phitsanouk

Phitsanuok isn´t up to much. I arrived late and my sole requirement was a room with a TV so I could watch the champions league final. I dashed out to buy some beers and was propositioned all the way by ladyboy prostitutes. Even when one politely declines, they get all vexed and say things like ´Why you not wanna go with me ?´.

The reason for going to Phitsanouk was two fold. One to escape the rain by travelling further South and secondly to use it as a base to visit the nearby historical town of Sukhotai. There isn´t much in Sukhotai in the way of accommodation or nightlife so it made sense to plan a day visit. In the end I didn´t get to see Sukhotai as my two days in Phitsanuok was dominated by heavy rain. It seemed silly to jump on a bus to visit the place to just get very, very wet.

Mind you Phitsanuok is hardly a beacon of activity itself either. I contented myself with a crappy restaurant to eat where the waitress would sit opposite me while I ate and say things like ýou, me, friends´ and then smile all the time. It wasn´t exactly comfortable but what could I do? There were a couple of bars but they weren´t anything special. I was very much the only foreigner around. One evening two Thai blokes invited the sad foreigner to their table. They were incredibly polite but the conversation didn´t exactly flow. One of them offered to give me a lift to my hotel. Naturally I declined repeatedly but it wasn´t accepted so I gave in. The fun thing was I had to push to car to get it started and then he drove the 200 metres or so to my hotel and said goodbye. I enjoy these unusual little courtesies.

chiang mai

The crossing into Northern Thailand was remarkably easy. A quick ten minute (fast by recent standards) boat ride, stamp the passport and jump onto a bus for a four hour ride to Chiang Mai. As is normal the bus ended up at a ´recommended´hotel but it was a decent place so I booked in. Chiang Mai is the tourist highlight of Northern Thailand and it is a pleasing place to chill out. There is a lively nightlife and it was great to have absolutely no difficulty with language as everyone I encountered spoke good english. It certainly made life easier.

I ended up staying in Chiang Mai for far longer than I originally planned. The main reason being that I needed to hang around to buy a ticket for my flight to South America. Get dough sent over and then wait for my ticket to be produced. My plan had been to fly from Singapore after travelling through Malaysia. I forgot all about getting the ticket arranged earlier. I was fearful of the price getting any higher. So I changed my plan to fly from Bangkok. Strangely, a return ticket was just as expensive as a single ticket ! But it gives me an excuse to fly back to South East Asia and travel through Malaysia as planned. That´s a decision for later.

Despite the looming rainy season, it was a great few days there. Met quite a lot of people and trailed around with some Irish geezers most of the time. The nightclubs were excellent and some of the bars too (apart from the ones where the Thai bar girls ply their trade - they´re just sleazy). The best night was watching Liverpools FA cup victory. Afterwards I got chatting to two Austrailian blokes. Both 19. One of them, an aborigine, got very worked up over the fact that I beat him at several pool games. To my utter surprise and shock, he then challenged me in all seriousness to a fist fight. This all took place with many onlookers observing the scene. Now with one well placed dig I reckon I could have floored the little sh*t. He was a scrawny thing and very drunk. But all I could think was I didn´t want to get arrested in Thailand. After much taunting on his part, he calmed down. Later he apologised and let me know that he regularly gets into fights and gets his head kicked in. Oh, I wish.....

There are plenty of temples and historical sites around Chiang Mai. I saw some of them but many are in bad repair. Besides getting caught in the open when the sky rips open and pours down torrents is not much fun. Once I got hold of my ticket and I made my exit. Best to keeping moving South before the rainy season really begins.