Nan and Lampang, Thailand
I caught the 9:30 bus from Chiang Rai to Nan (a real bargain – 95 baht ($2) for a 270 kms journey which took over 7 hours.. this was a bus which had seen better days but I had 3 narrow seats to myself for 2 and a half hours until we got to the town of Chiang Kham. The bus then filled up and I had to hold my backpack on my lap (it would not fit in the narrow overhead racks).
Two hill tribe women sat next to me and after this journey, I have gone right off them. Colourful costume or not, I would have willingly pushed her over the steep mountains we were traveling through. She was eating an ear of corn and she had a method. She took a bite, chewed for a while, then spit the corn into her grubby hand (it had to be the one next to me!) and examined the contents in great deal before plucking it back in her mouth to finish it off. At least you couldn’t say she wasn’t chewing her food. Are there pearls in Thai corn?
4 hours of the journey was through mountains which are part of (or adjacent to) a national park … very steep and curving road. Alas, the November trip in Costa Rica has spoiled me, so while this was interesting, it did not compare to Costa Rica in terms of beauty. The bus really struggled uphill– often we were going at just a few miles an hour. The road surface was mostly good but in the places where there had been a rockslide or the road washed out, the repairs were of poor quality ; I assume it is too remote to get equipment up here until a substantial part of it needs replacement. Very little traffic and just a few villages, but lots of army in evidence. There were several road blocks and sometimes the army let us go through, sometimes they checked identification, My passport was in my small bag (within eyesight you will be happy to hear) in the overhead rack but they did not bother with me. Closer to Nan there was a police checkpoint and this time the policeman insisted on seeing my passport, asked a lot of questions. I think he was just showing who was in charge .. but my rule is always be polite to the man with the gun.
Nan has a new bus station since my last visit. It is well outside the town so I had to take a trishaw to the hotel (Hotel Nan Fah … 350 Baht (£5) for air con room. Nice old place with lovely timber floors ; you have to leave yours street shoes at reception and wear slippers when you go up to the rooms. The room had telly but it was odd – the English language station was from China and the BBC World Service was dubbed into Japanese ; I could hear the first few words in English then the Japanese translator drowned out the English voices.
There was a fair in Nan to raise funds for the Red Cross .. quite a big deal. There were nearly 8 streets with stalls selling interesting things (not the usual market tat – although there was a bit of that too). A mid-day aerobics exhibition attended by nearly a thousand people tired me just to watch them bouncing around in the 38C heat (that is above body temperature and many of them were wearing costumes of various sorts).
Had breakfast at Hot Bread, a newish place run by a former schoolteacher from Bangkok (her husband is from Nan). She spoke excellent English and like many people in Nan, was relaxed and seemed to have all the time in the world. She told me that there was a Sound and Light show at the Red Cross fair in the evening, starting at 7:30 pm. My walk included part of the old city wall/moat which is overgrown with weeds but still an attractive feature.
In the afternoon I visited Wat Phumin, the ancient temple with the fascinating murals. I took some good photos here when last in Nan and thought there was a major restoration of the murals underway but the place was essentially as I last saw it. One thing that made the trip worthwhile was seeing the small domed temple at the back of the grounds which contains murals (primitive but colourful) of hell and the delights that await us there. Goodness but they are vivid.
I check out the new bus station .. like so many in Thailand, it is too far from the centre of town for convenience and creates good business for taxis/trishaw drivers. I walked because I wanted the exercise. Very clean and all the information I needed was in English; there is an hourly service to Chiang Mai which stops in Lampang, my next destination.
I got to the main stage around 7pm but the seats were all taken. I found a raised platform across the street where they were selling food and Heineken beer. I had some breaded chicken which was delicious – just spicy enough. This turned out to be a great place with an unobstructed view for the ‘Sound and Light’. I was expecting a historic tableau about Nan since it was held in the grounds of the main temple, but it turned out to be the usual loud Thai rock group with girls in skimpy clothes scampering around the stage. Later in the evening there were some interesting dance groups and martial arts displays. Oh well, not what I expected but (1) is was free and (2) people were all having fun and that is infectious.
Next moring I caught the VIP bus at 10:00 .. really very VIP with leather seats, a stewardess, and most important – leg room! 3 and a half hours to Lampang which I had not visited before. It turned out to be a bit of a disappointment or perhaps I am just overdosing on temples. The hotel (Asia Lampang) very nice for 500 Baht (£7) –huge room on 5th floor with air con and fridge, cable telly (alas, FoxNews, first time I’d ever watched it and it is terrible! – like a telly version of a British tabloid newspaper). There seemed to be no distinction between ‘news’ and opinion ; much of it was right wing opinion and there was a preoccupation with crime and murder.
Lampang is a real Thai place .. not many signs in English but I found the Riverside Restaurant and that made the trip worthwhile. This place is built on timber platforms which overlook the river and while it holds a lot of people it still seems intimate. My test meal was Crispy Morning Glory with chicken (the restaurant near the Hotel Malaysia in Bangkok excels at this). This was a huge dish of fried morning glory (I have been told this is not the flower but a water vegetable) with a side dish containing white chicken meat in a som tom sauce (vinegar based). This was an excellent antidote to the oil from the fried vegetable. I was going to leave when the band arrived because I was sitting right next to them but in fact they did not set out to wake the dead and played and sang some fun 1960’s music. I went back to the hotel in a merry mood.
The fine print
Date of travel : March 2005
Country information : https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/th.html