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~40k Miles of Backpacking SE Asia, Camping in Norway/Scotland and Watching Macaws Lic

~40k Miles of Backpacking SE Asia, Camping in Norway/Scotland and Watching Macaws Lic

Old May 10, 2015, 4:18 am
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~40k Miles of Backpacking SE Asia, Camping in Norway and Macaws Licking Rocks in Peru

Yesterday I embarked on my 105 day summer vacation, which will take me through 11 countries on 4 continents. The basis for this trip was to try something different. Last year, I went to Southern Africa, and loved it, but I felt that I was missing out on the experiences that people my age (im 21) often had in a big trip to SE Asia. I have done a lot of Europe since my family is partially from here, but I had never been to Asia, except for a trip to Japan in December. With that, a trip was born.

My whole itinerary was based solely on United routing rules. I started by booking a double open jaw/stopover itinerary for 80k miles that would allow me to leave my home, Denver, fly to Chiang Mai. From Chiang Mai, I would overland to Singapore, (open jaw used here) where I would catch a flight to Poland to see family, utilizing my stopover. After some time in Europe, I would fly to Boston to visit grandma #2 for her birthday. I like to combine trips, so it makes sense to see everyone on one big trip instead of 4 smaller trips. Award availability was wide open, since it was late September.

I booked this ticket via phone, since it was a tad complex, and the routing ended up looking like this:

UA Award: DEN-DFW on UA, DFW-FRA on LH, FRA-BKK-CNX on TG, SIN-FRA-POZ-FRA-BOS on LH.

I could not fly across the Pacific due to a clause stating that you cannot fly across both oceans on the same ticket, thus, a routing through Europe was born. This worked out better anyways because I wanted to take my A380 virginity, which will be done today on Thai from FRA-BKK, and again on SIN-FRA on Lufthansa.

Once I had my hard dates in place for the big flights, it was time to book some smaller ones, and decide what I would do for ~7 weeks in SE Asia and for a month in Europe (sorry Babcia, I can only handle being in Poland for so long). Air Asia was having a sale, so I impulsively bought a ticket for $44 round trip from Kuala Lumpur (KL) to Kuching for four days, in hopes to see some wildlife in a brief sampling of Borneo. Aside from that, I didnt know what else I should do, so I let everything sit for a good four months.

At this point, my mom was full of jealousy and demanded that we go to Peru together in August. Looking at tickets, I found a $300 ticket one way on Copa from Boston to Peru, where I also forced a 22 hour layover in Panama City, in hopes to see the Panama Canal. It made no sense to fly back to Denver for $200, so why not just utilize a decent priced ticket from a place that I already was going to be? I bought one for myself and my dad.

To get back from Peru, I thought it was stupid to use miles (and they werent really available) to get all the way back to Denver. After some research, I found that you could fly from Peru to the Caribbean, as well as anywhere in Central America, for 10k United miles. I booked a ticket to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where I would stay 2 nights and then fly from there to Denver on a $153 one way ticket. 10k miles +$200 all in to see another place, and get me from Arequipa to Denver sounded like a decent gig to me, especially since you would be valuing the 12.5k UA miles at 1.6 CPM, not that great, in my opinion.

From here, mom had hard dates to plan her trip, so she took over the planning for Peru. People ask me if I am hiking Machu Picchu, and I have no idea. This is her trip, she is planning it, I just book the plane tickets, (Avios are THE way to go in Peru).

PTY-LIM on Copa, LIM-CUZ-PEM-CUZ on LAN, AQP-LIM-MDE on ?, MDE-PTY-SJU on Copa
Anyways, I now had a way to get some places, and then a way to get back, conveniently timed to leave 1 day after finals and return home 1 full day before school starts (that is an improvement from last year, where I flew in at 8:30 AM for my first class, or the year before when I flew in 12 hours before I moved into the dorms!).
Filling in the rest of the itinerary happened in the past month or so. Europe was pretty easy because I looked at the current exchange rates, seeing that the Scandinavian countries were actually beating the Euro, from a value standpoint. I also had friends in the UK that I wanted to visit, so I threw 10 days in the UK there. Right now, I will be flying Wizz from Szeczin, Poland (again, more family that my grandma wants to see) to Bergen, Norway, where I will take 2 weeks to get to Stockholm, via Oslo (to see some more family). From Stockholm, I got a flight to London on SAS, where I will visit more family, and some friends, then head north to do some camping, with friends that I met in Africa. After 10 days in the UK, I will fly Ryanair from Edinburgh to Poznan, where I will catch my flight to Boston. The entirety of my Norway trip will be mainly camping, with a hostel or two thrown in. I dont really know where I am going yet, so we will figure that out someday in the next 2 months. Any suggestions are always welcome.

Detail of Europe Flights, SZZ-GDo is with Wizz Air, ARN-LHR is with SAS, EDI-POZ is Ryan Air and FRA-POZ-FRA is with Lufthansa.

Now, to SE Asia where we can add some more confusion to the planning process. I really wanted to go to Myanmar or Laos. I had some hesitations since I would be going by myself, and it seems that there are not many pure hostels in Myanmar, meaning you gotta spend about $25 a night for a private hotel room. I am trying to minimize costs, so it was looking far fetched.

All of a sudden, about a month ago, my dads plans changed. He was supposed to serve as crew on a sailboat from St. Thomas to Portugal this summer. The crew situation got a little messed up, and he did not like the experience and attitude of the other people involved. Anyways, he asked if he could come with me. Excellent. Within 24 hours, we had an AA award for him to Oslo one way, then a ticket from Oslo to Chiang Mai, and Bangkok to Madrid, so he can meet my mom for their Spain trip. Yeah, she is going places too while this is all happening (including a week in Greece with her mother, who I will go and see in July, and my dad will see in June!).

Dad was now coming, so we sent in our passports to get visas for Myanmar, and started to plan our trip. We will be spending about a week in Thailand, then crossing the land border into Myanmar and doing some trekking in Kengtung. After a few days, we will fly on Myanmar Airways to Heho, near Inle Lake, where we will spend 3 nights. From here, it is off to Bagan for 4 nights, then Mandalay for 3 nights where we will catch an overnight train to Yangon. We will spend 2 nights in Yangon, then fly to Bangkok, where I will see my cousin for 2 days before dad flies to Madrid.

From Bangkok, I will carry on to a G Adventures trip, (not my doing, mom, so she did not have to worry while in Spain. If she is paying for it, ill take another 2 weeks to soften my budget!). Our trip goes round trip from Bangkok, so once I am back there, I will catch an Air Asia flight to KL, spend about 5 days around there, go to Borneo for 4 days, then get back to Singapore where I will catch my flight to Poland.

BKK-CNX on TG, KET-HEH on Myanmar Airways and the rest are Air Asia.

Confused yet? Good. Here is a summary:
I will be landing in Chiang Mai, and take a week to get to the Myanmar Border at Tackileik. We needed visas in our passports to cross here, so we applied for those through a painless process. From there we will continue to Kengtung and do some trekking, where we will eventually fly to Heho. You cannot take ground transit to Heho, as it is closed, so flying is the only real option. From Heho, we will go to Inle Lake, spend a bit of time, where we will then head to Bagan, followed by Mandalay and Yangon. From Yangon, we will fly to Bangkok, which is where dad is leaving from and I will be on my own.

From Bangkok, I go on a 2 week G Adventures trip through Cambodia, returning to Bangkok, where I will then fly to Kuala Lumpur. I will spend 5 days or so around KL, hopefully getting to the Cameroon Highlands, or the beach. From KL, I fly to Kuching for 4 days, then back to KL where I will catch a bus, train, elephant or something else to Singapore, which will wrap up my time in SE Asia.

From Singapore, I fly to Poland, where I spend 5 days in Poznan, then take the bus to Szczecin, where I catch my flight to Bergen, Norway. From Bergen it is into the fjords to go camping, eventually ending up in Oslo, and continuing to Stockholm. From Stockholm, I will fly to London, spend a few days, then head to Scotland to go camping with friends, I think. This is tentative. From Scotland, it is back to Poznan for 2 days, then off to Boston for grandmas birthday. From Boston, we leave for Peru, via an overnight in Colon, Panama. In Peru, we will be going to the macaw clay lick near Puerto Maldonado, Cuzco and the Colca Canyon, where I then fly to San Juan for a day at the beach before heading home. Boy, that was a lot of Is.

Anyways, that is the rough idea for this trip. I am starting this TR now, because in reality, it would be impossible to recount 3.5 months of fun into word form at the end. I will focus on destinations instead of airlines/lounges/airports. I will throw a few things in about my flying experience, like our flight in Myanmar, but in reality, you can only read so many coach TRs and still have a good time with it. With that, I hope that this TR will be semi live, and updated weekly, internet pending of course. If you are after first class cabins and lux resorts, this is not for you, but, if you are up for a good time with a bit of a different perspective (the hostel life) than what is usually on FT, stick around! Hopefully you will enjoy it, and as always, any suggestions are greatly appreciated!


The whole shebang!

Next Up: A Week in Chiang Mai, Thaton and Chiang Rai

Last edited by AJCU; May 10, 2015 at 4:38 am
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Old May 10, 2015, 6:10 am
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Nice.... from the title I thought you backpacked 40k miles
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Old May 10, 2015, 6:56 am
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Looking forward to this report!
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Old May 10, 2015, 7:04 am
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This looks like a very busy schedule. I look forward to see how it works out.
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Old May 10, 2015, 3:38 pm
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Good start! If you're interested in backpacking in Norway, I'd suggest flying (or taking the train) into BOO and backpacking the Lofoten Islands-there's a commuter ferry to/from Bodo that you can take and I'm sure you could spend a few days (if not more) there.
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Old May 10, 2015, 6:06 pm
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very excited to follow this trip!!
thanks, t.
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Old May 11, 2015, 7:24 am
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Looking forward to this! It is nice to see TRs like this from another young person.
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Old May 11, 2015, 8:13 pm
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Cool!
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Old May 11, 2015, 10:03 pm
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Do you need a place to sleep in SIN?
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Old May 18, 2015, 6:40 pm
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Part #1: Chiang Mai, Tha Ton and Chiang Rai
My flights were smooth as room temperature butter. From Denver to Dallas, I was upgraded to “first” on my United flight, which is always a nice little touch. The plane had just been redone with the new configuration, so all new leather seats and such. Our flight took a tad longer than expected, and I was not sure why until I checked out our route on Flight Aware.
After a visit to the Centurion, it was off to Frankfurt, which contained one of the better LH crews that I have ever had, and a nice newly upgraded cabin which included some decent IFE. Arriving into Frankfurt, I went straight to the Sky Lounge via my Priority Pass for a bite to eat and to caffeinate myself so that I did not fall to the powers of jet lag. Now, some people think it is strange that I have a Platinum card, but in reality, it is something that makes traveling a touch easier in my opinion, so I have one. Last year I flew 83k miles, and having a decent meal before you do the double red eye is not a bad way to go.
The lounge had everything you needed and a decent array of German breakfast fare. The WiFi was fast in between Delta flights to the US (this seemed to be a Sky Team centric lounge), but it did not have a good view. Anyways, it was a nice place to burn 4 hours.
My Thai flight was on an A380, something that I intentionally planned since I have never been on one before. I loved it. Sitting in the second row from the front, I immediately noticed that the noise was minimized to nearly nonexistent on take off. The load was at about 40%, which meant the Y class bed was in full effect. The crew was nice, but nothing special, and the food was pretty darn good, some of the better food I have had on a plane. It included beef goulash for dinner and a pancake of some sort (I think it had mushrooms) for breakfast. When we parked at the gate, we sat on the plane for a good 20 minutes for all of the jet bridges to get to the plane.
I did not go directly to my connecting flight to Chiang Mai, but instead waited for my dad to come in on his Finnair flight, which arrived about 45 minutes after mine. He was coming from Oslo, visiting his cousin, who I will see in about 2 months while I cruise through Oslo. Immigration, checking his bag, getting money and the works were all a breeze.
Our final flight was onboard an A320, which got us into the slightly Central American feeling Chiang Mai airport on time.
From the airport, we took a 150 Baht ride to the Le Meridian, where we would spend our first night. We stayed at the Le Meridian because I was targeted for a free night after your first stay, and then an additional free night after your second stay. Going to Thailand warranted some of the cheapest hotels in the SPG portfolio, and I expect to use the free nights in San Francisco for a surprise weekend with my mom. Makes sense to pay $100/night for a place that will cost $300 per night later. Throw in the fact that it is a nice place to take a shower and such right after landing and you had both my dad and I sold.




[IMG][/IMG]
View from the 15th floor.

Our room was not ready on arrival, so they had us go over to the bar and have a soft drink while we waited. Once it was ready, they let us know and took us to the room. After a shower and a bit of a nap, we walked around the night bazaar, which was right outside the hotel. It was an excellent way to get outside but also stay close to the hotel for when you were tired. We found a little street food gathering where one of the places sold pad thai for 60 Baht, so we ate there for the evening, where we sampled some meat on a stick and fruit drinks as well. Meat on a stick is one component to the solution on world peace, in my opinion. We cruised around a bit more, then called it a night.

Thai food court around the corner from the hotel.


Night bazaar.


Why this loacation isn't working, so lets move business down the road a bit.

In the morning, I found via Trip Advisor the Dada Kafe, which we walked to for breakfast. The food was truly exceptional, and had some really great shakes. It was a great place and is strongly recommended.
After that, we walked around the old city a tad, checking out some of the temples, then sauntered back to the hotel. You will find that pretty much any city we visit is full of “walking around” without any clear destination. Once back at the hotel, we visited the pool for a bit, which was a nice way to get out of the sun. After exploiting the amenities, we checked out around 16:00 and moved to our new hostel, Aoi Hostel, located in the northeast part of the old city.


Apologies for not posting more pics of downtown. They are mostly on my phone, which I did not upload any photos from before crossing the border. My patience to upload them is not nearly high enough as I need it to be to start such a task, so i'll throw some more up here when I get a better internet connection.

This place did not look like much initially, but Boyz, the person who ran the hostel was an exceptional resource for the areas around Chiang Mai, and overall a great guy to talk to. We spent a while chatting about stuff, before dad and I walked to the river. Enroute, we found Muang Mai Market, which was noted for tomorrow mornings walk.


River.

Dinner tonight was green curry at some random place, for the ongoing price of 60 Baht each...gotta love Thailand.

In the morning, I woke up at around 4 due to unknown reasons, and was off the the market at 6:00. This was a true gem, in my opinion. The constant controlled chaos of motorbikes whizzing through with hundreds of people buying their fare was a great experience. We actually went to the market the next morning as well.

Enroute to the market.






These guys were yummy.



My favorite is the drive thru shopping experience, where someone pulls up to a random stall, under a heavily populated market roof, orders what they need, throws it on the bike, and then drives to their next victim.
Of course, asking for photos is a great way to go, and sometimes you get a nice smile out of the vendors when you do so.
On the way back we cut through a temple where a guy told us about some ceremony and how nice the temple at the top of the hill was. He offered to drive us if we payed for fuel, so after some breakfast at Kanjana, we took him up on his offer.
Kanjana was set on an alley/road away from the main roads. It was surrounded by flowers and some really nice people. I had the fried noodles in red curry, followed by mango with sticky rice. It was pretty darn good, and probably the best meal for this point of our gastronomic adventures in Thailand.
After breakfast, we caught our ride to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, which was an exceptional temple with an exceptional view of the city and airport. The temple was really nice, and had some of the more ornate details that we had seen thus far. I feel that you can only talk so much about temples these days, especially with the sheer number of them that are present in Thailand.

Entrance of 706 steps.


Dragons body all the way to the top.












View of town.
After the temple, it was back home to meet up with my friend Lilly from school. From here, we sauntered some more, got some more food (at Kanjana for round #2), after walking around a bit we retired to the hostel, where the power was out. Not a big deal, we just walked around a bit more, this time towards the north gate. At the north gate is a great jazz club, which is definitely worth a listen for a bit, considering that you are in a place that is very far away from the origins of jazz. It truly was exceptional, and standing on the side of the street with Chang in hand, listening to some groovy tunes is not a bad way to beat a power outage. After the jazz it was off to find the lady with the cowboy hat to see what all the fuss was about.


Temples found during walking around a bit, again.


Basically there is a lady that has a cowboy hat that serves up some divine pork leg with rice (Khao Kha Moo). Boyz said that there is always a line from it, and all the Chinese people always check it out, so when we came across it, it was worth a try. For 30 Baht, you get a plate with some rice, and some pork on it. Take a seat behind the stall and they bring it straight out to you in a few minutes. The stuff was divine, truly, and is probably the best thing that I have eaten since being in Thailand. If I was not full from the 5 other places I had eaten today, I probably would have had 3 of things, I mean who wouldn’t for $1? Turns out the place was on
. These were phone photos, so ill throw them up at a later date. Like the one of cane juice in a bag, which was pretty darn cool.
In the morning, we woke up early to take Lilly to the market again, then packed our things up so we could hit the Freebird Cafe on the way to the bus station. Freebird was a bit more Burmese, but just as good, I had the Khao Soi in more of a non soup form, if that make sense.

Curry Pastes.


















Our bus departed from Chang Puak, and cost 90 Baht to get to Thaton, a 4 hour, 180 km ride away. The bus ride was scenic, and had windows that opened fully from the bottom up, which meant that you could easily get some fresh air in the 100+ F outside. I recommend sitting on the left side of the bus for a few reasons: (a) it is shady the whole journey, if you depart in the morning, (b) it is a bit more scenic on the left with more mountains and (c) there are only two seats instead of three. With that, the drive was very nice, and for 3 bucks to go about 100 miles is not a bad gig in my book.



[IMG]Enroute.[/IMG]

Upon arrival, Horm, the owner of the homestay that we stayed at for 3 nights, picked us up at the bus station. Horm was incredibly nice and welcoming, and without doubt will be one of the better hosts we have along our trip. I am that certain of it already.
Dee’s Homestay is where we stayed, about 700 m from the main road to the north. The accommodation is in a traditional Shan style thatch hut, with an interesting history. In short, Horm made the place in memory of her mother who passed away last year. A blog wrote the whole story, and is a nice little read. The stories from Horm though will keep anyone sitting around in the open living room just waiting for the next one. I would call the place a must stay if visiting Thaton.
There are three thatched huts, each of which is a room. Each room has mosquito nets and a bathroom, located outside, with a wonderful deck overlooking the nearby Thaton Pagoda and the Kok river.



View from the deck.




Outdoor toilet!

Horm also makes breakfasts in the morning, a nice mix of Thai cuisine. Each day was different and wonderful gastronomic adventure into something you did not quite know about before. Personally my favorite was the eggplant green chile. They are incredibly filling, as well. Horm also rented motorbikes to us, ones that I believe were her own, for 300 Baht/day. In all honesty, the motorbike is the only real way to explore the area.
Upon arrival, we hoped on the motorbikes, after a glass of juice and some bananas, and went for a cruise, which resulted in getting lost. A word of advice is to properly know how to pronounce the town in which you are staying before setting out and going 30 km’s past where you thought you were. Regardless, it’s going to be fun to remember asking where the petrol station is and then pulling up to some guys house where 5 liter measuring devices with tubes sticking out of them go straight into your fuel tank, and deciding between red and yellow fuel. A fun cruise it was indeed.




Temple found while lost.


Gong.



The following day we rode 43 kms to Mae Salong, where the tea growing occurs. Along the way there were a few stops, like at the massive Buddhas on the side of the road, and a few more general photo stops. We eventually lost my dad who apparently just kept going past the turn, but all worked out in the end. Good times.


Enroute to Mae Salong. There were 4 of these guys, some still being built but they were very nice.





Mae Salong is a cool place, if a bit touristy, but going around and seeing tea growing is pretty darn cool, and something I have never done before. I would love to have gone and cruised around in the area a bit more, even spend a night or two. A motorbike is a must though, unless you do a rushed 1 day trip from Chiang Rai/ Chiang Mai in an air con mini bus.

Petrol Station.







While in Mae Salong, we got some tea as well, which had an exceptional view and turned out to be free, as in the guy wanted no money, not entirely sure what the reasoning was but that’s fine with me! We also stopped by a place where they were drying the tea, and got to check out the whole process of drying, compressing, drying, compressing and basically the same thing a few times in a row. It is amazing how you can stop on the side of the road, ask to take a photo, and then you get a mini tour of the area from an older gentleman sitting there with a rolled tobacco leaf in his mouth smokin’ away. Images that are vivid in the mind but nearly impossible to put words to.

Tea drying.






Shops downtown.



After heading back home at probably faster than acceptable speeds (what is the speed limit here?), Horm took us to the nearby Shan village where we got to walk around a bit, and she answered a lot of our questions about the way of life in these parts. During our walk, we got to see some looming, where ladies were making clothes, and a nice little tour of everyone’s niche in the community. One guy had the pigs, one the chillies, on the chickens, and so on. It was pretty hard to believe that this entire thing was only 800 m off the side of the road, hidden between the main road and the Burmese border.



Dryin' Fire.



Our walk ended in the temple at the top of the hill, and some monks chanting. One monk came up to us and answered some questions, via translation, at the end. The experience felt really personal. Afterwards, it was off to the homestay, where we then left for dinner.






Our final full day was spent cruising around the countryside on random roads that we found around Thaton. Our thought process was to stay in the lower lands before lunch, get lunch at the marvelous Sunshine Cafe, then head to the higher hills where it would be cooler. The entire day was basically a joyride, so there are no specifics to talk about really, except for wrapping up the day at the Thaton Temple.

Rice seed storage.














Lunch at Sunshine Cafe...Some of our better meals/drinks in Thailand.

The Thaton Temple was really cool, and had a marvelous view of the valley. You could go inside the pagoda (pagoda=hollow, stupa=solid) and ascend to what appeared the heavens via some cool shrines and such. It was a great place to beat the rain, which didn’t really stop before we descended the hill back into town, where Lilly and I got a pancake like thing with a banana and some other stuff thrown in (we had a solid 5 of these over the course of 2 days).








Inside.



On departure day, we hung out, doing nothing much except using the internet and enjoying the homestay. We originally planned to take a longboat to Chiang Rai, but due to the fact that it was low season, they were not running. We could have chartered one, but that would have cost about $70 USD, a tad high in my opinion. With that, we decided to go via a Songthaew to Fang, where we caught a minibus to Chiang Rai. The ride was very scenic in all, but it would have been more convenient to go via the boat.

Dee's Homestay


Songthaew

Regardless, the songthaew took about 30 minutes, and cost 23 Baht. The minibus ran at 2 and 4:30 and cost 120 Baht, taking just over 2 hours. I would recommend sitting on the left side of the bus if possible, since you will get a better view then.

Once we got to Chiang Rai, we bid farewell to Lilly, and caught a tuk tuk to the Le Meridien to complete my second stay for another free night. I have to say, pulling up in the back of a pickup truck was rather interesting, but pulling up in a boat would have been even cooler. Next time.

The hotel was a great one though. Far superior to the one in Chiang Mai because of the resort feel. We were upgraded to a room with river view. Ill leave the description of the resort for the next post, as well as some more about the food (I love food...half the reason to travel, in my opinion) as well as some other phone shots.





Looking back through, some of the pictures seem to be a tad blurry. Not sure why that is, since they are crystal clear on my computer. Oh well.

Next Up: Part #2: Chiang Rai to Kengtung, Myanmar and 4 days in Kengtung

Last edited by AJCU; May 18, 2015 at 6:53 pm
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Old Aug 2, 2015, 5:28 am
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Appologies for the delay in posting. It has been near impossible to upload multiple photos from any of the places that I have been, then once in Europe, I jsut lost motivation! Anyways,

The Le Meridian was a very nice hotel, far more so than the one in Chiang Mai. That is probably because it was more of a resort instead of more of a business hotel. Regardless, in the morning it was nice sitting on the deck, looking towards the river. Both my dad and I said that we could have spent another night there.




A nice touch was some free coffees outside in the morning. We then walked around the grounds a bit, checking out the river and the pool. Apparently you can take a boat down the river to the hotel, which would have been kind of cool, similar to the boat from Thaton, which you can apparently also have stop here.

View from the deck.


Coffee sitting area.


Pool.


Boat departing the resort.

After walking around a bit, it was off to the border. We left the hotel at 7:50 via metered taxi to the bus station, which cost us 66 Baht, cheaper than the 100 Baht tuktuk that took us there the previous night. From the bus station it was a painless 10 minute wait for the next bus that went to Mai Sai, aboard one of the more classic buses I have ever taken.




This bus had character, and so did the man driving it. Cruising down the road at about 38 MPH in a 50s rig with sticker plastered all over the windshield and a small shrine on the dashboard was classic. Dont forget the stickers on the speedometer and rev counter, since those clearly did not work. A short 1.5 hours later and 39 Baht/ea poorer we were pulling into Mai Sai.

The bus driver helped us in the right direction, which was a 15 Baht Pickup into town (that seemed a tad high to me for the distance), which dropped us about 50 meters from the border. We grabbed our things and walked towards the end of Thailand. I lost my departure card, which the immigration officer found to not be funny, making me wait and probably thinking that he made me .... my pants a bit (that was anything but the case...its more of a I am trying to leave, and you wont let me, I see how it is attitude). Eventually, he gave me a new one, and we were stamped out of Thailand.

We had to have Myanmar visas in our passports for this leg of the journey. If you make a land border crossing, you need to have your visa already. The process was painless. I sent it to DC before we left on a Friday, and got them a week later, using USPS Priority mail (USA, you have done better than Fedex and UPS, for half the price, props). The visa cost us $20 USD.

Stamping into Myanmar was easy: fill out an immigration card, get your photo taken, then let the police write down all of your information. After that it was walking into the bustling tuktuk mafia, where we found someone to take us to the bus station. These guys are sheisty, as they said one price at the beginning, but then multiplied that by 3 once we got there. For reference, there is an ATM at the KBZ bank, 50 meters from the border as well as a place to change USD (you cannot at any of the unofficial money changers at the border).


Tuk Tuk

The bus was pretty easy. It departed at noon, cost 10,000 Kyat (pronounced chaat), and they took care of all the immigration stuff for you, which consisted of about 6 copies of our passport/visa. The drive was very scenic, and fairly remote. It took 5 hours to cross the 163 kms, so it is slow going on winding roads.

We did have a nice experience at our rest break town, where we bought some bananas. After buying the bananas we were sitting on the side of the road, looking around at some people, when the store owner came up to us and asked us to come over for some green tea. Before we knew it, we were sitting in his house, drinking tea and eating super sweet sugar cane candies. A Webster dictionary from Burmese to English sat on the shelf, open, where the man said is how he learned English. I also asked him where we were, and he printed it onto a piece of paper with excellent penmanship. We chatted a bit more before the bus horn sounded and we were to be on our way. It was cool to be invited into someone's home like that that easily. A great welcome into Myanmar.


Rest stop.

We arrived into Kengtung around 5, where Francis, our guide, took us to our hotel for the next 4 nights, the Naung Tong Hotel. The hotel was located right next to the market, which was great as it provided convenient access (I am a market person, so that is a big thing). Beyond that, the hotel wasnt anything special, nor anything atrocious. It got the job done, and I think most hotels are like that in Kengtung, let alone Myanmar in general.








View over the market.

We met Francis again, and went to dinner at Pan Ka, which was a nice outdoor restaurant close to the airport. The food was good, but nothing out of this world. I dont think I have had out of this world food since being in the country, to be honest.

From there, it was back to our hotel, the Naung Tong Hotel.

For the hill tribes, I think pictures put things together more than words. It is hard to write about every specific of the people, and each tribe, so ill just post a bunch of pictures.

In the morning, Francis took us on motorbikes to do some hill tribe trekking after breakfast and a visit to the market to get lunch. We drove about an hour on the motorbikes (we were not allowed to drive, which seems to be a reoccuring theme in Myanmar), through some very nice scenery, where we then left the motorbikes and hiked three hours to the Kong Pak Village, a La Hu Shi Tribe. The trek to the tribe was pretty easy, the only thing was the heat which was kicking us, but you get over it eventually.


Rice fields enroute.

The La Hu Shi tribe was a bit underdeveloped. They were definitely set in their ways, where the other tribes we visited had televisions and lights in their huts. I guess you could call them more authentic. Regardless, the views were beautiful, but the interactions with the people felt slightly staged. I mean staged in the sense that everyone lined up for us, and Francis handed some guy a bag of cookies and everyone got one. During that time we were supposed to take pictures. A few other things made it feel staged, and slightly disconnected, but when I think about it, this is going to be more authentic than some places in Thailand, I think. With that, I think these people were not too keen to see tourists, or anyone really. They were in the stage between being on their own, and welcoming the tourism to sell things to them, but needed to get right over the love hate, is what it seemed like.
[

Beginning of the trek.








Kids inside the hut.




Kids.






You lookin' at me?




The village.



We walked around the area a little bit, then started to head back down towards the motorbikes. Enroute, we ate lunch, which we got at the market: sticky rice, some fruit, and a few other things. The sticky rice was really good.



After reaching the motorbikes, we visited two other tribes, via motorbike, the Wa and the Palaung Tribe. Not many people interactions here, just checking out how they built homes and such differently. These people were down in the valley, so they had easier access to electricity and such, and probably jobs in Kengtung, I would imagine. It was interesting to see the differences in building techniques and such.


Walkin' back.








This pig was "naughty."




The workhorse of Myanmar.

After the two tribes it was back to Kengtung, amongst some more beautiful rice fields. I was really grooving on the rice fields the whole time, every day, since it is something I have never really seen before. The people working in the field show what Myanmar really is: a lot of manual labor with a few Chinese engines thrown in. I could not believe how much manual labor I have seen, things that we would make a machine for they are doing by hand. Kind of cool. For dinner, we went to Never Forget, another good, but not great dinner with a nice view over the lake in Kengtung. The view was quite nice. Not much goes on in Kengtung after about 7 PM, so we went back to the hotel, and hung out, a common occurance these days.



The next day, dad was not feeling too well, so we took it easy and did a little less hiking. The day started again in the market, getting materials for lunch, followed by an hour motorbike ride to a place that they made an alcoholic rice beverage. It was not Sake, or even close to it, but was more like rice whiskey. Nonetheless the stuff was strong, and they did not know how much alcohol was in it, but it tasted strong to my college tastebuds, something on the order of Everclear, but maybe not that strong.


Why yes, I would love to try some of your FDA approved beverage served in what appears to be a jerry can designed to be used for the transport of petrol.

The process was pretty simple: Steam some rice with some of its kernel (the rice was shelled), then lay it out on a mat and let it cool, adding yeast after it had cooled. From here, throw it into a bag with some water and let it ferment for ~28 days. After that time was up, they put the remnants into a still made from steel barrels, which drained into some water containers. This stuff was then cooled and bottled in old Coca Cola bottles and such, and sold for about 2,000 MMK each. What a deal! Apparently, according to Dominik, our other guide, the longer you let it sit, the better it gets. Aged rice whiskey in plastic Coca Cola bottles, gotta love it.






The spreading of the steamed rice.


Bags fermenting.



After a good half hour here, and a tad of sampling straight out of the distillation bucket, it was on to the trekking. About an hour and half up from where we left the motorbikes was the Pan Lea Village of the Eng Tribe, the people with the black teeth. The experience was again, slightly generic, but very nice. Every tribe we visited today gave us tea and peanut, roasted in an assortment of different ways.


Rubber trees enroute.

The Eng people were pretty cool, a bit more modernized with some huge houses, and some cool cooking environments inside each of the houses. Each house had a large deck, with a great view. The homes were one large room with a kitchen usually located at the back, and dorm like bedrooms which were separated from the main room with a sheet.

On the way out of town, dad decided to head back because his stomach was not feeling well, and I went onwards with Francis through some very nice rice paddies to the Akha Tribe. We ate lunch under the portico of the church at the top of the village (they were Christian). The views were magnificent, but unfortunately my DSLR battery died so only a few pictures from other devices of this village. I will amend the post when I am on a device that can transport pictures and such (formatting on the Chromebook does not jive too well).


Possibly the most photographed woman in Kengtung...as I saw after perusing the web for a bit.


Above the Akha.


Lunch, with more sticky rice once again.

The Akha were again a bit more modernized, but were in native dressage a bit more. The woman with a large plate behind their heads were married, and the ones that were not married did not have the plate. The dressage had a lot of old Indian Rupees on them.

Inside one of the huts was a wild cat that was killed. They skinned it, then kept the pelt and stuffed it with rice. Apparently the cat was eating all of the chickens, so they killed it. It looked pretty cool, and would be a really cool thing to see in the wild. After the rain storm let up, it was onwards down the mountain and back to the hotel via motorbike. Upon entering Kengtung, we were stopped to look for narcotics. The police did not search me, only the locals, and Francis.

Dinner was at Golden Banyan Restaurant, which wasnt really good. Kengtung is hard to find good eats, except in the back of the market where noodle bowls abound, that is a must.

We were originally supposed to do 3 days of trekking, but dad was still not feeling too well, and it made little economic sense to pay for the guide for the day, so we were content on just walking around. I woke up early, and spent a good three hours in the market, cruising around and seeing some new stuff. This is without doubt one of the most authentic markets that I have ever seen. The market itself had zero tourists in it, and had no shops dedicated to it. You had everything from turmeric, to the butchers building to steamed peanuts to knockoff Levi jeans and aluminum pots large enough that you could cook a pubescent teenager in, and hopefully not get dementia (isnt that why we dont cook in aluminum anymore?).













Everywhere you went, someone was willing to give you a sample of the weird, unappetizing thing that you were looking at, which most of the time turned out to be pretty damn good.

After the market, we walked around town to get a bit more of a feel for the place. It is loaded with old Hino trucks, belounis Chinese contraptions that somehow have torque ratios able to haul 40 bags of rice and the Chinese version of the workhorse tuktuk. The people, all smiled, and asked you some questions in broken English. They were curious, as were we, which made for some great interactions. To some, the streets of Kengtung may look like a giant shithole with all of the trash and rundown buildings, but once you step back, and look around, you can see that there is a charm about it that is unspoilt, not something you find in many other places these days.







For dinner, we went to Azure, which was by far our best dinner in Kengtung. A simple Shan style noodle and Myanmar Beer on tap. All in, our dinner came to $4, not a bad way to go.



The following morning, we did more walking around, coming across a lacquerware shop, which was interesting.

When we finally needed to go to the airport, Francis showed up and gave us a tide in the Chinese version of a tuktuk. One of the more interesting drives to the airport that I have ever had.




Nice wind screen

Overall, I enjoyed Kengtung, a lot. The hill tribe trekking was okay, but not out of this world, and two days was good enough for me. It reconfirmed the fact that I am happy I did not do it in Thailand, though. Francis was a good guide, but nothing above and beyond, either. He seemed to not give you the full story sometimes. For instance, my dad asked (when about 10 dogs were around us), they eat the dogs, dont they? Francis said no, but then the next day he hinted that they did.

What I did enjoy was walking around the city by ourselves. People were very genuine, and the fact that we did not see another tourist was great, and made the town seem that much more authentic. Walking around after sunset was fun too, and we saw things that we would never expect, like a place where people were playing pool on some 5 pool tables, drinking beer and smokin cigarettes.

I enjoyed walking down the street and people saying Hello! My Friend! and waving, since they tapped out their English language skills. Another treat was the market. Some markets these days are tainted by tourism, where people try to sell .... crafts and souvenirs that you will never use nor really want. There was not a single one of those things in the market here, and it was a true market, having everything from jeans to soup bowls to fish that were still alive. Yes, it was not the cleanest city in the world, and the garbage was a bit much at times (news to those of you that have not been to Myanmar, they dont believe in trash cans), but it was authentic. For that I really did like it. There are so many things that I could add, specifics of little unique things that I really enjoyed, but there are just too many of them to really describe. With that, maybe some of the pictures speak for it a bit more. Regardless, Kengtung was a nice way to enter Myanmar, since it was different from the rest of Myanmar, and lets be honest, land borders are always fun, so that was a nice touch too. I would like to enter China from here some day, but that border is not open. Regardless, I do see myself coming back, even though I dont really see my dad doing the same.

Next Up: Inle Lake and Bagan

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