The golden triangle

Ah, the golden triangle. This place is well known for the production and transport of opium. I’m always interested in new business opportunities and decided to take a look myself. Hannelore decided to get an early breakfast and so I headed to this mythical place on my own. Before 8 am, I started the 8 km ride to the border crossing of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.

During the first few kilometers, I noticed some suspicious looking fog at the other side of the Mekong, at the Laos side.

 

Was this really fog or was it a local villager smoking the worlds largest joint? Yes, this place got me going. Would it be really dangerous? Opium smugglers forcing me to share a spliff… or would they teach me how to handle a Kalashnikov to hunt down underdressed Russian tourists? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I arrived, the ‘Golden Triangle Resort’ indicated that tourists had been here before and I had to move somewhere else to find some real adventure. However, it was far from a tourist trap. It was more than pleasant to wander along the boards of the Mekong early in the morning, before the gang of minibus-transported-tourists would be dumped.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took the pictures you have to take when you get to such a place,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but I wanted to know something more about opium as well. My wish was quickly granted. Three kilometers further down the Mekong, the Opium museum was waiting for its first visitors.

I was in for a surprise. This museum is a gem. Situated in a wonderful park, it presents a balanced view of the medicinal aspects of opium, as well as the destructive ones, focusing on the addicts that have fallen victim to heroine. Apparently, the royal family played an important role in the construction of a local rehabilitation center. Where opium poppies used to grow, agricultural products have taken their place. As a westerner, you can’t ignore the scandalous policies of the British empire during the 19th century, when their opium wars with China drove the former superpower into the ground and millions of Chinese saw their lives destroyed because of their opium addiction. The museum displayed all of this in a highly stylish and interactive fassion, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thai markets

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Doi Fha Hom Pok national park

In Chiang Mai, I was spotted by Hannelore, a Swedish cyclist with a lot of experience. I told her about my plans to head for the Laos border and since she was heading the same way, we agreed to join forces until we would get there. Her physical strength was impressive and on any climb, she would blow away most of the people reading this blog. Yes, that includes you too. On the road to Chiang Rai, we made a small detour to Doi Fha Hom Pok national park. Its main attractions are the hot springs, which you can see on the pictures below.

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New Year in Chiang Mai

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Chiang Mai – Doi Suthep

On the last day of the year, I decided that I should suffer some pain before the year would end. A blind acupuncturist would have done the trick, but I took the easy way out, left the luggage at the guesthouse, mounted Penelope and headed for Doi Suthep, the nearest mountain. Amazingly, the peak of Doi Suthep is only about 20 km away from the center of Chiang Mai. When you leave the city, the road starts to ascend immediately.

At the beginning of the climb, I joined a 21-year old Thai student on a mountain bike and we climbed from 300 meter to 1000 meter where we visited Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, the local temple. Apparently, the Thai wanted to repent before New Year and they turned out massively for a quick visit to the temple. I’m going to let the pictures do the talking and I hope you enjoy their monologue!

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Chiang Mai – jungle fly

First of all: Happy New Year to all my followers. I hope both of you will have a successful 2012

I admit it. I love Chiang Mai. Boisterous, but not crazy hectic like Bangkok. Plenty of tourists, but not the kind of people that stay in Pattaya for three weeks. Plenty of decent guesthouses, temples in the city center, bookstores and agencies that organize adventurous activities. Surrounded by forests and mountains… Yes, that’s my kind of city.

Before I said goodbye to my Belgian friends, they gave me some advice. Make sure to try the jungle flight… Not knowing what they were talking about, I took a look at it the next day and it looked like so much fun that I actually booked this activity before I remembered that I’ve had fear of hights for the biggest part of my life. Jungle flight is simple. Safely attached to a zipline, you float from tree to tree like a monkey. I have quite some monkey experience, especially behaving like one, but this was something else. My fear was not justified. Jungle fly is safer than walking the Thai pavements, the instructors were cool dudes and our group was a fine mix of Singaporese, Malaysian, Chinese and Spanish Jungle flyers. Yes, yet again, I had a lot of fun.

The man who appears besides me as an extended version of myself, is Daniel, a Madrid-based extremely clever guy who was also fluent in English and should therefore be considered a national treasure by the Spanish government. Yes, I know my face is blocking the happy ending, but for once I will not comment on this and I hope you won’t either

The pretty Chinese girl who appears on one of the pictures, was a member of our group and since I am a shallow human being (aka ‘man’), female gorgeousness is enough reason for me to appear on my blog.

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Those who think pictures are simply boring, are absolutely right and should take watch the video’s on my youtube channel.

http://www.youtube.com/user/GuntherL1

You will find plenty of proof that some of us are more closely related to monkeys than they are willing to admit.

 

 

Top 5 bloopers

As you may notice, December is filled with end-year lists. I thought I’d create one myself.

5. Frustratingly, I was unable to upload pictures today. The responsible provided me with a quick fix. She advised me to plug in my USB cable in the right PC.

4. On the road to Phichit, I asked my way around several times without getting a decent reply. The confusion of the locals was probably caused by my inability to remember the name of the city. I asked for Pinch it, Fix it, Chipset and Dipshit. When I finally took my roadmap and pointed to it, they immediately knew what I meant.

3. A few weeks ago, I decided that my first step into wildlife should be a number 2 into nature. When I finally found a spot along a tiny path and had one pair of pants on my knees, I was passed by a guy in a SUV who obviously noticed me. I’m pretty sure that the role of toiletpaper in front of me revealed my intentions.

2. The first full day in Chiang Mai, I walked into the city to find an Internet cafe. That took me half an hour. The return to the guesthouse took me an hour and a half. I couldn’t find the guesthouse (actually, I could find the river either). Five days later, I still have to bring the roadmap with me. The joy of the man with no sense of direction.

1. As said before, Penelope is fully loaded with stuff to fix her. Having broken two spokes, I decided to replace them myself. It turned out to be a unmatched display of lacking technical skills and failing anger management. This had a ‘happy’ ending, but because I have pictures, it made it to number one.

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Pictures Sukhotai – Chiang Mai

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Desire

Being on the road, I sometimes crave for company that sticks around a bit longer than one evening. When Nadia, Erwin and Rohny told me in Kanchanaburi that they would be in Chiang Mai until December 21, I was determined to meet them again. How difficult could it be? I had eight full days to deal with the 800 km that lay ahead of me.

The first two stages were easy enough and I didn’t do much more than cycling. It was all kind of uninteresting, except for my meal in Kanchanaburi. That was brought to me by a painfully obvious ladyboy, who was clearly longing for some attention. He put much effort into my dinner and it was the best I had for the past two months. His hidden agenda was an open book however and I had no intention to even start the first chapter. Shortly after dinner, I moved on.

I could have made life easy by continuing on the major, boring roads. As you can expect, I didn’t. Everything went fine up to the last 15 km before Sukhotai. I was tired, behind schedule, and had to complete the last stretch in the dark. My front light gave way because it wasn’t recharged. At this point, the smooth surface turned into a very bumpy one, which was explained by the road sign ‘road work ahead’. If you ever have the opportunity to ride a fully loaded bike in the dark on this kind of mountainbike trail, chased by mosquito’s and dogs, go for it.

In Sukhotai, I had three more days to reach Chiang Mai, which was still about 300 km further. The next 200 km, there was little accommodation available, so I seriously contemplated camping. To make sure I remembered that I had brought all parts, I set up my tent in my room in Sukhotai.

Next day, I didn’t make much progress. This can be explained by the quality of the dusty roads and limited visibility. I knew for sure there would be some good camping spots ahead, but I just didn’t have the energy. I accepted defeat and checked in to a guesthouse in Thung Saliam. What can you do the day after you were utterly exhausted? That’s right, you hit back with a vengeance. I was on the bike at 6.45h and the scenery was awesome. The 60 km stretch to Thoen was tough, with a crazy descent at the end, but more importantly, little traffic.

 

Due to some problems with the images, check next post to see the road- and landscape pictures between Sukhotai and Chiang Mai.

Adding the 88 km from Thoen to Lampang, the total distance this day was 148 km which took me 8 hours 30 min, but I felt ok. This can be explained by the amount of fuel I took in that day.

- 4 warm meals

- 2 bags of crisps, 1 small box of crackers, 1 small box of cookies

- 4 mandarins

- 1,5 liter of coke, 1 bottle of sprite and 4 liters of water

To be fair, that’s pretty disgusting, but so is a bike ride of nearly 150 km through the hills with all that luggage.

From Lampang, only 100 km separated me from Liam’s Suan Dok Mai, the Belgian-run guesthouse in the north of Chiang Mai, where my 3 compatriots were impatiently waiting for my company (so I hoped). The weather was nice, the roads were good and I was feeling like a million bucks. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, it all went according to plan until I heard a bang behind me, when I had 30 km to go. The guys at The Specht can confirm that I am not a great mechanic, but I managed to find out pretty quickly what went wrong.

Luckily I had a spare inner- and outer tyre ready and half an hour later, I was ready to get going again. With Dylans hurricane on the Ipod, I stormed to Chiang Mai, reached the guesthouse a bit later than expected and was very happy to find my fellow travelers who received me like a prince. Apparently, that’s the kind of treatment you get when you cycle with a bit of luggage. Due to my late arrival, I had forgotten to book any accommodation, but Daphne  (the guesthouse owner) and Nadia just added an extra bed, so I could sleep warm and without worries. Sometimes you just have to meet the right people.

I’ll stay in Chiang Mai until I can pick up my special winter tyres at the post office, which a friend sent last week. I’ve planned a few excursions and will provide you updates later this week or early next year. I’m thoroughly enjoying these last weeks of easygoing traveling before things get tough.

Enjoy your holidays and stay tuned!

Visa headaches

My options to get a Chinese visum were running out. In general, Vientiane and Hong Kong are regarded as good places to get one. But… Vientiane would require me to make a large detour to the south and I would have to fly to get to Hong Kong. That’s why I decided to get my visum in Bangkok. I’ve been to Bangkok 6 years ago and it’s the kind of place that makes me want to firebomb orphanages and shoot grannies, and I’m usually not that kind of boy. It’s fair to say that I didnt’t look forward to going there.

Feint to the left, pass right, feint to the right, pass left, gain as much speed as you can until you reach the goal. Could this be the description of Diego Maradona’s goal against England in Mexico? No, it’s just the way the Thai drive. Push as hard as you can all the time until you can read the small print on the license plate of the vehicle in front of you. It’s scary until you get used to it.

Take 1: I took the first minibus at 7.20h at the guesthouse. It took about three hours to reach Khao San Road. A taxi got me to the Chinese embassy where I arrived shortly after eleven. I was not allowed to enter the visa office until I filled out all the forms. which took me about half an hour. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice the embassy opening hours at the front door. 09.00h – 11.30h. For once, the Chinese were really strict and the security agent was firm in denying me access. It was 11.45h and I was too late. A taxi and minibus brought me back to Kanchanaburi. At least I had filled out the forms.

Take 2: Same departure time, different minibus. Thanks to huge traffic jams in Bangkok, we only arrived after 11 at Khao San Road. I quickly jumped into a taxi, but the driver was the only careful driver in Bangkok. At 11.30h we were still on our way to the embassy and I decided to get out and return to Kanchanaburi. I took another taxi and asked to take me to the bus station. Realizing that there were probably several bus stations, I tried to explain the taxi driver that he had to get me to the Bangkok bus station where I would take the bus to Kanchanaburi. I might as well have spoken Swahili to an Eskimo, because 30 minutes later I saw roadsigns that clearly indicated that we were on our way to Kanchanaburi. It took me a while to explain the taxidriver I really didn’t want to pay a taxi ride of about 130 km. Fortunately, he understood it this time and I found myself at the bus station 15 minutes later. This entire visa thing was starting to get on my nerves, partly because I could think of better ways to spend my days in Kanchanaburi. I became more compassionate when I looked out of the (big) bus and saw the floods in the outskirts of Bangkok.

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Take 3: I noticed that the regular buses left even earlier to Bangkok. No more minibuses! I set the alarmclock to 05.30h. This plan could not fail, if it wasn’t for one slight detail. I overslept and woke up at 7.00h. I still caught a bus at 7.45h, but it quickly became clear that I wouldn’t make it.

Take 4: Same plan, better execution. I was on the bus at 05.30h and reached Bangkok at around 09.00h. I only had to reach the Chinese embassy. It took me 5 taxi’s before I found a driver that was capable of understanding ‘Chinese embassy’. Other replies included “NBC?”, “China ok, MBC don’t know”. There was one driver who called a friend asking me to provide more information about this mysterious word ‘embassy’. All ended well this time. One clever taxi driver got me to the embassy and 90 minutes later my application was in. Thanks to the expensive, but efficient speed procedure, I had my one month visum at 15.00h. Since I intend to stay longer than one month, I will have to apply for a visa extension in China. One final challenge remained. I had to get to the bus station. To get there, I refused six taxi’s where the driver was not prepared to ride ‘on the meter’. The seventh was an honest one and I rewarded his honesty, which made us both very happy. Half an hour later, I was even happier when I dozed off in the bus to Kanchanaburi, I remembered the echoing words from an American woman I met 6 years earlier: ” Thailand is lovely, but leave Bangkok-kok-kok.”