Koh Lanta

We are now on Koh Lanta, a predominantly Muslim island that is the playground of Swedes and Thai-international hippies. So many Swedes escape their dark winters to Lanta there is even one Swedish school. We arrived on the 18th to stay in Bee Bees Little Village, small resort of individually designed wood and bamboo bungalows in a garden shaded by coconut palms on Klhong Khong beach. We thought we might stay a couple of weeks but were asked to leave after three nights for not eating the over-priced, under-sized meals everyday in the restaurant. An, the owner, was so desperate not to come across as a businessman that he took two lengthy lectures to tell us it wasn’t just about the money, which he needed being peak season, but that our actions showed a lack of feeling for his place and what he had achieved. He didn’t want us to leave straight away but we might wish to find somewhere more suitable for ourselves as he had chosen us from among many and had friends he preferred to rent the bungalow to. We left the same day by moving along the beach to the Green Garden Resort, owned by a very friendly and relaxed local island family. Our bungalow is the same price (600B) for a concrete one that is part of a formal row. It overlooks an open garden with coconut palms that is perfect for viewing the night sky and gives a view of the sea. They have been very friendly and helpful with Kaya, even cooking pumpkin soup to our directions, and there are plenty of other family and tourist children around. They had a Christmas party featuring a jamming local band playing local folk music and reggae covers.

Each night the beach becomes a mini-festival as each resort or bar lights up colourful lanterns, plays music and serves cocktails – best downed at sunset during 100B happy hour.

We should be here for a few more days or a couple more weeks and are each taking turns to go on a snorkelling trip to nearby uninhabited islands of pristine coral before the New Year.

Last Days in the North

After My Dream we returned to Chiang Rai and Chian House for a few days before moving on to Chiang Mai then flying south to Krabi. Gone were our trips to the produce market for food to cook with now we were back in a guesthouse. We wanted to do a few things before leaving the city. Kaya had one last crawl in Wat Phra Singh and play in the park near the big tree with the spirit house graveyard. We needed a few things for Kaya before heading to an island. We knew where to get them in Chiang Rai so it would save us the bother of searching out a supermarket in Krabi. We also went to the Rim Kok for their buffet lunch. We had passed this by on previous visits but planned to treat ourselves to the 140B eat all you can lunch before leaving. We also hoped to see Wolfgang and Na one last time. The lunch manager had promised they could make us 4 or so vegetarian dishes when we did do lunch and we talked to him about it when we bought our lunch vouchers. Lunch is displayed at one end of the dining room on long white-clothed tables, a panoply of dishes, colours and smells arranged by category into salad, soup, Thai salads, hot meals, fruit, dessert and, with its own special place, coconut ice cream with sticky rice. The manager was true to his word with four great dishes. We had a banquet, and being December 11th it felt something like our own office Christmas party! We also said goodbye to Wolfgang but Na was elsewhere with her sister.


Saying goodbye to Wolfgang

Next were a few days in Chiang Mai to see a few more things, buy presents in the Sunday walking market and the Night Bazaar, and have a couple of Thai body and foot massages. We found Chiang Mai almost full when we arrived on Saturday the 12th and scoured a few places before finding the VIP guesthouse, managed by a gorgeous, friendly and helpful Italo-Thai woman, on Thanon Ratchadamneon Soi 1. We had our massages, all decent, and bought presents. I also bought a few shirts for myself after a couple of attempts at the Nigh Bazaar. This involved trying on enough to find some without volumes of saggy material around the shoulders. All stallholders assuring me that the shirts looked great, whatever sail-like shoulders or general sack-like bagginess they possessed. I did buy one shirt for too large for me after a negotiation where I said please don’t lower your price, I’d rather pay you more for a shirt that fits. But he wouldn’t have any of it and eventually lowered it to 160B which I misheard for 150B and we left both feeling hard done-by, me with a shirt I don’t want, him with 50B less than the lower end of the asking price. I also returned to two stalls run by two great not-pushy women and found shirts at each I really wanted and was really happy to buy them from them.

Kaya had a couple of crawls in a nice wat on Thanon Ratchadamneon and we revisited the beautiful wooden courtyard building of the Siam Tea House where I was poisoned by a Thai tea in 2004. Thankfully I survived better with their own grown black tea. I had a couple of beers in a bar with a comedy Thai rock covers band. Smoke on the Water? Must be 10pm! I also did a bit more work for the UK, some of it over lunch in a great vege restaurant called Taste of Heaven. Overall, We didn’t take too much to Chiang Mai second time round as it is a pretty noisy, polluted city with no green spaces easily accessible.

We also met Mr Sumsee, a Laotian Hmong school teacher who we met in 2004. The owner of a guesthouse we stayed in Huay Xai recommended we visited his village after we asked about meeting tribal people. He’s now in Thailand checking out school projects due to a Scandinavian promise of funds and helping his brother visit a hospital!


Saying hello to Mr Sumsee

We flew down to Krabi on the 17th, via a 2+ hour stopover in Bangkok, to return to the Hello MK Guesthouse. It was definitely in sight of better times in 2004 so rather than having a couple of nights there to give us a day to buy stuff for the islands, we legged it around town on the night of the 17th and the following day were on the 11am minivan to Koh Lanta.

My Dream Reviews

I've posted a couple of reviews of the My Dream Guesthouse, near Chiang Rai, Thailand on Travel for Breakfast. One is of the superb guesthouse itself, the other about things to do while staying there including independent walks/treks.

Back in Chiang Rai

We're back in CR after a fantastic week at the My Dream guesthouse in Khaew Waaw Dam, a small Karen tribal village alongside the Mae Kok river and about 25km out of town.

We were looked after so well by the owners, Nan and Polly, and their staff. They live up to the concept of a family guesthouse by totally making us feel welcome as part of their family. They couldn't do more to help us because we were with Kaya - starting right with the free pick-up from Chiang Rai to including free bananas every day for her, dinner brought to our balcony each night, good salt-free meals for Kaya, allowing us access to the kitchen to make meals for her now and again and the chance for her to play with their three-year old daughter. They helped look after her too while we moved our bags out. We thank them greatly for the warmth of their welcome and the thoughtfulness of their service.

We got to know Ati and Serge, a Thai-French couple, and their children Neesha and Amos who live next door. We had met them in Chiang Rai at the start of our stay and Serge reminded us about My Dream. We got to know them well including an invitation to dinner of bamboo curry and sticky rice one evening. Ati is from Isan, north-east Thailand, and learnt hand-weaving from her mother. She collects plants from the jungle to dye cotton from Isan then spins and weaves the cloth into beautiful scarves and bedspreads on a bamboo loom made by her and Serge. They are both wonderful open people and we wish them all good luck in their enterprise to earn a living from her craft.

The guesthouse is right on the bank of the river, a beautiful garden of trees, flowers and lawn overlooking a small beach and surrounded by teak rooms and bungalows. We asked Nan, a tour guide, about tours suitable to go on with kaya and he simply pointed us in the direction of walks instead. Most guides would work out how to earn some money but not him. The food was great, the tranquility tranquil and the walks along dirt roads or mountain trails beautiful. We even revisited the hot springs we went to last year from the Akha Hill House.

If you're in Chiang Rai province and looking for a quiet place to stay in nature we'd recommend My Dream wholeheartedly - http://www.mydreamguesthouse.com/. Nan gets lots of international tour groups revisiting him for the quality of My Dream and his tours yet this effusive man has time for everyone.