November 27, 2016
Boat to Chiang Rai: Why, yes, I'll hire the whole boat
I woke up early this morning. I needed to try to make a phone call and make sure my health insurance was set up for 2017. I'd established that I could make a VOIP call from my phone if the Wi-Fi connection was good. I didn't have Wi-Fi in my room at the Apple Resort, so I went to the restaurant area at around 6am, which was about 4 pm yesterday at home. My call went through, but I had lost track of time and didn't realize it was the weekend. So I'll need to try again in a couple of days.
I went out about 7 to try to find some breakfast. The only place open was in a hotel near the boat landing. It was 169 baht, which seemed outrageous. It would be 150 at my hotel, which opened at 8. I didn't especially want to go back to my place, so I sprang for the expensive breakfast.
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While I was eating, it started raining very hard. I hung out for a little while, and then left when the rain lightened a bit. The woman at the restaurant gave me a plastic bag for my head. She said that in Thailand, you don't let your hair get wet.
I went back to the Apple Resort. The porch on my hut was leaking a lot of water onto my bike, but my room was dry. It stopped raining at about 11, and I checked out and took my bike to the boat landing. The person who had sold me the ticket yesterday, and who had told me confidently that the boat would go, which lead me to making a non-changeable, non-refundable booking in Chiang Rai on-line, approached me and told me that the other passengers had cancelled due to the rain. She didn't know if anyone else would come. The boat needed 4 passengers to go. I waited around, and went to use the toilet. My standards are not especially high, but it was disgusting. So instead I went across to the hotel where I had eaten breakfast. In spite of having their expensive breakfast, they wouldn't let me use their restroom. I was getting pissed off at Tha Ton, and wanted to leave. I waited until about 12:15 and asked if there were any other passengers. Not yet. I said I would go. Initially, the ticket was 400 baht for me plus 200 baht for my bike. The whole boat was 1600 baht, so I paid another 1000. We loaded my bike, and took off quickly. I've been wondering if we really should have waited the few minutes until the scheduled 12:30 departure.
So, I had a private boat ride to Chiang Rai. My bike was in the front of the boat, and was not tied down.
The boat was moving fast, and it was hard to take pictures. The ones to the front always included my bike.
The views along the river were interesting, with a lot of farm land. It was cultivated right up the steep hills. There were banana trees, and other crops I couldn't identify.
There were fishermen on and in the water.
The river went past an elephant training center, and I hoped to see elephants in the river. I caught a glimpse of several in some buildings up the river bank, but quite far away.
We also went past some forest in a national park.
We arrived in Chiang Rai much earlier than I expected. The trip was supposed to take 3 to 4 hours, and it took 2 hours and 10 minutes. We didn't stop at all, although the description says there is a stop with a toilet break. The driver left me on a sandy bank of the river, and pointed and said town was that way. There was no boat landing or ticket office or anything to make it look like an official drop off spot. There were some other boats on the other side of the river, so maybe that was the official landing. With the help of my GPS I found my way into town, and found the guesthouse I had booked.
Right after I checked in I called Kenika, a woman I had met in the meditation retreat. We made plans to meet later. I found a nearby restaurant and had some fried rice, went back to the guesthouse and chatted with an American and a Canadian in the lobby. They are teachers at an international school in Bangkok, and had been up for the weekend riding motorbikes around Chiang Rai.
Then Kenika arrived, and we drove back to her home, really just a few minutes away. I met her son and the American exchange student she is hosting. Eventually her husband arrived. He looks after his mother full time. Kenika explained that it is an unusual arrangement, but she works full time at Thai Airways, and can't look after grandma. We talked about my trip, and they called a guesthouse owner they know in Chiang Khong. So I'm expected there in several days. It was a nice evening, and I've been told to think of them as family, and that I should call if anything comes up.
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