Tiger2 Earns More Stripes

The 316 kms route from Uttaradit to Chiang Khan took us through mountains, valleys and forests. We stopped for the normal Rice and Chicken/Pork for lunch and were looking forward to the normal Rice and Pork/Chicken for supper. On arriving in Chiang Khan, we had ridden up and down the roads, zig-zagged through the town, searching for decently priced and decent accommodation. All the river fronthotels were Full, and way too expensive anyway. Full, Full, full, we got told many times and then realised it was Chinese New Year Weekend. 5kms out of town we spotted a sign ‘Room for Rent’ 600 baht. As it was late in the day we tried to negotiate the guy down to 400 baht, No Deal. Starting to despair, we see a sign with a printing of a tent on it. And we do have a tent, albeit a pop-up festival one. We turn Right, go along a dirt track, round a corner through bamboo into a clearing, through a driveway and see some more tents. A lady pops her head out of the gateway and says their tent is 300 baht. “We have our own tent”. “That’s 100 baht”. We hand over our money and look for a suitable level site within easy access of the loo, for middle of the night visits. Whilst unpacking and pitching our pop-up camouflage tent, a variety of curious onlookers appear, one of whom was the man with the 600 baht room. We are in his back garden.

Chiang Khan, on the Mekhong River is very proud of its cultural history. Every evening, the promenade along the river’s edge is closed to traffic and becomes a ‘walking street’, filled with stall holders selling food and traditional wares. It is also filled with double-decker busloads of tourists from the East. I think we spotted one other Western couple. The hotel prices are way beyond our budget and so are the food prices. Who’s got the money? Certainly not tourists from the West. We get a bit fed up with the jostling and ‘rip-off’ prices for a BBQ chicken wing, so after pausing to admire the antique teak architecture of the cultural buildings and watching the sunset, we ride back to our accommodation and supper of peanut butter sandwiches. We are surprised at the amount of dew that had already settled on the tent, making it quite damp. This called for a change of plan. The back garden had a large covered patio on a concrete base, complete with lighting and plugs for charging all our electronics, there was also a large table and chair set. We moved and made ourselves very comfortable. Apart from the lack of pillows, the beach mat was an OK mattress and with all our clothes piled on top of us, we were not too cold. It was probably the noisiest night in our journey as the cars and buses drove up the road all night, the drums beating and monotone megaphone praying from the monastry started at about 4 am and the Roosters joined in shortly afterwards. We were once again a great source of amusement in the morning and had an audience whilst we packed up.The proprieters took photos of us for their facebook page, publicising their camping facilities. Nourished by a campsite breakfast of marmalade on raisin bread we set off East along the shores of the Mekhong. It was pretty and peaceful and we stopped often. The treat of the day was a delicious lunch of ‘sticky rice’, BBQ chicken and papaya (paw-paw) salad. ‘Sticky rice’ is both a different type of rice and is also cooked differently. It is soaked for 24 hours and then cooked in the steam in a woven basket. Sometimes coconut milk is added. It is eaten by breaking chunks off the main pile of rice and rolling it into a ball. Papaya salad is grated green papaya, cucumber and other bits and pieces crunched up in a ‘pestle and mortar’. Seafood papaya salad has crab/prawns in it. It is always very spicy hot, beware.

We reach a little dilapidated neglected town along the river called Srichiangmai. Laos on the other side has skyscrapers and big office block looking buildings. There’s music blaring across the water. Laos appears within touching distance, the river is so narrow. We look for rooms/hotels/accommodation signs along the river frontage road and again we get turned away, Full, full, Full. So we carry on riding East, get to the end of the River road and head back into town on the main road until we spot a Thai sign with a big red arrow. We cannot read the Thai sign, but it looks right for hotel (pattern recognition). Sure enough a lovely strip of motel-bungalows, bright pink, inside and out. We settle in, unpack , and go out to find some supper in town. The stir-fried rice and pork was delicious and in a merry relaxed mood we start for our lodgings, which we cannot find. We had arrived in daylight, now it was dark and we didn’t have the name of the place (because it was in Thai) therefore couldn’t type it into Maps. We retraced our path down the main road but couldn’t find any big red arrow. Mild panic ensued as we rode around trying to find our motel. Calm down, let’s start at the beginning, so we rode back to the river road, ( we knew where the river was) and then followed our original route and there it was: the big red arrow. Relieved we turned in and reminded ourselves about making sure to get the name of your hotel, and making sure to get landmarks in a strange place.

The bed was so comfortable after the tent the night before and reasonably priced, we decided to leave all our belongings there for the day and ride 100kms round trip to the Thai-Laos border and back; our visa is due to expire in 3 days. We were hoping that the Green Book (motorbike passport) would have arrived before visa expiry date, then we could go over with the bike to tour Laos. This was not going to happen, but we had to get a renewal without the bike. Having carefully taken note of the name and phone number of the motel, and informed them what we were doing, just in case, we rode unencumbered to the border. We parked the bike, walked through Departures, caught the regulation bus over the River and Entered Laos. Some form filling ensued and Arrived in Laos; We went for a pee at the Duty-free shopping centre and Departed Laos, caught the same bus back over the river and filled in more forms before Arriving in Thailand. Our visa are now stamped until February 27th. We were back in the motel by lunchtime and paid for another night. This time when we went for supper, rice and curried chicken, we knew how to get back. Khon Kaen was now a mere 219kms away so we rode back to Ban Ton and our extended family. We get news that the Green book and the number plate have arrived in the bike shop. B and Linda go to the Land Transport Department to get the Temporary Export papers signed and a few days later we get them stamped and approved. We can now take the bike out of the Thailand for up to one year, until February 5th 2018. Where shall we go?