North Thailand - Chiang Kong

En quittant le parc National Si Lanna, nous rejoignons la route principale menant aux villes de Chiang Dao et de Fang. Le trafic y est tout d’abord assez dense et le paysage monotone. La route se rétrécit ensuite et nous mène progressivement au cœur de la forêt et au sommet de plusieurs cols, dont certains atteints dans une certaine douleur, la préparation manquant un peu...



I am amazed how much I am liking Thailand! I have to say it was the only country on our route that I wasn't that bothered about visiting but it has been a very positive surprise! People here are so friendly, everybody smiles at us and waves and the kids here are just great!
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Nous ferons une halte de deux jours à Thaton. Tôt au matin, nous accompagnons 3 enfants se rendant à l’école pour visiter un petit village dans les montagnes, à la frontière avec la Birmanie. Un rapide petit tour des lieux nous permet de découvrir la vie du village. Quelques groupes d’adultes s adonnent a des jeux de lancé de pièces, pendant que le coiffeur rase la barbe d’un villageois dans son jardin... Les enfants, intimidés dans un premier temps par l’appareil photo, se laissent rapidement prendre au jeu, éclatant de rire en voyant leur portrait a l’écran.

We have spent two nights in Thanton, a small town with a few tourists who all just stop over to take a boat to Chiang Rai, a very touristy city in the north. We liked the place at once and decided to spend some time here. We found a lovely little hotel, a great place for food (obviously no English spoken) where we ate three times and met plenty of people. We spent a day trekking in the moutains, visiting a local small village and some temples. On the way to the village we got some company, a small group of children decided to join us, chattting happily in Thai until we reached our destiantion. Once arrived in the village, we had a great laugh with the children there, taking photographs of them and teaching them how to use a camera.



 

 



















Notre itinéraire se rapproche alors petit à petit du Laos. A Chiang Saen, toute la vie de la ville s’étend le long du Mékong, frontière physique avec le Laos. Au marché, chaque commerçant est fier de montrer ses plus gros poissons, pendant que les anguilles et autres serpents gigotent encore dans les bassines. Le soir tombé, c’est sur les berges du fleuve que s’installent tous les marchands ambulants, proposant de nombreux plats à base de poissons. Plusieurs d’entre eux terminent la soirée par un lâché de lanterne volante, symbole de chance.

Nous traverserons la frontière en bateau quelques jours plus tard à Chiang Khong, pour rejoindre Houaxay, point de départ du périple dans les montagnes du nord du Laos.

Since Thanton we had some hard but also rewarding biking days in the mountains. Some of the climbs were very steep and the temperatures got very hot. When we got to 39 degrees (it felt like 50!) and we had a climb of 18 % in front of us we actually gave up and pushed the bikes for a while. Thank god that not all of the days are like that! But once we made it to the top we got some amazing views over the landscape and enjoyed the well deserved downhill ride!

A few days ago we arrived in Chiang Saen and finally saw the Mekong! We could already feel the fresh breeze of air of the river some km away and couldn't wait to finally get there. In the evning we got to enjoy a nice cold beer sitting at one of the stalls along the river, watching some locals lighting paper lamps which flew into nightsky.

We are currently in Chiang Khong and tonight is going to be our last night in Thailand. Tomorrow we will cross the Mekong for some new adventures in Laos. We are currently trying to figure out the route, as we think we might want to spend some more time in the mountains (this trip was alwazs gonna be a bit of a challenge, so why not push it a bit further??) in the north of Laos before entering the south with its vast planes of rice fields. We will keep you updated...