As Friday and Monday were a bank holiday we decided to have a long weekend and see some of our friends who live in the north of Thailand. Chiang Mai is about 350km from Phitsanulok, I was a little worried when google maps said it would take almost 7 hrs, I don't really understand why though, as almost the whole way was dual carriageway. It took us a little less that 4.5hrs, the drive was easy apart from one section and it didn’t help that we were running low on fuel. I had said we would fill up at the next petrol station as there was ~100km of the dash, then we didn't see another station for 85km. The satnav said the next station was in 18km with only 15km remain of fuel, we stopped at a small village to ask if they had any or knew where the nearest station was and luckily there was one 2km down the road which was a massive relief.
We arrived at our friends house just after 7pm, after doing a small blessing for songkran (more on this in the next blog) we went to a lovely restaurant on the outskirts of the city.
Our friends in chiang mai, were Jui’s lecturers when she was a undergrad student and were also one of the first PhD students of our PhD supervisor. We are in the same situation as them although 34 years later, and there advise has been invaluable.
The next morning we meet at Chiang Mai university were Bob gave me good advise on a range on topics. Then we headed to see some cricket at the Gymkhana sports club, which was hosting its 25th anniversary six-a-side tournament. The club was founded in 1898 by British expats working in the teak trade. Outside the club house there is an amazing tree which is also the symbol of the club. There was close to 40 teams playing in the tournament of various abilities, I definitely would like to enter a team next year!
The next day we headed to Chiang Rai, the road twisted through the mountains (see pic) I absolutely loved the road, and was one of the few times I wished I still had the Vx. The 200km flew by and there was very little traffic. It was really good to see Joy again and meet her boyfriend Francois, we had a great meal and then a few beers at a club getting back to the university where we were staying late. After having a long lie in the next day we had brunch then visited Doi Tung in the mountains close to the Burmese-Thai boarder which has some spectacular views and a lovely garden.
We headed home early the next morning stopping of first at Wat Rong Khun (the white temple) we had been there 4 years early, the area just gets larger and larger and we be extremely beautiful when its finished. In this case pictures speak louder than words.
We also stopped off in Phayao where Jui used to work for lunch. Phayao is situated on by a large lake about 100km from Chiang Rai. After the stop off at Phayao we drove the remaining ~300km. The car was faultless the whole way, and the roads were not very busy. The only hold ups being the police check points. We got stopped twice out of the 5-6 checkpoints. The first I just showed my Thai licensee and on we went, they were more interested in checking the pick up tucks. The second was a larger check point, as we had come from Chiang Rai (where nearly all the drugs are ferried though from Burma (Myanmar)) we had our car searched, this may have been as I was a foreigner and they were just interested in talking to us. It didn’t take very long and we were soon on our way again. We have another long weekend next week as it is Thai new year (songkran).
