We arrived on New Year’s Eve via Chiang Rai airport, I met her family again and were immediately invited to a political party organised NYE party. This would be my first experience of a large Thai outdoor gathering with bands, booze and dancing girls: (well, some were girls). A few politicians gave speeches but otherwise it was a great event, complete with a little market and paper lanterns being launched. At one point I got up to dance with a cousin but I was frequently approached by a few drunken guys wanting to dance with a falang. The butch cousin quickly brushed them away although the party had its own security guys to eject drunks. I wasn’t the only falang there and as there was some assumption that falangs have lots in common, therefore I was introduced to an OK German guy happy to converse in English about his life and family in Thailand.
Next morning the view across the fields was blocked by a fog blanket until midday when it was burnt off by the sun. The temperature increased from 10-15 degrees at 8am to 28 degrees at midday. This would be the normal climatic conditions during my stay. The early morning peace would be frequently disturbed by the village loudspeaker, usually starting with a ‘Jintara Poonlarp’ song, a particular favourite singer of the village headman. I was frequently asking about the various announcements and fireworks going off with all night funeral gatherings and associated Temple music. Toss in the occasional music broadcasts from nearby state and private schools this was not a quiet community even the local Wat had working machinery in it for most days doing extensions. I took ahappy snap of a supervising monk in wellies
We drove into Phayao city markets for my first Thailand driving experience. Phayao is a quiet drab city, a chaos of street planning, brightened only by an attractive lake frontage where the falang tourist coaches stopped at the row of lakeside restaurants. Instead we went ‘authentic’ and stopped at a noodle shop, one of many I would visit around Phayao and the north of Thailand. I soon learnt to appreciate the cuisine of various noodle soups. I could handle it ‘as is’ while my fellow travellers added much chilli, vinegar soya or what was available to suit their tastes. The only time I was sick from local food was from having sausage on a stick purchased from a street stall . A mistake I was to regret and also suffer the ‘told you so’ of the GF.
A few days later we ate at a newish Phayao lakeside restaurant called ‘So Good’. Very upmarket but worth it considering its location, service and cuisine Alongside the restaurant a condominium block is being built, a sign of change in this area that will probably downgrade the natural beauty.
- lakeside Kwan Phayao1 .jpg (92.42 KiB) Viewed 1066 times
One of our spontaneous visits was to go to Phayao Prison as the GF wanted to see a cousin’s son, banged up for white collar crime. (This was clearly a low security prison with plenty of gardening distractions for prisoners.) The relative was very grateful to have a visitor and be given some money to buy the essentials of life such as soap. As expected it was the anguish of prisoner’s families as they left after seeing their loved ones that was very disturbing.
A good Aussie friend is funding a house building in Sukothai province at Si Satchanalai being the home town of his wife, Ning. I was asked to carry additional funds from Australia to his wife who was supervising the building project. Rather than drive directly down Highway One we detoured on to highway 103 and via Phrae and Uttradit. I’m not sure if this route was better, maybe less busy and much of it was under construction conversion to a divided road. As a driver not knowing where I was, but being directed by my Thai passengers who thought they knew where they were going I received much conflicting directions. I eventually stopped to buy a map to fathom where the hell I ‘should’ be going . Even so with sketchy directions as we got closer it took a few stops for better directions from locals and also care to avoid overloaded sugar cane trucks.
My friend’s dream home was in some ways a nightmare for his bride to manage on her own and much bigger than their house in Australia. They had acquired land ‘near Mum’ then bought an nearby old teak house, dismantled it and all the old cladding boards were being ‘planed’ both sides for use as the new house cladding. I was surprised that there were no house drawings, just some basic sketches and lots of verbal instructions. The importance of a high security fence was important to stop ‘permanent borrowings’ of building material.
I was happily dancing, doing a little drinking and taking photos. I used my zoom lens to take pictures of one of the hired dancers. (On showing them later to my GF’s friends it caused roars of laughter when they pointed out ‘she’ was a Katoey. Poor Jimbob.) Unusual to me was to see local politicians attending the party and making speeches: but it was election time. One of Ning’s cousins wanted to dance with me but I did so only for a short time until it appeared some Thai guys she was with weren’t happy about it so I gracefully backed away not knowing their relationships. I am tall and certainly stood out among the Thai dancers as the only falang again.
Next morning I joined the GF for a 6am wlak to the Si Satchanalai markets. A collection of noodles and other breakfast material to be carried back to the motel. To return home we by-passed Uttradit using highway 101 through scenic mountains to backtrack via Phrae to home.
Some trips were decided at short notice. We need to go round to Mum’s with the pickup. We’re going to the Thai-Laos border markets in the Chiang Khong district’. Oh? Much to my surprise at ‘Mum’s’ the pickup tray suddenly filled with local day trippers for the two hour drive. I came to expect that tray space could not be wasted. This was a reasonably straight forward trip on highway 1201/1020 except for the section between Chiang Khong and the border that is being upgraded as it now formed Asian highway AH3. Unfortunately I could not cross over into Laos as my Thai visa stay would have been reduced to 15 days and caused complications. We settled for noodles at the new markets on the Thai border side and then on the way home visited the markets at Thoeng and again at Chun. Here I saw my first barbecued rats for sale as an alternative to noodles. Yum.
Next on the agenda was to visit a cousin in Chiang Mai using the winding mountain highway 118 between Phayao and Chiang Mai. Watching out for trucks using much of the road on corners was the main danger. The travelling cousins in the back bickered about how to get to the Chiang Mai hotel. I could see the city behind us until I, with the map and only small prior knowledge of Chiang Mai, took control and guided us to arrive at the People Palace hotel, adjacent to the night markets 900 b for double room, A very reasonable priced place and worthy of recommendation. The next day we travelled west out to Mae Wang district where the cousin had 20 acres of pickling chillies. Oh how I longed for a GPS after another nightmare of miss-directions from the cousins and numerous mobile phone calls until we linked up at the farm. Being an ex-army officer the farm was well organised employing 20 Burmese and Thai labourers. He provided them with transport, good barrack accommodation and kitchens but obviously on minimum pay rates (200B/day). It was curious to see separate Burmese and Thai kitchens but he explained Burmese had completely different cooking needs to Thais. We ventured further into the nearby national park for the obligatory elephant ride and finally drove out to the famous Wat Chom Tong: some 60 kilometres southwest of Chiang Mai. The devout Buddhists in our group circled the Wat the required three times for merit. The local cousin then volunteered to lead back to his house on the east side of Chiang Mai. So at high speed I followed his load of chillies and Burmese. At one point he turned onto a divided road still under construction, improving highway 1013, near San Pa Tong. (This was a very different driving experience to be speeding on this gravel surface for eight kilometres among construction vehicles: but this is Thailand.)
The return home to Phayao was via Lampang where we stopped for a look around the nicer parts from a horse and carriage ride. A very touristy thing to do but the Thai girlfriend wanted to, really! (I must go back someday to Lampang for a better look).
I was also invited to the GF’s cousin’s second wedding held in the village. Jimbob the tourist was fascinated with local customs and how the bridal party received the groom’s party at the gate with hoots, yelps and chants. I was very interested in the way family and friends came together to produce food in the backyard. I was challenged to drink some Hong Thong spirit and played the role of acting that as if it was very strong and only suitable for Thais. In fact besides water the only drink available seemed to be spirits and soda water. I longed for a beer as I watched ants devouring meat left on the fence to keep them away from the party. No fancy catering and protocol, just good fun and finally a chance to slip through the back fence but the guests were too drunk.
For the final big trip I we drove to the Mae Sai, its markets and then cross over briefly in Burma the timing now no longer affecting my Thai visa stay. I scrounged about in antique/junk shops finally finding the brass Buddha face mask for my daughter so I was happy while the girls spent interminable time checking out clothes. We had a look at some dodgy digs in Mae Sai hotel where the car was parked but decided instead to head off to Chiang Saen on the Mekhong. A huge number of Chinese tourists were in town to visit the Golden Triangle. I was underwhelmed by the experience. We found good new villa accommodation near a noodle shop for 900 B. The Baan Bpen Sook had been built by some enterprising local police.
One day we visited a the Burmese Wat in Chiang Khong. The building including roofing is completely in Teak.
Footnote: (The GF has now decided to allow a Noodle shop to be built on her mum's land as an income source.)
I have to read it again in the morning as skimmed too much. Looks like a good time and great experiences. Pete 
Sure, probably some grey market imports from EU and UK do, and any old relics remaining on the road from the Vietnam war, like the Ford Fairlane in Nereus's post.
