April 2, 2016
Chiang Saen - birding at the lake
This morning we setoff for the lake to do some birdwatching, stopping by the morning market on the way to buy some breakfast (pork buns, sticky rice and BBQ chicken wings). The market simply springs up on the road in front of the 7-11 effectively blocking it off. A great one-fingered salute to globalization!
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The lake area about 5kms from town was a great surpise. Calm, quite and very attractive. There are two resorts on the south side of the lake which look barely used. The "Non Hunting Area" offices, which are supposed to control poaching and fishing apparantly aren't very effective but the grounds of the offices provided great access to the lake and surrounding birding areas. We picked up 4 lifers plus good views of many other birds.
We wrapped things up with a ride around town to look at some of the ruins. The main street on the river front had been taken over by a street market during the afternoon, so we bought various bits of food (plus a Beer Chang, of course) and enjoyed our "take-away" supper by the river side. We've really enjoyed Chiang Saen.
Tomorrow we head off for Chiang Khong. We've still got a few days left on out Thailand visa exemption, so if we find a nice, affordable place to stay on the way we will probably split the journey otherwise we will push on to Chiang Khong and make a call as to what to do with the remaining days once we get there.
Today's ride: 20 km (12 miles)
Total: 958 km (595 miles)
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