We recently went on a “Discover
Thailand” excursion with Overseas Adventure Travels (OAT). Over 15 days we
traveled from Bangkok to Chiang Rai and towns in between like Kanchanaburi and
Nakron Sawan and Sukhothai, were endearing stopovers. We saw much of Thailand,
but we were on the road a lot.
The direct route from
Bangkok to Chiang Rai is about 500 miles, but we also took a lot of side trips.
So doing a quick estimate using google maps and putting in all our
destinations, I figured we drove just under 1,000 miles.
What does this mean?
Lots of pee breaks.
YOU CAN GET THERE FROM
HERE
Though we were on the
road a lot, OAT thankfully broke up the days with plenty of stops at the
seemingly ubiquitous PTT stations located throughout Thailand.
PTT is the largest
gasoline franchise in the country, with over 2,100 stations, but pee stops at a
PTT are so much more. They were a joy to stop at and not just because the
bathrooms were sparkling. Every PTT was like a miniature mall with shops and
restaurants, some brand names like Pizza Hut and some local, and they varied
from station to station. There were also little kiosks selling street food. All
of it was at a very reasonable cost.
Cafe Amazon at a PTT station
There were two constants
at every PTT. There was always a 7-Eleven convenience store (there are over
4,000 of the franchises throughout Thailand. And, there was always a chance to
get great inexpensive coffee at an Amazon Coffee Shop. Amazon Coffee is owned
by PTT.
Now even though at each
stop our trip leader, Sek, would give us 10 minutes for the stop we would
invariably linger over coffee or Sek would get excited about the morsels
prepared at different kiosks. He would engage with the owners, relate their
personal stories to us and then get us to help make whatever it was they were
making, like rice ball confections. Everything was a learning experience for us
and always the proprietors were pleasant and pleased that we stopped by.
Making something we ate
To stop at a PTT
station in Thailand can even be described as pleasant. Some had whimsical
decorative statues and sometimes there were also small, well-attended parks with
koi ponds and bridges. There was even a small motel on the premises of one
station. It’s not a bad place to stop when you need to go.
And, have I
mentioned the bathrooms are sparkling?
OH, THE PLACES YOU’LL
GO
Now just to be clear
OAT didn’t just have us stop at PTT convenience centers to get from here to
there. Here’s a quick list of things we stopped for between stopping for PTT
stations on our way to our next destination. Because, you know it’s not just
the destination but the journey itself.
The Floating Market of Damnoen
Saduak:
overlooking the floating market
Touted as a must-see
experience when visiting Bangkok, Thailand, just under 60 miles away from the
city. The vendors display their fruits and vegetables while sitting in long boats.
It’s a bit touristy, with visitors crowded on similar boats to take a rush hour
cha-cha on the water, but our trip leader delighted in educating us to the
various foods available. We bought some palm sugar for home, but sampled everything
from jack fruit to apple bananas, to pomelo. Pomelo is native to southeast Asia
and is like a grapefruit, but not as tart.
The market was mid-way
between Bangkok and Kanchanaburi, where the “Bridge Over the River Kwai” is located
and where we stopped for lunch.
Harvesting Water Chestnuts
at Wang Yang District in Suphan Buri:
We visited a farm that
grows water chestnuts and were invited to help. Donning waders and long gloves I
was tasked to dig up the mud with my toes and toss clumps of it into a pile so
others could separate the chestnuts.
OOPS
I fell in the mud, as
did another of our group. I’m tall, my center of gravity was a lot higher than
the short Thai woman who was showing me what to do, so that’s my story and I’m
sticking to it.
They hosed us down, fed
us lunch and even washed our clothes.
Visiting
a Lotus Farm in Sawankhalok:
The age-old question is
who is smarter; the guy with a PhD or someone who learns how to do things from
YouTube? We had a very informative stop at the Pirachat Lotus Farm in
Sawanholok.
The owner was running a parking lot in Bangkok and decided to go
for the country life, sort of like Green Acres and started this Lotus farm. The
Lotus flower is revered in Buddhism and his cottage industry is lucrative and
he learned how to tend to these water flowers from YouTube videos.
Turns out the stems are
tasty.
The Lotus Farm
An overnight stop
Nakhon Sawan:
OAT had added this
overnight stop in Nakhon Sawan when driving straight through to Chiang Mai, the
next destination in our “Discover Thailand” trip proved to be too arduous. The name
translates to “Heavenly City”, but there are no tourist attractions in Nakhon Sawan.
Yet, the city was a great stop because after we checked into our hotel for the
night, we were driven over to Sawan Park.
There, we joined countless Thais running
and exercising and enjoying the cooler night air. Janet and several others in
our group danced to music (something we had experienced in Hanoi last year) and
we watched guys playing Sepak Takraw, kick volleyball, and got beaten badly by
a kid we challenged to a game of bocci ball.
Visited a Buddha
sculptor in Phitsanulok:
To visit the “factory” in
Phitsanulok is free. We got a quick introduction to the process of creating
molds and casting Buddha statues, and saw various statues in the workshop in
varying degrees of completion.
Turns out representations
of Buddha can take many forms and you can tell where the statue was made by
certain features. In the area of Phitsanulok Buddha is depicted with a flaming
halo. We were able to buy a small version of Buddha for our “Buddha table” at
home.
Chatted with a monk at Wat
Suan Dok:
Before departing Chiang
Mai, a lively town that brimmed with lots of western tourists, we stopped at
Wat Suan Dok, a Buddhist temple. We walked the grounds, but before we left OAT had
arranged for us a “Monk chat”.
Monk chat
The monk, who wore sunglasses indoors and called
everyone “dear” as he lectured us about Buddhism, wrote out informative
snippets about this peaceful way of life on a whiteboard. He then opened it up
to questions and Janet elbowed me hard in the ribs when I tried to ask about
the sunglasses.
Wat Suan Dok
All kidding aside it
was yet another great OAT stop.
Visited the Kayan tribe
and the Long Neck Village:
The Kayan people are a
hill tribe that has have fled persecution in Myanmar (Burma) and are not Thai
citizens. As refugees they are poor and rely on tourism. They are called Long Neck
because the women wear rings around their neck to give an elongated appearance
and it is this “fashion statement” that brings the tourism dollars they need.
Before we boarded
trucks to take us to the Elephant EcoValley ‘zoo’, where we got to interact with and
bathe elephants, we stopped at one of the Long Neck villages, although we
really only explored a row of kiosks along a 200-yard stretch of a rough road.
We never got to visit the “village” per se.
It was a bit unnerving
for me, it was like visiting a human zoo. The Kayan (or Karen) women posed for
pictures before their wares with no real expectations of sales, their beautiful
faces stoic their eyes looking through us. The kiosks housed various home-made
and mass-produced trinkets and cloth weavings.
Some of the women
steadied toddlers on their knee, some invited our group to pose for pictures
wearing similar detachable neck rings.
We felt compelled to
purchase something to dispel the notion that these people were being exploited.
It is a popular tourist draw though and after reading about their plight we
thought it was a good stop. As refugees, their freedoms are restricted, and employment,
especially for the women, is prohibited. Every Baht is appreciated and a return
to Myanmar for them is out of the question.
Here is an informative
video about why one should visit the Kayan.
Visited the Thai Silk Village
in Chiang Mai:
We got an introduction
to sericulture, the process of cultivating and procuring silk from silkworms at the Thai Silk Village. They demonstrated the process that has been going on for thousands of years. Got up close and
personal to some of the critters and watched some of the artisans getting silk
thread from the cocoons and others weaving it. It was then onto the store where
I had to purchase a silk Aloha shirt….of course.
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