Akha River House, what Akha River House?
11 November 2009 | Tha Ton and Chiang Rai, Northern Thailand
DAY 9
What a start to the day! A lazy sleep in and a cup of tea on the verandah overlooking the river, all very civilised. We checked out of the 'Garden Home' as we were keen to get to Chiang Rai, we were hoping to find a nice place to stay there where we could spend a few days checking out the surrounding sights. But before we left Tha Ton there was one more thing we needed to do. A boat trip! Great, I'm on land and I still end up on the water!
But it was well worth it. We went to the small boat harbour near the bridge and organised a long tail for an hour. The plan was to see some of the river and head to the Burmese border, we figured that would take a while but 10 minutes later we stopped and our boat driver pointed and said, 'Burma!' We hadn't realised it was so close, the only indication that it was the border being a piece of thin rope strung across the river with Thai and Buddhist flags hanging from it. Off to the side hidden within the trees was the Thai military, making sure none of those pesky Burmese try to sneak across the border. After the obligatory photos were taken we turned around and headed the other way for a more in depth look at the Thai countryside along the river. Long tails whizzed back and forth in the river though these ones sounded much quieter than the ones in Phuket. The landscape changed from mountainous and lush and green to flat and dry looking. We saw some dredge-like machinery working on the river but we weren't sure if they were mining for something and the communication difficulties made it hard to try and find out.
Abandoned temples being taken over by the vines of the forest dotted the riverbanks, workers heaved baskets brimming with sand and stone from the river and we sat back and took it all in as the long tail skimmed through the muddy brown water of the river. Too soon the hour was over and we were back in the car heading to Chiang Rai.
The beauty about hiring a car is being able to stop at any time. Sometimes the most innocent of stops turns out to be the most memorable. We were driving through a farming area with fields full of workers harvesting rice. They were carrying huge bales on their backs and Jay and I saw an opportunity for a couple of photos. Turning the car around we parked overlooking the field. The workers noticed us taking photos, some didn't seem too happy but one older, cheeky lady decided to have some fun and perform for us. She placed her hands on her hips and started swivelling, attempting to do a sexy dance, the more we laughed the longer she continued, her co-workers got annoyed with her and we left before she could get into too much trouble.
We soon hit the outskirts of Chiang Rai, it was very industrial and dry looking on the outskirts. It had been described as a more mellow, laidback version of Chiang Mai. My first impressions were not favourable but I reserved my judgement until we were able to get out and look around. We headed for a place I had read about, hoping to get some accommodation similar to the place we had just left. The Akha River House was supposed to be run by an Akha Hill Tribe and made up of bungalows dotted along a river, perfect! But the problem was we couldn't find it! There were signs but they pointed in odd directions and eventually we gave up and settled for the P.S. Guesthouse. Confronted after we had checked in by an old Australian guy with a pot belly carrying around a large bottle of Chang beer I wasn't hopeful about where we had chosen to stay. But the rooms were large, clean and the right price. There was a small bar in the courtyard directly outside our window which worried us a little but as we were to find out when we felt like a beer, they weren't open at night!
One bonus about the P.S. Guesthouse was that they had bikes that you could use to get around 'free of charge', we grabbed one and headed out to see what we could see around the area. We finally found the Akha River House completely shut down and abandoned, (thanks Lonely Planet), must have happened just after they published the book and the river it backed on to was a muddy creek, I certainly wouldn't have classified it as a river. However, it was nice not to be in a touristy part of town, we were basically staying in amongst where all the local people lived in a rabbit warren of streets. We rode into town and my impression didn't get a lot better of Chiang Rai. It didn't have the same feel to it as Chiang Mai and I definitely wouldn't even compare the two, the only thing they have in common is sister temples and walking streets!
That night we went into the city centre to watch the clock in the centre of town put on a show. We weren't sure what to expect we had just been told to go and watch. On the way we came across several outdoor aerobics sessions going on in the dark, which was weird. We got to the clock tower just before 7pm when the show started. It turned out that when the clock struck 7, music came on and a light show began, in the middle of the tower a lotus flower rose and opened, while the lights changed colour on the tower. It was pretty cool but dragged on a little too long. We stopped for some dinner before heading off to the markets where we watched a Thai guy sing western songs on stage very badly! Perusing the food vans we found all kinds of grubs, cockroaches and grasshoppers deep fried and ready to eat! Didn't try any though!
We made the decision not to use Chiang Rai as a base and pulled the maps out looking for an alternative. We chose Mai Sai instead which was also on a river and hoped that we would have better luck there!
THE PHOTOS FROM DAY 9 ARE NOW IN THE GALLERY!