Wanderlust Going forth into the big, wide world and setting it on fire.

At long last it came time to leave the comfortable surroundings of Chiang Rai. I decided to switch up my modes of transport and make the journey to Thaton via long tailed boat. So on Friday, the wonderful guesthouse owner gave me a lif to the boat launch are and I waited for the next boat up river. The journey was said to take roughly 3-3 1/2 hours and I settled in for what I expected to be a quiet ride. The first part of the trip was relatively uneventful as we zig zagged towards our destination. We made a brief stop at the elephant farm, then continued on. Then things started to get a bit ugly. We hit a couple of rough patches where I thought I was on the river wild, then it started to rain, hard. But the real fun didn't begin until we got about two-thirds of the way up to Thaton. Even though we were supposedly in the middle of rainy season, there wasn't much rain and the river levels were unusually low further up North. So low, in fact, that we hit a few sand bars. A couple times we almost capized and the other times we got stuck. I mean STUCK, as in we had to get out andd try to get the boat unstuck. We managed to get to our destination about an hour later than expected, but whatever...it was an adventure. When I arrived in Thaton I met a nice Frenchman named Claude, who pointed me to a nearby hotel and was kind enough to help me get transportation there, since I was now lugging two large bags, as well as a backpack and a stuffed monster, Domo (aka Milo). While we waited for the motorbike to come get me, Claude told me about his trip to Thailand. He said he was a journalist, who incidentally lives in LA, and the last time he was in Thaton was 42 years ago. He wanted to travel to the same places he did back then. He said it was amazing how different everything looked. According to him, back then, the only way to get to Thaton was by horse and it was a two day journey over the mountains. That's about as far as he got with his story before my transport arrived, so Claude wished me good luck on my journey and we parted ways. Thaton was another sleepy little mountain town. Though I must say, I found it less appealing than Mae Salong. It was hot and the people were sorta blah. I only stayed there two days, which was one day longer than I really needed. The only "touristy" thing to do was to go see the nine temples and buddhas up on the mountain. So, to make it last as long as possible, I walked up the mountain and visited 8 of the 9 sites. Along the way, a nice Australian-Thai couple stopped and offered me a ride, but I kindly refused as I wanted to get the exercise and really, I had nothing else to do. I ran into the nice couple again at the eighth temple and got to talking with Colin, the Australian guy, for quite a while. He said he missed talking to people in English, so I indulged him. It was actually a great way to find out a lot about the issues expats face while living in Thailand and politcal current events, since I haven't been able to pick up an English newspaper nor been bothered to read the news online. Oh, and did I mention they had a son named Samson? He was the cutest little boy! He kept taking pictures of me and he would bring me little treats to eat. He was absolutely adorable. I said goodbye to them about an hour later, then I walked back to the hotel. I decided to forgo visiting the last temple as I was completely "templed" out by then. The next day I packed and took the soong taow back to Mae Salong.