Hitch-hiking to Bangkok

After a good night in the "Smile Hotel" we just relaxed, surfed in the internet, worked on Thaischland. We have a Thaischland-Facebook-Page now.

After having a good lunch, we started to hitch-hike. And the second car (pick-up) stopped and took us from Den Chai (14:50) to Uttaradit (15:20).






These photos were made sitting on the pickup, the 48 kilometers from Den Chai to Uttaradit.



We look a bit sleepy. That's because the sun was so hot at that time.

The Thai people are always smiling when they see you on back of a pickup.






To all the Thais: 
NO, we actually DON'T enjoy it to lay in the sun for too long and to get brown.

After arriving in Uttaradit, we decided to go further to Phitsanulok (พิษณุโลก).

A family took us 30 kms from Uttaradit along the highway with the destination Phitsanulok.  There we left the car and got some free dinner.









The little girl on the photo is 5 years old and was so, so cute.

I taught her some English. She had a lot of fun taking pictures with me.

Her parents told us, some friends would come to take us to Phitsanulok. And after 45 minutes, we in fact took all our backpacking stuff into a truck and drove with a 40 year old Thai (who is the uncle of that little girl on the photo) to the South. He drives his truck from North to South and back again every day. After we heard that he would not just drive to Phitsanulok, but even to Bangkok, we decided spontaneously to join him going to Bangkok. Actually, we wanted to go to Sukhothai, but we can also do this in 10 days, before Songkran, when we will travel back to the North.
We had to leave the truckdriver 150 kms North of Bangkok, where we took a bus, that drove us into the city. There we took a taxi to go to our Guest House near Khao San Road.

SORRY, lost in Chiang Mai... :)

สวัสดีทุกคนนะครับ
Hello and welcome again to THAISCHLAND.
This blog is a travel diary, but we weren't travelling the last two weeks. Just enjoying our life in Chiang Mai.
But we left the big rose of North Thailand, today, at 10:30.
We love to hitch-hike, so our Thai friend sent us to the highway in Chiang Mai, which leads to the next city in the south -> Lamphun (ลำพูน) 24 km
It's really useful to start at a gas station, because the people rather take you, when they drive
1. slowly (because just leaving the gas station)
2. more than just some kilometers (going to another city)

And in fact, the second car that left the gas station, stopped for us. In the car was a 48 years old man, living 40 kilometers outside from Chiang Mai. He was on his way to work in Lamphun as an electrician. But surely, he had 2 hours time to drive us to a restaurant 10 kilometers from Lamphun, where he invited us to have breakfast/lunch together. His name is Po (ปอ), and he was so friendly to us. He told us that it was his first time to go out and talk to westerners (ฝรั่ง) who could speak Thai so well.
After eating, playing a game, watching him finishing his second bottle beer, donating for a temple and finally taking a video with him,
(wait some days for the video)
he took us to the next gas station in Mae Taa (เเม่ทา). -12:45
He also invited us to sleep at his home, but we told him that we would like to arrive at Sukhothai (สุโขทัย) today. So we will sleep at his home when we'll come back at Songkran (13.-15. April), the water festival which is celebrated all over Thailand.

13:00 Those two young men (brothers) - driving in a VW (VolksWagen - German car) - were on their way from Lamphun to Nan (น่าน). They took us to Den Chai (เด่นชัย). There, we wanted to turn right to go to Uttaradit (อุตรดิตถ์). After this long ride (140 +/- 10 km) we were very, very tired because the car was so hot inside. So we just went to a restaurant and had lunch at 15:30. After chilling out for two hours, we tried to get a a car to go to Uttaradit, but no one wanted to stop to take us there. That's because it was just getting dark. And that's not the best time for hitch-hiking. We also didn't have a good place, so we just took a hotel here in Den Chai.

Awesome Chiang Mai

The last night was very funny. Georg and me, we both love to dance to party music in clubs. We met some cool Thai guys (The club was full of Thais, while there are also other clubs in Chiang Mai that are just full of westerners). It sucks to go in clubs with westerners. When we go partying, we rather like to see smiling faces than sad ones. And the Thais are smiling all the time.

Warm up for Partying

At the morning we went to the Chiang Mai university, our Thai friend works there and so he took us to see his office. The chemistry faculty turned out to be a very beautiful place which is located near the Chiang Mai Zoo.
So we decided to take an interview with a student. Sorry that at that time it was a bit too loud to understand everything. We interviewed an 24 years old physics student from the university. We surely asked him before if it would be okay for him, that we link the video on our blog, so that he will be seen on internet. We do it like this with everyone.

Thaischland 3 -Talking to Thais in Chiang Mai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy5CxoFF9h8&feature=youtu.be

Before going home, all of us enjoyed a nice and cheap 2 hours longing Thai Massage near the university. It felt like heaven (on earth), especially because I only slept for 2 hours the last night.

Then we went to the market and bought some fruits, vegetables and some other food for cooking together with our two Thai friends, where we were sleeping the last 2 nights (and where we will be sleeping the next night). We had boiled rice (surely, you will never ever find a nice dinner without any rice), spicy Curry made out of many fruits and vegetables, a soup made out of tofu, soy beans, mushrooms, tomatos, onions, garlic, lemon, soy milk and some leaves that the thai people always use for cooking. Our Thai friend hast a great garden, where he just picked them. He has several trees, for example:
Mango, Jackfruit, Banana...
He has as well many vegetables, because he loves to plant them and to take care of them.
So his garden is perfect for cooking.

The dinner was absolutely amazing. For dessert, we ate green sticky rice (putting some leaves from his garden into the mixer and then cooking the rice in this sort of green soup) with sweet mango pieces on top of it.
After dinner, we relaxed one hour and then went to "Warm up", a club in Chiang Mai to party together. It was very good, nice singers and good mood. We made friends with some young Thai men, it was very funny. They also danced a bit; and that is rarely seen in Thailand. That is one thing, that Georg and me really miss here because in German clubs, almost everyone goes there to have fun by dancing (as well to have fun by doing other things, but I don't want to get deeper in this topic now..).

วันสนุกๆ ที่เชียงใหม่ - 2nd day

สวัดดีทุกคนนะครับ สบายดีไหม    Hello to everyone! Are you guys fine?
หวังว่าดังนั้น                                  Hope so !!!

วันนี้ไปเทียวกับเพือนไทย     Today we went to many nice places in Chiang Mai ...
ไปที่
 1. restaurant called "ขนมแส้น - Kanom Saen" with our 2 Thai (girl)friends (เข้าใจไหม) here in Chiang Mai  to  eat some sticky rice, vegetables, 
papaya salad (Som Dtum / ส้มตำ ), mushrooms, and some animals (not for me, 'cause I am vegetarian - ชื่อเล่น เจดี).
We love to eat here in Thailand; firstly because you can eat with your fingers (especially the sticky rice), secondly because the food is very delicious, thirdly because there is a large amout of fruits and vegetables, that you will never find in countries like Germany due to the nature. Wikipedia says:

"Germany's climate is temperate and marine, with cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers and in the south occasional warm föhn wind. The greater part of Germany lies in the cool/temperate climatic zone in which humid westerly winds predominate. In the northwest and the north, the climate is extremely oceanic and rain falls all the year round. Winters there are relatively mild and summers comparatively cool. In the east, the climate shows clear continental features; winters can be very cold for long periods, and summers can become very warm. Dry periods are often recorded.
In the centre and the south, there is a transitional climate which may be predominantly oceanic or continental, according to the general weather situation. Winters are mild and summers tend to be cool, though maximum temperatures can exceed 30 °C (86 °F) for several days in a row during heat waves. The warmest regions of Germany can be found in the south-west (see rhine rift, German Wine Route and Palatinate). Here summers can be hot with a high number of days exceeding 30 °C (86 °F). Sometimes, minimum temperatures don't drop under 20 °C (68 °F), which is relatively rare in other regions."

COORDINATES: 55°N  -  47° N

BUT THAILAND



Northernmost point: Myanmar border, Mae Sai District, Chiang Rai Province, at 20°28′N 99°57′E
Southernmost point: Malaysian border, Betong District, Yala Province, at 5°37′N 101°8′E
(Easternmost point: Laos border, Khong Chiam District, Ubon Ratchathani Province, at 15°38′N 105°38′E
Westernmost point: Myanmar border, Mae Sariang District, Mae Hong Son Province, at 18°34′N 97°21′E)


Like we already explained (but in German) in our first video (Lost in Chiang Mai?), Thai people use the word  ขนม (Kanom) for every sort of biscuit, cookie, tart, sweetness but as well for snacks like crisps. If you want to specify the food, you have to say: ขนมหวาน
(Kanom waan(sweet)) - just as an example. Or you just add the name of the ขนม.

Our Thai friend that I met in Chiang Rai after sinnging a song

 2. museum (พิพิธภัณฑ์ - ไม่ใช่ Peter Pan) called "Art in Paradise" - very, very funny and interesting. You can spend the whole day there full of enjoyment. For only 180 Baht for Thai adults (For the westerners - ฝรั่ง - it's always twice of the price).









We were there just for 3 hours (she had to go to work then), so that we couldn't take a picture of every painting. But nevertheless, it was amazing.

 

Everyone who wants to spend some days in Chiang Mai should go to that place because it's absolutely ... wait for it.. ..... .....  ...LEGENDARY!!!! It's not like usual museums, it's more like a fun park. Everyone is taking pictures. It seems like you are IN them, cause it's 3D.


 3. Central festival: An amazing mall close to our place, we grabbed something to eat, went to the arcade and randomly decided to dye our hair (but it was too expensive). Alard bought a new video camcorder and a tripod. They also got a stadium for ice skating, we might go there in the next days. 

 4.Hair dresser: Alard got a new haircut (we have some video footage). Then we spent the late evening, singing German songs with our Thai friends (one of them has been to Germany for one year, 5 years ago, but still can speak German quite good) and enjoying listening to stories from our past.










Here is the 2nd video. Hope you will enjoy it  

Thaischland 2 - Aaaaahhh... Art in Paradise!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMzWsCngua8&feature=youtu.be

Good night to everyone. See you later, alligator(s).

Gute Nacht natürlich auch an die deutschen Freunde der Sonne - oder sollte ich eher sagen - an die deutschen Freunde des Regens und der Kälte???
So, jetzt ist aber wirklich Schluss im Kabuff !!!
Schon 2:40 Uhr... Werden um 9 Uhr geweckt, dann geht's zum Arbeitsplatz unseres Kumpels, bei dem wir hier gerade wohnen.

ฝันดีนะ

Lost in Chiang Mai?

Kanom (Georg) and me (Alard) are lying on one of the most comfortable beds ever right now here in 

Chiang Mai. (compared to our hard "beds" at our home in Chiang Rai)

We try to upload one video for each day now so that you're not getting bored of reading and reading.

You will find the videos on youtube.

Todays video: "Lost in Chiang Mai?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kcSM-WsTpo

After the taxi driver took us to an unknown place in Chiang Mai, we just went into the shop that was right in front of us. There we put our 8 bags (จริงๆ) + our backpack on the flour and sat down on the couch of the this shop, that wasn't a shop but a place for Thai adults to learn English. We asked ourselves how German people would react to such an action, entering into a school, sitting down on the couch and asking the woman from the reception desk where we are and how we could get to Aoi Garden Home, a hotel in the city, where we already went last october. 

So she called a Tuk-Tuk for us, whose driver took us to the hotel, where I ate some French Fries, beans, mushrooms, toasts with jam and drank an orange juice and 2 cups of tea for just 3 €. As well, you always have Free-Wifi at any hotel or restaurant or bar, so that we just established this blog.

After that we called our connections here in Chiang Mai, for me it's a young woman that I met at a bar in Chiang Rai. She invited me to come to Chiang Mai to have lunch and dinner together and to show me some nice places here.

For Georg it's a man who he just met at an internet-platform, where they already wrote to each other. He invited him to sleep at his house, when we would come to Chiang Mai.

So we're here now, on one of the nicest beds since months. Before, he invited us to have dinner with him and his cousin.

A friend of my connection took us from the hotel to the house of another friend, where we watched "Hangover" in Thai, until Georg's connection took us to have dinner.

นอนหลับฝันดีนะครับ

และขอโทษเพื่อวันนี้ไม่มีคำภาษาไทย

About this blog

This blog is supposed to be some kind of awesome travel diary, including texts, thoughts, summaries, poems, photos and video footage.
This morning we started travelling. The next weeks, we are going to "explore" Thailand from north to south.
Starting at 10:30 we took a ride to the city. (We live near Chiang Rai, which is one of the biggest cities of North Thailand). Although we planned to hitch-hike to  Chiang Mai, we spontaneously thought we could go by taxi. We ended up spending  2000 Baht for a 250 km taxi ride, but it was totally worth it. Now we are sitting in our favorite hostel in the city, eating lunch and writing this blog for fun.
For everyone who didn't realize that; "Thaischland" is a mix of Thailand and Deutschland (Germany).
To be continued.......