10 to 11 apr 2008, surin

the lao-thai border at chong mek didnt ask for "stamp" fee. hehe...

as compared to laos, thailand is much cleaner and easy to travel. we changed many buses just to get to surin so that we can cross border to cambodia in the early morning the next day. surin is a quite a big town but not many travelers. hard to find a place to sleep too. we only saw 2 cheap hotels that night. we checked into one that gave us a discount, only 150b per night.

26 to 28 mar 2008, Mae Chan

thailand, myanmar and laos

ah pon's uncle drove us to the golden triangle

a view of myanmar from thailand

climb up to have a peek of myanmar"tok-kay" - a very common kind of reptile in this region. they got their name from the sound they gave. can you see the difference in size with the lizard on its right?

at their village, these banana leaves were collected and sold to smokers who use them as a wrap

anthony, ah pon, sk, ah moon and me having green mangoes. dip them in prawn paste and eat non-stop

ah yai and ah noi

food market at mae chan

termite's nest

we were supposed to leave Thaton for Mai Sai (Thai and Myanmar border) but we didn't make it on that day. for we met a Singaporean man, Anthony, on the same Saengthaew (pick up) with us. he is living in Mae Chan with his Thai wife, An Pon. it was when they spoke in Cantonese that we inquire where they come from. it was around 3.30pm when we arrived in Mae Chan and Anthony told us to put up one night at his place in the village and take a Saengthaew to Mae Sai the day after. we gladly took up the offer.

Both he and An Pon were very nice people. they knew almost everyone in the village. they told us stories while we have green mangoes together. lovely!

the next morning, An Pon's uncle took us on a day trip with them to Mae Sai and The Golden Triangle. at night, we had dinner at his uncle's place. their relatives living in nearby houses came by and drink through the night. amazing people. An Pon always says that living in the village is so different than in the city. people know and talk to each other. u wont see people talking to themselves in the streets. and one may not have to spend a single cent on some days for everyone grows vegetables and fruits in their land. Before I leave, An Pon handed me some basil seeds to grow them in Singapore. i hope i can do that.

24 to 26 mar 2008, thaton

this statue looked real. sk and i had to touch it to be convinced that this is not real.

a view of Thaton from a hilltop temple

she probably belonged to the Akha tribe. she had wanted to sell us some of her handicrafts but ended up being invited to take a photo with us. she put on this hat for sk to make him look nicer in this picture.

he smiled after i dug out an oreo cookie for him

he cried when sk had only enough milo bars for his sisters...

collecting water from a public tap

this lady was extremely friendly as she gladly allowed us to take a few photos of her. she was weaving a cotton top, similar to what she was wearing. they do this all day to make a living.

they belong to a tribe called Long neck Karen, originating from Burma (Myanmar). some whom we talked to were living in Thailand for 1.5 years to 15 years. it was said that they get to receive a bit of money through the entrance fee.

we were greeted by this "Lahu" tribe ah ma to buy some scarves and bags from her. she kept saying 100块 100 块, which meant 100bhat 100 bhat.

Lahu tribe - they wear big earrings and are originated from Tibet.

walking down a paved road to the karen village...

on a sangtheaw to the karen village

one travel agent told us that Thaton is a good place to see long necked karen tribe as it is not as touristic as Mae Hong San. so we took a 4 hours public bus from chiang mai to get here. from here, it is easy to reach the karen village which is 16km away and the entrace fee is 250 bhat.

i like Thaton for it is a small quiet town, just about 1km long. we stayed in a guesthouse where we were the only guests there for both nights. according to the owner, Kwan, the peak season had ended and not many tourists come by here anyway. she will be closing the guesthouse after the songkran festival (mid april) till sep and then reopen from oct to mar. she only opens 6 months each time. such good fortune. hee...

anyway, over there, we experienced a big rain one day. it was raining big cubes of ice for a few minutes. i felt slight pain when it hit me. a monk offered us to take shelter in his place. many houses were damaged and the whole town was quiet at 8pm cos everyone closed their shops to stay home.

23 to 24 mar 2008, chiangmai

this girl resembled little yan yee

a beautiful path that leads to a hotel/resort

this monk was a great draw to the dogs

blind performers at the sunday night bazaar

buy or not to buy

work in progress

100% orange juice

an unusual wat (temple) made of bamboo.

took an overnight VIP bus to chiang mai. it was a double decker bus. the seats upstairs were full so we were seated downstairs just next to the toilet. so, we can always smell the urine stench from the toilet whenever the door opens. and it just so happened that many people were using it during the journey. haha...

chiangmai's weather was cool in the night. we were just in time for the sunday night bazaar. it was a long stretch of stalls (hundreds of them), thousands of people and so many things to see and buy. one will not see many repeats in the things that they sell (which is good cos it wont bore u so much) and u can just walk until midnight and still find the stalls interesting. i bought a hair band for 5 bhat (sgd 0.20) and a wooden handicraft bracelet for 29 bhat (sgd 1.50).

the guest house that we stayed with was not too bad, except there were bed bugs and i was bitten quite badly. :(

20 to 22 mar 2008, ayuthaya (the old city of ruins)

these guys were carefully inspecting the buddha pendants from a seller.

a busy market

devotees applying tiny strips of gold paper onto the buddha statue

one of the temple ruins in Ayuthaya

took 2 local buses to get to ayuthaya from kanchanaburi. it was a hot day and the same thing we did was to get a shower after we found a place to crash. Toto guesthouse is super clean. i cant even find an ant on the floor when i checked in.

we spent the whole day cycling around town yesterday to see the ruins. its the best way to see all the sights listed on the map and it only cost 30thb to rent the bicycle from morning till evening. i really enjoyed the whole cycling trip with sk though we had to make several U-turns as the road names on the map were not up to date.

now, sk and i are sun dried with reddish brown skin. one guy even asked if i am from the philippines! :p i could only remember the tasty sweet 7D mangoes and san miguel beer from there.

for my dad... i had some pineapples a few days ago and my, they tasted as sweet as before when i first came to chiangmai with you and bro some 14 years ago. you were the one who convinced me into trying, remember?

17 to 20 mar 2008, kanchanaburi

remnants of the death railway (thailand-burma)

tiger cubs

the war cemetry

a view from our raft house

3 hrs train ride from bangkok. wondered why we have to pay 100 thb for a ticket while the locals pay 25 thb.

anyway, kanchanaburi is another nice place for me. we checked into a rafthouse (150 thb per room) by the kwai river. it is very cheap i thought, compared to the hostels in europe. its a whole lot of price difference! :p

one day we went to the famous tiger temple to get close up photos with the tame tigers. the tigers were cared for by the monks since they were cubs. so there is no worry when one gets to sit next to the tigers for photo shooting. they were almost like pets instead of the notorious types that we have seen on animal planet. they might have been very well fed before they were brought out to meet the visitors. oh, if you want to enter this place, please bear in mind not to wear red, pink and orange or sleeveless shirts. otherwise, you will be asked to buy one of their t-shirts at the entrance for 300 thb.

the next day, we went to see the death railway (thailand-burma). as many as 100,000 POWs have died there trying to complete the 415km railway in 20 months with pre-historic tools. no machines at all. they were overworked up to 18 hours a day and underfed with rice and salted vegetables and the occasional maggot-filled meat. living conditions were just as bad.