Mae Sot II: The Road to Bangkok (3/3)

coffee in the mountains

We left Mae Sot after breakfast, just as the 8:00am national anthem was playing on the radio. After an hour and a half or so of driving we stopped at a scenic rest area up in the mountains for a morning coffee. We had stopped there before last year, and I had been looking forward to it again because the view there is incredible.

scenic reststop

We had been in a hurry on our drive to Mae Sot since we needed to visit the school and clinic, but we were in no particular rush to get back to Bangkok. It wasn't a holiday, so the traffic back into town wasn't bad. This afforded us time to make several stops along the way. After finishing our coffee we parked just down the road to walk through the Hill Tribe Market. The vendors were selling all sorts of fruits and vegetables, but it seemed that the big crop right now is young bamboo.

Hill Tribe Market

A short while later, we stopped again to rest at Phra Ruang Hot Springs. The resort there would be a nice place to spend a night or two during a drive across Thailand. It was quiet there that Sunday afternoon, but there were a few families soaking in the hot water or paddling boats across the pond.

the hot springs

There was an old farang guy there who caught our eye as he looked so out of place. Geoffrey went over to talk to him; the farangs in Thailand seem to gravitate towards one another. The man didn't really seem to understand what Geoffrey was saying, but he managed to explain to us that he was from Berlin. I got the chance to practice my German and had a short conversation with him that went something like this:

(In German)

-"I studied German at university, but it's not so good."

-"Don't worry, I can understand you. You live in Bangkok?"

-"Yes, we are English teachers."

At which point Geoffrey (who doesn't speak a word of German but heard me say "Englisch") cut me off to explain that in fact only he was English and I was from America.

Anyway, it's nice to be able to use my German once in a while, even for just some simple smalltalk.

near the hot springs

Back on the road we entered into Khampeng Phet Province. We didn't have the time to stop there, but we drove past the Khampheng Phet Historical Park. This protected area is home to ruins from the Sukothai period (the kingdom that ruled Thailand before the Ayutthaya Period).

Khampeng Phet Historical Park

Of course we couldn't make this drive without stopping near Khao No in Nakhon Sawan to visit Geoffrey's little "friends."

For just a few baht we purchased small bags of peanuts to feed to the monkeys. When they see someone with food they come running, but as soon as the bag is empty they just disappear. They are greedy little guys, and really funny to watch. Some of the females had tiny babies that they carried around their necks. The baby monkeys were really cute, but I wasn't able to get a picture of any.

The rest of the drive passed quickly. We stopped for lunch just outside of Ayutthaya, and Geoffrey had dropped me of at my apartment by 4:00. I had to do a few loads of laundry before work. I was exhausted on Monday, but luckily this week is not a hard week. We are preparing for our final exams now. 

Besides getting to help out the refugees I'm happy to have gotten the chance to get out of Bangkok for a few day and to see some new things in Thailand. I haven't really gotten to travel around Thailand much since the new school year started. The 14+ hour round-trip is a hard journey to make on a normal weekend, but I feel really good about it. At least the weather was nice and nobody got Dengue Fever! I call that a success.

Part 1/3: Skyblue

Part 2/3: Exploring the Northwest