A lot's happened over a week as we seem to have been on the move using one form of transport or another but I'll give you a brief précis of our last seven days ( maybe you will buy my book to catch up on all the nitty gritty?)
Saturday 12th March - we didn't see that coming? Having decided to take a stroll from our hotel in Chiang Rai we somehow ended up in a shopping mall, Century Plaza. It was huge and it took us ten minutes to walk round it to find the entrance. Who'd have thought, this far in the north there would be an edifice of shiny glass and metal that paid homage to retail therapy. I could feel a massive hole opening up in my wallet as Lynn rubbed her hands with glee.
We spent a few hours in there and to be honest she didn't go too mad on the spending. The real surprise for me was the standard of fresh food being served in the food courts. We had a hot and tasty duck noodle soup, made in front of us as we sat round the servery with all the locals.
It was a taxi to get us back and we eventually seeked out what we thought was a taxi company to arrange a day trip. Just along the road from our hotel was a sign in the road offering trips to various local sights. We entered an empty roadside cafe to be greeted by Mr Pon. He immediately went into sales mode and before we knew it we had organised a day trip on the Sunday, a taxi to Chiang Khong on the Monday and our laundry to be washed - by his wife! (£4 for a big bag full)
That evening we ended up back in town trying to find a venue showing the England v Wales rugby game - we couldn't find one. We did however watch the clock tower performance again, this time whilst sat at a pavement cafe eating some excellent Thai food.
Sunday morning, not too early and Mr Pon with his driver Mr Song wander into the breakfast room of our hotel. We finish up and are taken on our excursion by the young Song who spends most of the time talking into one of those ear piece things that all taxi drivers seem to have.
The White Temple was spectacular to say the least, basically a project of a famous Thai artist, Arjan Chalermchai Kostipat ( Google him). He wanted to build the most beautiful temple in the world and to show the glory of modern Thai Buddist arts - thumbs up for achieving that then.
We continued with a look at an ancient rural spiritual site the Black House and finally a tea plantation, not a place I would normally relish visiting - how wrong I was.
As you can imagine we were high up at the plantation, the tea bush terraces spread for miles and miles. We were introduced to the various teas that are grown on Choui Fongs famous slopes and then had something to eat. There was an expansive menu of tea related food and drinks, at one point we were eating a salad of deep fried tea leaves (don't knock it till you've tried it) and I drank a green tea frappe - get me!
After an exhausting day and with a journey to undertake the following morning we ditched any ideas of going out and spent the night packing and sleeping.
On time, we were collected by both Mr Pon and Mr Song in the bosses fine 4x4 vehicle, meethinks Mr Pon wanted a day out himself - probably to get away from the wife. Mr Song was definitely the navigator with his Google Earth Satnav system on his tablet. It took us a cross country route which gave us another insight to the rural ways of this country. Thankfully the road was not a windy and undulating as the one I'd been ill on days earlier and eventually, as they say, all roads lead to Chiang Khong.
As you approach the town there is as you can imagine an air of mystery, especially as I found out the Thais and Laos were taking pot shots at each other less than twenty years ago. 5km out and the signs for "Immigration Control" appeared then "Friendship Bridge". We would cross that a couple of days later.
If I thought our previous stop over was a "one horse town" it was apparent that Chiang Khong was a "no horse town" as we were driven through the one Main Street, Mr Song studiously checking his tablet for the correct turn off. I would be proved wrong on my initial opinion of this frontier town as we pulled up at the Day Waterfront Hotel with its stunning riverside view of Laos across the Mekong.
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