Tha Ton

Bus trip from nam to get to Tha Ton, not many kms but over very steap windy roads, splashed out and got a ticket on a aircon van, as the bus is small and gets very cramped, takes alot longer to. 6 hours by van to Chaing Mai bailed off a bit before so I woulnt have to go into the city and cross town to the other local bus station. Was a bit chancy but managed to find the bus stop and catch the bus to Tha Ton. Another 4 hours on the bus, this time crammed onto the backseat, oh well at least I was sitting. Theres no real limit on how many people can ride the normal bus, the conductors just keep packing them on. Had some nice views on both buses and my MP3 player kept me sane.

Got a guest house in Tha Ton, the usual affair of a bed, in small room with a bathroom attached, bathroom is usually about 1.5m square with a toilet and shower and sink in it. Kind of bizare but very economical space wise.

Went for a walk to the temple above town the complex was huge stretched out along the ridgeline above town for about 3 kms surrounded in forest and bush. Each 'step' had a budda statue of various sizes a couple were about 10m high, very imressive. Only made it up a couple of steps before I bumped into a couple of young monks who I stopped to caht to, then back into town for my usual feed of fried rice and a pepsi, for 30 B ($1). (The net im on now is 256k 30 b an hour)

The river we took a longtail boatride down.

In the morning I walked all the way to the top 'step' of the temple, had spectacular views of the river and town. Also a very nice cheddi on the way (sort of tower large base going to point at top).

Caught the 'public' longtail boat to Chaing Rai at lunchtime, public boat being tourist boat that takes 3 hours and costs 250b, where as the bus costs 40b and takes 40 min. Longtail boast is long and thin with a rasied prow, with a car engine bolted on the back, with a very long prop shaft coming out where the driveshaft normally would, ours looked like a 3k or 4k corolla motor. Had 12 of us packed onto the boat, all our packs piled up the front, river was almost coming over the side. Got a bit wet but was all good. Stopped off for a brake at an elephant camp, they also had the biggest pyton ive ever seen, could pay to get a photo with it but I passed. Boatride was fun well worth the dollars.

Pack them in

In Chaing Rai now and am going to go to the night bizarre now to buy some new swimming togs as I left my last pair on the line in Mae Hong Son.