05.02 Day 21 Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai
Monday 5th February - Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai
Benefiting from the consistency of 4 nights in the same spot allows me to walk to fetch a few safe bets for breakfast (i.e. mango) and throw in some lucky dips, this time banana sticky rice wrapped and cooked in banana leaf plus what I thought he said to be coconut sticky rice on the market stall, wrapped again simply and efficiently like an Apple iPhone but in banana leaf, but is more a blancmange consistency covering shredded coconut. The kids try both but I’m the one left eating the two and three pieces respectively. And I know the bakery opens at 8am and I’m waiting outside clasping my 27 baht for a loaf of bread, which, covered in jam, has been a fairly consistent backup staple for the kids, especially at breakfast time.
The flower festival which wrapped up last night, was as far as we had planned and now with a week until our flight from Chiang Mai to Ho Chi Minh / Saigon, Vietnam, we were in a quandary as to what to do next. Staying in Chiang Mai was a genuine option as we’ve enjoyed the Old Town especially, though how many days in a row would we enjoy the kind lady cafe?
Pai, further north was an option for several days though the last note I’d read on this warned of the extremely bendy roads and whilst Seb is OK travelling having swallowed a Quell anti-nausea tablet, I didn’t think fair on him or Kate - especially having watch them lean out the songthaew window a few days prior just going up one hill / mountain (what’s in between a hill and mountain?).
We settle on Chiang Rai, 3.5hrs north-east of Chiang Mai for a supposed more relaxed vibe and some standout bright (or garish, depending on your view) temples. I had, naively now I realise, assumed getting one of the 10 buses a day would be easy, but didn’t reckon on the thousands who’d flocked to Chiang Mai for the Flower Festival - like us - would then melt away immediately after - like us. Which means we’re on an extra bus that had been put on for escaping tourists at 6:30pm.
So the day is spent going for a walk exploring for an hour before packing and checking out but loitering at the hostel all day, doing school work, getting another pair of mango smoothies from the kind lady cafe (who brings out her child’s toys for Sienna and Seb to play with, brings out chocolates and biscuits for the kids too - living up to and exceeding her reputation).
After some card games we Grab taxi to the bus terminal around 5pm, sit in the end of the day rush hour traffic, having arrived at the start of the day traffic five days earlier. Buses, traditionally notorious for running late, also have a reputation for sometimes departing early but we arrive with 30 minutes buffer, first checking my ‘ticket’ is valid - as it’s simply a Whatsapp message from an agency in town - similar to cities the world over - claiming something independent such as Tourist Information when actually, as in actually a private operator buying tickets on your behalf and adding their commission. Thankfully, bar the commission, our tickets are legit.
As we scramble some snacks the nation anthem suddenly comes over the speaker causing everyone to either stand if they were sitting or stop if they were walking - the stationary scene like in Shawshank Redemption when Andy Dufresne locks the warden out of his office and blasts the entire prison with some of Mozart's opera piece, The Marriage of Figure, with everyone looking up at the speakers. To paraphrase the quote Morgan Freeman - I have no idea to this day what they were singing about.
Just after that brief pause our bus pulls in; this one a coach and it even looks like they will close the doors as we travel along. Bags are thrown underneath in to the hold and the predominantly western younger crowd board. We depart bang on 6.30pm, and from our front row seats watch the driver battle with traffic exiting the city - outside the Old Town is a genuine city with clogged up roads, large shopping centres in contrast to our experience of Chiang Mai.
The journey in the dark takes 3.5hrs, the driver dropping down gears to contend with the steep hills, and making use of all two to three lanes to tackle the bends and maintain momentum, The aircon is also dropped to 21 degrees as his windscreen becomes worryingly condensed, so Sienna wraps up under a rug next to me, fidgeting about as she fights sleep. Meanwhile Seb sleeps most of the journey.
We arrive in Chiang Rai, the bus terminal in the town centre, and although it’s 10pm the night bazaar is abuzz with people, making a late night arrival less intimidating - not that at any point have we been intimidated or harassed in the last three weeks.Our hostel - Bed Friends Poshtel is an easy 5 minutes walk away, and in contrast to our subdued two storey home of a hostel in Chiang Mai, is a four storey building, home to more than twenty rooms and dorms, name lit up in large font on the rooftop. After a friendly check in and being shown to our oversized family room - the kids again excited for a bunk bed alongside our queen - it’s a quick settling down to bed.