To China - Chiang Mai to Hangzhou

To China - Chiang Mai to Hangzhou: Our last "to-do"  in Chiang Mai was to eat one more bowl  of Chiang Mai's signature dish, Khao Soi, curried egg noodles, before heading to the airport.

 

 

Well actually our last to-do was get a photo of ourselves in full travel gear. 

 

 

Checkin and departure at the Chiang Mai airport were easy. AirAsia gave us a free upgrade to exit row seats, and we arrived on time in Hangzhou, China to a light rain and temps in the 60's F, no lines at immigration, our one checked bag was on the carousel in minutes, and the smiling face of Sun-Ling's uncle was waiting to drive us to his home.

We had a full day to do some walking in Hangzhou, but first it's to the Police Station as all aliens staying in private homes must register with the local police within 24 hours of arrival. Wrong station, we only do resident aliens here. Then on to station number two where we are duly registered for a 60-day stay.

In the Police Station.

 

 

The four of us in Hangzhou.

 

 

Hangzhou is very lush and scenic, and famous for Dragon Well Tea and West Lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the tea plantations we walked along a canal and path that used to take pilgrims from West Lake to Lin Yin Buddhist Temple.

 

 

 

 

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai: After Chiang Rai we head back to Chiang Mai from where we'll fly to China. Shopping is high on the list and our arrival is perfect for the Sunday Walking Street Market which starts just meters from our hotel.

Set up.

 

 

 

 

Then some veggie eats.

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More market.

 

 

 

 

 

On to China and The Great Firewall.

We are at the airport in Chiang Mai, Thailand waiting for our flight to Hangzhou, China. We'll be in China for 7 weeks and blogging may be sparse as flickr, gmail, and blogger, our main tools, are all blocked by the Chinese government. Not to mention that wikipedia, facebook, and imdb are also blocked.

Hopefully we'll find a way around the GFW and posting will continue. Stay tuned and please be patient with any "test" posts that may come your way.

We also want to send a big "GET WELL SOON" to Crash Eddy one of our regular readers and commenters. Ed, we miss you!

-john and sun-ling

Loop to Chiang Rai - Chiang Rai

The trip from Mae Salong to Chiang Rai was pretty easy as 5 or 6 friendly ladies from Mae Salong were also making the trip on the 7:15 am pickup truck: one school girl, a mother with a portfolio of official papers and her young son, a French tourist, a "hill tribe" mother and daughter team, and several others. The first pickup spewed fumes, and that combined with the mountain curves made me a bit queasy. Our group transferred to another pickup in Mae Chan and were in Chiang Rai before lunchtime.

We excurted to the so-called White Temple one day, and endured the Saturday Night Walking Street Market. We liked Chiang Rai as our hotel had a pool, an attentive smiling owner, and a great breakfast; the city was not as crowded as Chiang Mai, there were several vegetarian restaurants and the excursion to the White Temple was worthwhile and easy.

The Girl Scouts (I think) march by as we wait for the green 7:15 pickup to pull out of Mae Salong.


The Hotel Huen Chan Thip pool.


The Market.


Buying treats at a night food market.


Salads for sale at the night market.


Workers.


Waiting for the bus.


Some shots of the White Temple which is both "not a temple" and "more temple than most Buddhist temples". It's the work of artist Chalermchai Kositpipat who designed, funded, and constructed the temple.




The over-the-top toilets.


Planters.


Lost souls?






How about those two Temple Guardians?




The artist Chalermchai Kositpipat.


The Saturday Night Walking Market.

Loop to Chiang Rai - Mae Salong

After a straight forward, 2-hour, mellow, slightly chilly - I put my flece jacket on for 30 minutes - pickup ride from ThaTon to Mae Salong, we took a room at Little Home Guesthouse and set out to find some Yunnan noodles and explore the town.

Mae Salong was founded in the 1960's by the 93rd Regiment of the Nationalist Chinese (KMT) Army who had fled to Burma after the 1949 revolution in China, and then had to flee Burma when relations warmed between Yangoon and Beijing. A short but interesting history from Lonely Planet guidebooks is here.

That history makes Mae Salong a novel place where one can speak Chinese to both business owners and workers in the tea plantations, all mixed in with the Thai-speaking hill tribes who were there before 1960. Not to mention its location in the infamous opium producing Golden Triangle.

The yellow pickup truck from Tha Ton to Mae Salong is just about ready to pullout. Those are our black bags at top front.


While I was riding shotgun, Sun-Ling sat in the back with the locals. Check out the big bags of fabric which are made into pouches and bags by hilltribe ladies for sale to tourists.


And a young monk was hanging off the back.






Fabric delivered. The young man with motorcycle (right) handed over 100 baht, about 3 USD to our driver (left). Sun-Ling says a receipt inside one of the bags said 16,000 baht, about 500 USD


First order of business, track down a bowl of Yunnan-style noodles.


Main street with 7-11 and view to temple on the hill.


Arriving before noon, we decided to stretch our legs by walking the 700+ steps up to that temple, then taking the 4km road back to town.


A hazy view as expected from the top. That's Mae Salong + main road at top right and a village at lower left.


Burma (Myanmar) is just 4kms to the west in this part of the Golden Triangle but we could not see that far.


On the walk down we heard a couple of gun shots. Probably this guy out hunting. Or scaring us away from his opium field?


Back on the main road, its 895 kms south to Bangkok and 0 to Mae Salong.


The tomb, construction financed by money from Taiwan, of the KMT general who led his troops to Mae Salong.


Two very tasty plates of noodles from Salema's, a very friendly Muslim restaurant on the main road. About 5% of the families in Mae Salong are Muslim. The Mosque was directly behind our hotel.


And for dinner, takeout from the market plus homemade radlers on the veranda of our bungalow.


The Morning Market is over by 8:00 am so we got there just after sunrise to buy breakfast.


And we bought Chinese deep-fried youtiao; Thai rice in banana leaves; Indian egg roti from a woman who spoke Thai, English, and Malay but no Chinese; and a samosa from a local vendor. Wow! A feast!




Activity of the day; 10-km hike through a few villages plus the local tea and teak plantations.


Tea Plantation with sprinkler system to survive the dry season.


Looking over to the terracing for a new teak plantation.


One of these tea pickers called out to us in Chinese Nǐ de guójiā where are you from?




No rain for months.




Sun-Ling is a speck in the distance as we traverse this terracing.


And that same terracing as seen from across the valley.


More tea plantations with sprinklers.


Another self-service water station with cups, ice bucket, and jug. Love 'em!


Tasty cucumber salad.