1058 Got up about 10 after snoozing on 930 alarm. No spider attacks during night. Packed, checked out, have come to hotel next door where I have a bungalow for 400/night - nowhere near as plush as next door but still. Not optimistic wifi will work in room but at least it's cheap. Receptionist didn't think anywhere in the new town does bike rental but sort of pointed out Cycling Sukthothai, who I think just do a super-pricey organised ride but I may see if they have premises. The closest the guide book comes is mentioning free rental at a rather expensive (1200/night) guest house, so I may check them out and see if they'll rent to non-guests. I might also look at map and see if there's any mileage (no pun intended) in going out to Old Sukhothai and renting a bike there to cycle to Wat Tsomething.
1318 At Pai Sukhothai restaurant, next to Chopper Bar and virtually next to hotel. Starving.
The cycle trip isn't happening. Walked over to J&J on offchance they had bikes to rent, didn't speak to anyone but no evidence. Trekked over to north of town to the pricey hotel which guide book said does free bike rental. Found it, receptionist very nice but said I should get the bus as the bikes were too old to go a long way. She gave me a map showing some place 'where I could cycle' on east bank of river south of bridge, ie virtually back at hotel. Walked round there but saw nothing. Basically today is going to be a lazy sort of day. The hotel wifi doesn't work on my phone in reception either, both there and in my room I get a strongish signal and it connects but no data will flow. This is a bit of a pisser, of course. Maybe it was a transient glitch and will work when I get back, or will work on laptop. Failing that may go loiter in (could just go near, to send e-mail, but to do other stuff not) Poo restaurant and use their wifi, maybe even take laptop down though rather not. If wifi works I may just hang around my room, I can sort out where I'm going tomorrow and then maybe do a bit of study. I was not desperate to see Wat Tsomething and its sculpture park in and of itself, maybe another time, the ride+park was the thing. Did occur to me as I was trekking over to that hotel I could go out to the old town and cycle out to the west zone, but while half appealing it also felt like a huge effort. Even then it was getting a bit late and I wanted to see if Wat Twhasit was a possibility, and now it is a bit late and I'm not doing it and not being too upset about it. ;-)
New guest house has rabbit pens down long narrow garden with bungalows off it. It also has cats, oddly enough the rabbit pens seem to be open at the top yet the cats seem not to go in.
1339 Food (paenaeng (sp) chicken curry with rice and a fresh watermelon juice, the latter a bit pulpy but that's all to the good) good but portion a bit small. It's cheap(ish) as are all these tourist-oriented places on this little strip but why can't they up the portion size. I think I will get the bill and then maybe go have a second lunch at Poo restaurant. Lardy but meh.
1605 Did go to Poo, stuck on far too long after surfing web on phone. [To be fair they made no attempt to throw me out, just me and and oldish woman doing the same in there.] Stayed til about 1530, been back at hotel lying on bed reading since then. Feel tiny bit guilty at wasting today though not much. Quite concerned about what to do tomorrow and having to do it, postponing thinking about it right now but obviously can't keep doing that.
1927 In room, popped out an hour or two ago for some crisps and wasabi peanuts. That loudspeaker voice probably coming from other side of bridge is on again tonight. It's a bit dingy in here and internet only works intermittently when I get signal from the place next door where I was the last two nights. Not planned tomorrow yet. This is all a bit grim, I must say. However, it's not as if I'm missing out on anything massively exciting if I were to go out and I do need to plan (for all the fact I'm not doing it yet) and this will at least be an alcohol-free day.
2026 OK, have had a fiddle around with the guide book. I think I am going to go on to Mae Sot on the Burmese border (need to be careful with insect repellent then, I guess). It is a 2.5-3h bus trip from here and plenty of them, I think. I need to double check F&CO says nothing about it (pretty sure tis OK) and try to book accommodation; am charging laptop up and will try the restaurant/common area out front, but frankly don't expect it to work since I couldn't get any data through on my phone out there. There is a single shared PC which I may be able to get onto.
From Mae Sot you can go on to Umphang and do lots of trekking if you're fit and not worried about anything. I just might do the 4h songthaew trip there, stay the night and come back, although the guide book makes the trip sound somewhat stressful. You can also hire a car and driver for a three day round trip to Umphang for 5000 THB, according to guide book. I doubt I'd do that, at least solo, but I guess I can see how things look when I get there.
I am due to check in in Chiang Mai on Friday. So we have:
- Saturday (tomorrow) - go to Mae Sot
- Sunday - do what limited tourism is on offer there (no pressure) and/or look into onward travel to Umphang
- Monday - trip out to Umphang, stay the night
- Tuesday - trip back to Mae Sot, stay the night
- Wednesday - 7-8h bus trip to Chiang Mai, ie arriving two days too early
So I have a couple of days in hand to allow for change of plan or problems. I am not saying I will go on to Umphang, it depends heavily on how I feel when I get to Mae Sot and how fucking extreme it seems. (The guide book says the place sees few independent travellers and communication may be a problem. But then apparently the place is also a major trekking centre and my superficial perusal suggests getting to Umphang is not part of the trek, so surely loads of people go there. As I say, have to see how the land lies when I get to Mae Sot, and hopefully when I also have whatever limited advice the internet can provide. If you can book accommodation in advance I'm prepared to wing it on the language, I can take enough peanuts with me to last 24h. ;-) ) But the above shows that I could do it, and so barring big accommodation or transport problems, Mae Sot it is.
I think there is a big book of bus timetables in reception, I noticed it when checking in, so that may be worth consulting.
Very strongly disinclined to trekking. I can't fucking swim, so whitewater rafting seems inadvisable even if I were allowed to do it. I don't fancy camping either. Maybe I'm making excuses, but I can't help thinking that sort of thing would be all very well if you came on holiday specifically to do it with all your gear, but here I am equipped for a general through-civilisation-for-two-months kind of jaunt. If I lose my passport in a river (or it gets soaked) or fuck knows what, it seems a bigger deal than someone on a two week holiday. This probably is me making excuses, but there you go. Apart from a 'hmm, every other fucker seems able to do it without worrying about it' feeling on my part, I can't say I'm actually desperate to do it anyway. The typical trek is apparently three days which would probably be a little tight with my Chiang Mai plans anyway, though of course had I been particularly keen I could have made sure I got to the trekking parts earlier than I will be doing.
Oh, about that 4h songthaew trip Mae Sot-Umphang. Guide book says the views are spectacular from the road, then it says you should dose up on preventive medicine if you suffer from car sickness as the thing gets so full of people and produce you can't distract yourself by looking out of the window. Fuck knows.
(Also, do I suffer from car sickness? I don't think so. But if I can't see where I'm going, maybe I do. Mind you, I can read on buses, I think, so maybe I don't. Not a clue.)
(The guide book calls it Burma, I think; certainly it uses lots of words beginning Burm- for adjectives etc. Not Myanmar.)
2140 The laptop has connected to next door's wifi and it is working (which is more than it did there yesterday), so I have avoided need to take it out to restaurant. Yes yes, there is a slim chance I might get some social contact out of going there, but while the somewhat grim self-imposed isolation of tonight is a little grating, I'm not that desperate, especially with going on tomorrow.) On the other hand, I could still do with a look at that bus timetable, although in reality I don't think there's much doubt about a reasonably frequent service. I might just pop over to reception sans laptop and have a look.
(I do think there is some possibility of a diverting Saturday night in a bar in Mae Sot, though who knows? It's late enough now that I am no longer massively tempted by the prospect of going out for a beer tonight.)
Oh, hostelworld doesn't have Mae Sot at all. booking.com has a few places, one or two of which are tolerably central, but I am going to wing it - if all goes to plan I should be there maybe 2-3pm at the latest - and try turning up at one of the places mentioned in guide book. booking.com shows fair degree of availability of the places it has, so I think the chances of me being completely stuck without a bed are slim, and I suppose I could probably also get a bus back to Phitsanulok (if push really came to shove) or here.
2151 A few people hanging around in reception but screw 'em. (I am not actually sure they were speaking English either, though didn't pay that much attention.) There are indeed quite a few buses, the best for my purposes would probably be 1115 (somewhat annoyingly the next after that is 1245). That would get me in about 1415 so not too late in the day, and it doesn't require too epically early a start. There are always tuk tuk drivers hanging around outside the hotel so although I wouldn't like to say I'd get a good deal I can probably take one of those to the terminal. I don't know if buying a ticket will be an epic challenge or if in fact I just pay on the bus. Apparently it's THB157.
I could possibly try to get there on the songthaew which goes to the new city, but unless I am up mega-early that might not be smart - I was lucky before that there was always one at the stop waiting, but I don't want to be stuck there half an hour before the bus turns up just to then find out he won't take me there. And if I am up mega-early I'd probably be as well to use the time getting an earlier bus and having more time for sorting out accommodation and then sightseeing in Mae Sot. Perhaps I will be relatively strong and at least try to bargain the tuk tuk chap down to 100 if he starts above that. I always hate bargaining with drivers as I feel they might drive me to the middle of nowhere and renegotiate the fare ;-) but I guess that isn't likely, plus I do actually know the exact route to the bus terminal having walked it the other day. I don't intend to walk it tomorrow if it can be helped, I don't want to work up a sweat and then stink/be uncomfortable on the bus, especially when I don't have pre-booked accommodation.
Am feeling a touch lonely but it's far from clear there's anything I could do about it, and undeniably the self-imposed isolation of tonight and the uncertainty of having to travel tomorrow make it worse. (I mean, I was on my own in the bars the last few nights, but still sort of not as completely on my own as I am here in the room now. I think lack of diverting facilities like (reliable) internet don't help.)
I guess in a super ideal world I'd be getting up about 9 tomorrow, to allow time for post-awakening toilet trips and lots of contingency time to get the 1115 for sure and just maybe the 1015. I might try that. I think getting up at 930 would probably be OK and any later would be pushing it for the 1115.
2349 Repacked entire bag on thinking I'd lost my noise-cancelling headphones; I hadn't. Didn't get as panicky as when I think I've lost my phone when out and about, not sure why - maybe because I just didn't believe I really had lost them (I remembered moving them out of daypack in hotel next door prior to taking it to old city), maybe because I was 'at home', maybe because they're more easily replaceable even if more expensive (because Desire Zs require tedious ebaying).
Had shave. Am reminded I need to get my head shaved; maybe Mae Sot will have somewhere if I remember, failing that surely in Chiang Mai. Nails also getting a bit long; I may have to attack them with my nail file, but not tonight. I will buy some nail scissors (clippers if I must, and I suspect it would come to that) if I have to, but not entirely sure where I would get them. Maybe 7-Eleven sells that sort of thing, I just haven't been looking.
0002 There's a small circular rug in front of the bathroom door. I keep thinking there's a Roomba down there.
0036 Moving towards bed. Uploaded a few photos but didn't finish the set.
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