Turns out that Ruud and I had picked the weirdest hostel / hotel in the world to stay at. It was huge, all made of mahogany and teak, a beautiful view over the Mekong into Laos - like something from the empire. All for 2 quid a night (to be fair the sink in the bathroom just had a tube that dropped onto the floor which made washing tricky, but a nice place anyway.
There were hundreds of photos of the owner - a 60 year old Thai lady - plastered all over the wall. It turned out that she had grown up with the ex Prime Minister and can't have been short of cash as she was showing me all her pictures of her travels all over the world. Maybe the hotel was kind of a hobby for her. But we just had to wonder how she could keep it going with 4 other guests in high season. The other guests were a huge fat Dutch guy and his tiny Thai girlfriend. They sat and ate and conversation was very very limited.
Him: "You like the food?'
Her: "Hmmm." (The tone of this could have meant 'kind of', 'not really', 'i don't understand', 'how did i get myself into this situation?', anything really...)
Some friendly Thai people asked us to join them and gave us a super sweet mix of banana in hot milk. Delicious, but I think it might have given me diabetes. The owner assured us that the girls were all 'from nice families', not like the girls on the street. We smiled and nodded.
Ruud and I played a couple of games of chess (he won) and then we went out to see what the one street in Chiang Khong had to offer us. Turned out our hotel was in the busiest place (2 bars open) and one next door was having their opening night. We played cards for a long time, befriended a local fella named Udon who gave me a prawn drenched in chilli sauce. It was very spicy. I managed not to break too much of a sweat and he looked impressed.
We finished up and went back to the hotel with plans to move further up the coast the next day.
In the morning I went upstairs to ask the receptionist about buses up the coast. Turned out we had missed the only one that day and it looked like we might have to stay in Chiang Khong one more night. Not very appealing. While were planning our next move the receptionist came over to us.
Her: "You both very handsome"
Us: "Oh thanks."
Ego boost.
Her: "Where you from?"
Me: "I'm from England and he's from Holland"
Her: "Dutch people very tall"
Me: "Yeah they are"
Her: "But you...you more..."
Me: "Like a midget?"
Her: "Yeah kind of"
Ego back to normal.
Quick plans made and I was in a minivan with a guy called Bird and a very decent German couple who paid for me to get to Chaing Rai so that I could change to get the bus to Chiang Mai.
Bird was a tour guide from China and had visited Machester cos he was a Man U fan. His next trip in a few months is going to be to Birmingham. "Anywhere else?" I asked. "No, just Birmingham". I like Birmingham, but seems like quite a specific holiday destination from Thailand. Anyway, fair enough.
Lizi text on the way and said that her and Annie were heading back to Chiang Mai too as they'd had a pretty crappy time. We randomly ended up on the same bus on the way back. Stunning scenery on a very windy (like bendy, not that there was lots of wind) and hilly road.
As we were pulling into Chiang Mai Lizi text saying, "Hostel, shower, McDonald's, drunk. Fancy it?" I did. And that's what we did.
It's what we needed and later on after a few buckets of Mai Tai we ended up dancing to random d&b in a local bar. A quality night. Just found out that Paul our Canadian friend ended up getting mooned by one of the 10 year old kids that walks round selling flower garlands. So what did he he do? Spanked him and mooned him back. What a legend.
We've all got Changovers today (a lot of Chang was drunk last night) so just chilling out. Another day or so in Chiang Mai and then I'll move West.
Oh and I should explain why I've called this 'homecoming'. I'm not coming home...yet, but Chiang Mai seems like a temporary home at the moment. Good to be back.
There were hundreds of photos of the owner - a 60 year old Thai lady - plastered all over the wall. It turned out that she had grown up with the ex Prime Minister and can't have been short of cash as she was showing me all her pictures of her travels all over the world. Maybe the hotel was kind of a hobby for her. But we just had to wonder how she could keep it going with 4 other guests in high season. The other guests were a huge fat Dutch guy and his tiny Thai girlfriend. They sat and ate and conversation was very very limited.
Him: "You like the food?'
Her: "Hmmm." (The tone of this could have meant 'kind of', 'not really', 'i don't understand', 'how did i get myself into this situation?', anything really...)
Some friendly Thai people asked us to join them and gave us a super sweet mix of banana in hot milk. Delicious, but I think it might have given me diabetes. The owner assured us that the girls were all 'from nice families', not like the girls on the street. We smiled and nodded.
Ruud and I played a couple of games of chess (he won) and then we went out to see what the one street in Chiang Khong had to offer us. Turned out our hotel was in the busiest place (2 bars open) and one next door was having their opening night. We played cards for a long time, befriended a local fella named Udon who gave me a prawn drenched in chilli sauce. It was very spicy. I managed not to break too much of a sweat and he looked impressed.
We finished up and went back to the hotel with plans to move further up the coast the next day.
In the morning I went upstairs to ask the receptionist about buses up the coast. Turned out we had missed the only one that day and it looked like we might have to stay in Chiang Khong one more night. Not very appealing. While were planning our next move the receptionist came over to us.
 |
| Ruanthai the receptionist |
Her: "You both very handsome"
Us: "Oh thanks."
Ego boost.
Her: "Where you from?"
Me: "I'm from England and he's from Holland"
Her: "Dutch people very tall"
Me: "Yeah they are"
Her: "But you...you more..."
Me: "Like a midget?"
Her: "Yeah kind of"
Ego back to normal.
Quick plans made and I was in a minivan with a guy called Bird and a very decent German couple who paid for me to get to Chaing Rai so that I could change to get the bus to Chiang Mai.
Bird was a tour guide from China and had visited Machester cos he was a Man U fan. His next trip in a few months is going to be to Birmingham. "Anywhere else?" I asked. "No, just Birmingham". I like Birmingham, but seems like quite a specific holiday destination from Thailand. Anyway, fair enough.
Lizi text on the way and said that her and Annie were heading back to Chiang Mai too as they'd had a pretty crappy time. We randomly ended up on the same bus on the way back. Stunning scenery on a very windy (like bendy, not that there was lots of wind) and hilly road.
As we were pulling into Chiang Mai Lizi text saying, "Hostel, shower, McDonald's, drunk. Fancy it?" I did. And that's what we did.
It's what we needed and later on after a few buckets of Mai Tai we ended up dancing to random d&b in a local bar. A quality night. Just found out that Paul our Canadian friend ended up getting mooned by one of the 10 year old kids that walks round selling flower garlands. So what did he he do? Spanked him and mooned him back. What a legend.
We've all got Changovers today (a lot of Chang was drunk last night) so just chilling out. Another day or so in Chiang Mai and then I'll move West.
Oh and I should explain why I've called this 'homecoming'. I'm not coming home...yet, but Chiang Mai seems like a temporary home at the moment. Good to be back.
Do you remember that Alanis Morissette song called 'Home'? That was weird.
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