigger, so our goal was to make the bike (and also the crate) as small as possible. I believe we saved some couple of hundred dollars by doing this.
A GS boxed.
We flew off on an old aircraft belonging to Nepal Airlines, a company that is thought to be pretty unreliable, but it was the cheapest option we could find, and the food was good.
Funky clouds somewhere above Myanmar (Burma).
So we arrived in Nepal, and the bike too, a couple of days later. The paperwork at the cargo terminal was, of course, all in Nepali language, so it was great fun, but luckily not too much, and we rode off some three hours later. Now it stands in the garden of our guesthouse, ready for new adventures!
Our Continental South-East Asian route in retrospect:
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