The Reluctant Tour Guide - Part 3

The next morning saw them all depart while I went down to the Carrefour supermarket in a tuktuk to get some bread to take back to Chiang Rai. I had decided not to go with the others, I’d seen elephants work and perform before and didn’t doubt they enjoyed it as much as the audience. However I had considerable doubts as to the amount of enjoyment derived by the Karen women who underwent years of discomfort to depress their shoulder blades with an ever increasing succession of metal coils to give the impression their necks had lengthened. Foot binding in old China springs to mind as a similar torment inflicted on women.

By the time they returned I had the car packed and we wasted no time heading north into the mountains. I had discussed returning via the road leading to the town of Fang, a picturesque drive, but my wife ruled against it. We had passed that way in the wet season once before and had to negotiate a stretch of road that had been washed down the side of a mountain almost to the white line.

So we sped back the way we came passing through heavy rain in the early stage of the mountains. No one having eaten since the early breakfast at the hotel, which my wife had declined in favour of an extra hours sleep, a late lunch was in order and we decided to stop at the hot springs where there was an excellent restaurant opposite the springs. The combination of rain and road works in the area had turned the sides of the road into a quagmire though and we sloshed in as close we could with the car while the proprietor of the eating house waved us in frantically. Alas we were still left with several meters of deep sticky mud to negotiate on foot so we drove off to the dismay of our host.

The famed Cabbages and Condoms restaurant offered no similar problems and we were soon settled at a table. The staff were surly, I got the impression we had arrived in THEIR lunch break, but the food was excellent, fried rice loaded with large, succulent, fresh shrimp for about 40 baht a plate. I ordered diet coke but was told there was none, so walked about six metres to the small convenience store in the same building and got one out of the fridge myself.

So it was a band of weary but satisfied travelers who finally arrived at our house. A cooked meal was decided against in favor of a couple of plates of ham and salad sandwiches, made from the fresh Carrefour bread,  and  beer followed by an early night.

Almost too soon it seemed I was driving them to the airport to return to Bangkok.
They had been excellent guests, uncomplaining and grateful for all they were shown.

You know what we say about visitors though, nice to see them but nice to see them go.

Julian

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