A short way behind Phitsanulok the mountains began. The slopes were so steep, our old truck would sometimes drop to about 40km/h and only regain its full strength at the mountain top. While we'd been on the Indian Ocean, our petrol tank had been repaired. Still, as we were crawling up the hills, Jimmy began to stutter even though the gauge was still on full. We stared at each other in fear of a repeated blow-the-pipes-free experience, but this time that would be in the middle of nowhere and without our air pump. Strangely enough, as soon as we reached the top of a mountain, even only going straight, all went back to normal. I got an idea. The gauge had been showing near full for a while now, more precicely for almost a hundred kilometers. Even though we had fueled the truck up before giving it to repair, we had no idea how much was actually left in the tank. It couldn't be full anymore.
We stopped at the next town, or rather a town to be, and I checked the cables. Switching them solved the riddle, we were low on fuel, and on the steep slopes that was enough to stop the remaining petrol from reaching the engine. Luckily, the next petrol station was only minutes away and our problem soon solved.
Along the route 12 where a good number of waterfalls. We chose the fourth one for our first stop. It was a nice spot, a fall across a river about 50 or 60 meters wide and framed by large boulders we were now crawling over with an indistinct trace of exploration. I was moving very careful, still watching the dogbite closely and not bending my leg much. I felt somewhat like a disabled person where I would usually almost be flying from rock to rock.
Close to the fall we discovered an old rope plank bridge. Tommi, being a engineer to be, had to have a closer look at it. The bridge was shaking heavily as my two brothers stepped onto it. They had to change their pace and synchronize their steps before it calmed. As Tommi had finished his examination of the bridge and we went back to solid ground a motorcycle crossed the bridge to show its real stability. It seemed as if the driver and the bridge were quite accustomed to each other and not a trace of shaking was produced by the bike as it shattered over the scattered loose planks.
The next stop was another waterfall right by the roadside. It was not long before sunset and the light was amazing as it lit the top of the falls while the surrounding bamboo forrest at the bottom was set in a dim semi-darkness. It was almost dark before we left and Andy had taken all enough pictures to satify the photographer in him. The next town was Lom Sak and we chose it as the place to sleep.
Just before we entered town, the road got bad. We were approaching an intersection where a turn-off led into the town while the main road continued straight. Just before the traffic light the car bumped over an edge, impossible to be seen in the dark, and shook the three of us hard. The road leading into town was even worse. I was driving carefully, there were more edges in the roadbed and sometimes, there was not much of a roadbed at all. Other times, there were suddenly two roadbeds and it got hard to decide which one to drive on. I was unsure if they were building a new road or just extending the existing one. Six kilometers further the bitumen was even again and we rolled into town looking for a decent hotel. With Tommi on the back we slowly beat our way through the narrow and crowded alleys of the market before ending up at the town entrance again at the first hotel in town.
After check-in, we strolled over the market in the pursuit of food. It took us an incredibly long time and we just couldn't seem to find anything suiting our taste. We ended up buying some fried meat with sticky rice only to find a fine street restaurant just around the corner. We had a decent meal there and returned to the hotel for a drink and some meat desert.
For the nights entertainment we went to a bar, sitting outside and trying conversation with some locals. English was a no-go and Tommi had a hard time. I was doing better, but I was still far from really having a talk. For Andy that meant so much translation, he didn't have much conversation himself either. Still, it was an entertaining evening and it was close to midnight when we went back to the hotel for a good nights rest.
The next morning I discovered I was out of bandages. I still had to clean and dress the dogbite wound every day. Just around the corner I had seen a pharmacy the day before and went to buy more of the cool and handy bandages that I had bought before right after I had been bitten. The pharmacy didn't have them. Neither did the next or the one after that. Every pharmacist was offering the usual wound dressing and some tape, but none of the seemed to have the ones I was looking for and that were so much better protecting the wound from dirt and dust. I ended up at the hotel, still empty-handed just to have another look in the first pharmacy again. I had perfected my way of asking for the right thing on my way from one shop to the next and gave it another try. I was successful and the pharmacist pulled my handy bandages out of the shelf. What a nice morning walk I had done.
The bumping over the bad road the evening before had taken its toll on Jimmy. The exhaust had suffered as a mounting bracket had broken. Next to the hotel was a shop were I found the replacement part for a couple of cents and a minute later it was installed and we were hitting the road again.
Our next stop was Chum Pae. There were more waterfalls to look at and more mountains to cross on the way. One of those falls lay at the end of a nice walk through tropical dry forest my brother Tommi had never seen before. Supposedly, there was another fall nearby, 2 kilometers further through the thick forrest, but the way was overgrown. In the beginning the going was okay and I was able to clear the way using a thick bamboo stick in the absence of a bush knife we had thoughfully left in the car. Later though, about a kilometer into the way, the undergrowth grew to thick and there was no going further and we had to turn back.
A few kilometers further down the road, stopping at an impressive bridge crossing a deep valley with steep slopes on either side we noticed our exhaust was hanging down again. The replaced bracket had broken right in the middle due to material weakness. I improvised a new bracket from it, a fix that would last months to come.
As we went on driving though, there was a difference. The truck made considerable more noise. We stopped to check and found, the exhaust pipe had broken while hanging loose for that while. Now that was vexatious. Installing a brand new replacement part had lead to even more damage than before. But no use now, we had to get that fixed. In the next town they directed us to a little exhaust shop. The mechanic there was supposed to do superior work and we were about to put it to a little test. Less than 20 minutes and 2 Euros later the exhaust was welded like new. Test passed.
We reached Chum Pae at dusk. We found a nice hotel a little outside of town with excellent rooms for cheap money. On the way into town we had seen a big discothek we had immediately put on the plan for the night's entertainment. After a bit of rest and refreshment as well as a movie on the english movie channel we went back there.
It was a huge place, a large hall with hundreds of tables, but the audience was far from being able to fill it up. Even though a good bunch of people were there, the place seemed empty. A band was already playing loud Thai Rock music and the crowd was in a good mood, enjoying drinks and snacks. We ordered a bottle of Whisky and some Coke and snacks and leaned back to suck in the atmosphere. Having a conversation ment screaming as it was so common in locations like this in Thailand. Every once in a while my two brothers went out for a smoke or I would walk out with one of them for a short small talk and to rest our ears.
Especially Tommi was enjoying the experience new to him. While the first couple of bands were good playing mostly well-known Thai songs, a star was about to enter. Prime time, about eleven, a half-cast stepped on stage and the crowd went mad. He seemed to be a little more than well-known and really rocked the house. Dozen of people, men and women, old and young, kept going up to the stage to take a shot of him with their mobile as he would professionally pose for them.
We stayed as long as we could stand the noise level. On the way back, we hit another bar. It was outside and we soon realized, it had gotten really cold. I was wearing long pants, but had no no sleaves and was starting to shiver. I was not used to temperatures like that anymore and was glad to grab a blanket from the truck. We had only one drink before we left to rather take a final drink in our hotel lounge before going to sleep.
The next morning we backtracked a bit of road to turn north towards Phu Kradung National Park which was supposed to be somewhat worth a trip. As we got there Andrew managed to make a bargain to pay only the car's entry fee as we were only taking a short look. We soon found the main attraction being a high plateau only reachable by a strenous full day hike, one way. Not more than a short look was possible by car and the rangers had known.
We were neither equipped for such a trip, nor were we mentally prepared, nor did we really feel we had the time, with Tommi being supposed to fly back home in a few days. All the stunning waterfalls that had been advertised in flyers about the park were located at the high plateau and no roads were leading up there.
For a moment, we felt like we'd come to a dead end. Then, the park rangers told us about another fall right at the park border that could be reached by a little rough road some twenty kilometers away. To go there, we had to leave and re-enter the park. At the ranger post we had to pay again. Bargaining again we managed to go for the foreigner's kids price and the car already paid with the previous ticket. We followed the small winding road constantly trying to avoid one of the many pot holes that were scattered all over it. At the end of the road the trees had been cleared to make for a parking lot and it was only a few hundred meters walking until we reached the top of the falls.
They were beautyful and big, probably fifty meters high and even wider than that. The river fell over its whole lenght in two steps, a small three meter one and the main drop. Even though the dry season had begun and there was less water than there must have been a month or two before, there was still an impressive amount of water plundering down into the valley beneath and filling the air with a constant thunder. Climbing around the massive boulders was fun and even though I was still concerned about my bitten leg, nothing could stop me now.
After we'd explored the top of the falls, we soon found the small path leading down to the bottom. There again was nothing more than a field of massive boulders to walk on, or rather hop from one to the next. We spent a few hours looking around, taking pictures and taking a little mist shower before we headed back to the car and drive towards Udon Thani to find a place to spend the night.
Besides Bangkok, Udon Thani was the biggest town I had seen in a while, a good bit bigger than Pitsanulok. For whatever reason, traffic was heavy and the going was slow. Unfortunately, we didn't even know, where to look for a hotel. The little map we had only gave a hint of a clue of the town's main streets. We aimed at the railway station and got lucky. After crawling through thick traffic we ended up in the hotel area of town. The town had evolved into a gateway to Laos and this could be seen. Next to the hotels was a whole street of bars with an abundance of "easy" Thai girls waiting for customers. We had arrived back in farang Thailand it seemed.
We checked into cheap rooms right in the middle of the bar area and started walking around to find a meal. We ended up in a pizza place of some chain brand serving Pizza Hut style American pizza. We ordered a large pizza for an outrageous seeming price and left out everything else, dessert, side orders, drinks. After that farang meal it was time to walk by the bars to have a look. That proved to be a bad idea. The girls were almost jumping at us trying desparately to pull us into their bar for a drink and more later. We were close to disgust and fled the scene. Tommi had it and went back to the room for a quiet TV night. Andrew and I went on, to find a place a little more appropriate.
We'd already gone around the whole block and gotten into some serious conversation when we entered a bar that seemed more settled and had no girls, except for one and she was rather shy. We got into talking to her and found out, the bar wasn't really running well and could be considered close to shut down. Disappointed we left. Just as we strolled back onto the street I spotted this girl on the back of a motorcycle and we were instantly smiling at each other. I said something and my brother translated and this is how we met Anne.
Anne told us of the better locations Udon Thani had to offer and minutes later Anne, some friends of her's and us stood around a table in a discothek as drinks were being poured. The music was loud as usual and conversation a tough business, but not impossible. I got lucky, as Anne spoke a bit of English and mixing our language skills we were able to get along. The hours in the disco went by and the noise increased in the same way as our desire to move on. The evening had brought me the telephone number of the attractive singer who was even waving at me from the stage every once in a while making me blur a bit. She had apologized, as she was meeting her boyfriend that night, otherwise she would have really like to get to know be a bit better.
After leaving the disco we moved to a bar to sit outside and have a bit of food before going to bed. Outside, it was quiet and an interesting conversation about the country and its people evolved. We stuck with that for a good while and it was dawn when we returned to the hotel to catch at least a bit of sleep.
The next day, we headed further north until we reached the Mekong River in Nong Khai. One of the Lao-Thai friendship bridges crosses the Lao border here and the increased number of farang border runs had turned the formerly small village into a tourist center of considerable size. There was really no attractions here besides the border crossing and a lame market and a river promenade tried to make up for it. They couldn't in any way and we didn't stay long before leaving that town behind. Now we were going west aiming home again. We were going little side streets to see a bit of Thai Hinterland with its still wooden huts scattered amongst the rice fields where the workers stood knee deep in the water giving a bit the feel of a long gone third world country and a sense of pure harmony as the sun set colouring the scene into a fresh green set before a golden sky.
We arrived in Na Klang after dark. It was the goal we had set on the map for the day. It was a small town and there was no hotel to be found. Only by asking around we found the hidden driveway to the towns resort. Now in real Thailand, a resort is not nearly what the average European would think of hearing that word. It is cheap accomodation for the local folks and has the simplest thinkable style. The resort we checked in at was old and very simple, but reasonably clean. A room, or rather a hut, had one or two stone beds with a thin mattress on each as well as a fan and a simple bathroom, Thai toilet and water basin. There were no locks and we left all valuables in the car as we left to walk to the restaurant next door, even though we doubted that was necessary.
The restaurant was a barbeque place. Into a hole in the middle of the table was put a bucket with glowing charcoal and on top they set a aluminum grill thing. Then they server raw meat of your choice and veggies, all prepared on the grill and the veggies cooked in the water at the edge of the grill. I was managing the grill using chopsticks and after about two hours my fingers started hurting. Eating like that was fun, but extremely time-consuming. In the end, still craving for food, we boiled the remainder of meat and stuffed ourselves as good as possible. After that we had some drinks in the bar next door before retiring to our rooms.
For Tommi, waking up in the Thai resort was exciting. A snake greeted him blinking in throug a vent hole in his wall and leaving through another. Beside that, he had the biggest gecko ever in his room, probably 35-40 centimeters long and as fat as a rat. Andrew had to document the rooms in pictures before we left. We were on the way back to Sukhothai now and the trip was going towards its end.
Halfway through the day we saw a sign by the road pointing to Eraman Cave. We took the turn and ended at the foot of a hill in a temple area. Steep stairs led to the cave located about halfway up the hill, abouth 250 meters above ground. I hate climbing stairs, especially if its so many, but these were worth the while as on their top was the huge entrance to a deep cave. A Buddha statue, probably 15 meters in height was sitting in the entrance looking over the land. We entered the cave and walked about 200 meters over the dimly lit partially wet ground to find a small exit on the other side of the hill. Concrete stairs that would never ever have passed a German inspection were leading up to it. Peeking out of the cave we could see far into the country. It was unspectacular as there was nothing but farmland, but the cave, its sheer size and the way it led through the hill were faszinating.
On the way back out I discovered a set of terraces. First I had only noticed what seemed like a man made basin. Then I realized, there was a whole set of them, going up the wall in terraces and they were not man made, but water had built them. Other places tourists would pay good money to see things like that and here they were hidden unannounced in some corner of a cave for everyone to discover on his own.
After the cave we just drove until I suddenly hit the brakes. I had finally seen on the roadside, what we had come looking for, wood. Large wooden beams as we wanted to have them for the living room. We stopped to have a look around and found suitable timber very soon and quite cheap. Loaded on the Jimmy the beams would stick out about a meter and Tommi could not have any more company in the back of the truck. But it wasn't far from home now and that seemed perfect. I drove off slowly and carefully first, but soon realized the beams were not impacting the handling of the truck much.
We made it to Loei easily before dark. It was the last large town on our way back home an we had already decided to stay before we reached it. We found a very nice hotel and a massage place right next to it. After a good dinner around the corner, I had a massage lady come to my room. The massage I had had in Ko Phi Phi had worn off and my back needed one again badly. It was good relaxation before going to sleep.
The next day saw us driving back home. We took the smalles possible streets and it felt like really working our way back. We soon discovered the limits of our map and had to ask or guess for the way several times. The roads turned very bad at times and the bitumen stopped for a while to turn into red dirt. I was strongly reminded of Australia, until we entered the next town where I bought some finger food at the market puzzling the little girl who sold it to me who couldn't grasp I was speaking her tonge. Well, by now it was well sufficient enough to by some chicken and rice, I guess.
Just before dark we passed by Tong Chai's house, Andrew's brother in law. We put in a quick stop for him to inspect the timber we'd bought before we went home. Not long after dark, we reached home and the trip was over. Another days rest was left for Tommi and he'd be flying back to Germany right as our parents would be landing.
No comments:
Post a Comment