We sit in a tiny room while steam from a preparation of 108 herbs rises up out of a box on the ground. When we step out for a breather we're offered tea and herbal medicine.
This is a great place and highly recommended. The people who work there do not speak any English but they have a sign in English explaining all their prices. Despite being tiny and out of the way, they do get farong customers because they are mentioned in the Lonely Planet (with the wrong prices). It's at 149 Pratooma Road.
Tuesday, we walk over to the main markets in town. Lampang is a very likeable place. The neighborhoods north of the river are scenic and the town is bustling without being congested. If we were on our longer trip we would definitely spend more time here.
Some locals help us find a shared taxi truck to Ko Kha, which is near the famous Wat Prathat Lampan Luang. It's taken the driver so long to rustle up enough people to make the trip to Ko Kha worth his time that the market has literally engulfed his truck. Fish and vegetable vendors have set up their stalls around his parked vehicle. A blind guy plays drums on cans; hey, he's got some rhythm! Finally he's able to maneuver enough people out of our way and we're off to Ko Kha for 20B.
Even though the distance from Ko Kha to Lampang is many times further than the distance from Ko Kha to the temple, the tuk-tuk drivers there want 50B to take us there. So we hitchhike again. We hitchhike throughout the trip and found it to be pretty easy.
We greatly enjoy Wat Prathat Lampan Luang. First we see one of those fat Buddha statues. Sybil relates the story she has heard about the fat Buddha. Once, an extremely handsome acolyte was studying to become a monk. However, many of the women in town would distract him from his studies because they wanted to be with him. So, he prayed to the Buddha to help him to become a more dedicated student. The Buddha made him fat and he was happily able to complete his studies without distraction.
We pass through a grove of lovely trees whose branches are propped up with long poles. Inside the main compound, we examine several lovely buildings containing wonderful murals from the 15th-18th centuries. A large gold Buddha sits in a central altar. A tour group migrates through while we sit lingering. Sybil notes how an inconsiderate British woman walks up to the altar and picks up one of the flower offerings to examine it.
We hitchhike back to Ko Kha and wander into the back streets where we talk with a local woman with a poodle. She thinks we must be lost to come into her neighborhood. We buy some of those kung fu type pants, as they are very comfortable in the heat. Then we grab a shared taxi truck back to Lampang.
While wandering around the market there, a boisterous local woman persuades us to eat at her cart. She speaks some English and we are practicing our Thai. Soon we have a crowd of people around us. We meet the vendor woman's sister and also her teacher. Since the teacher's English skills are the best, Sybil spends a lot of time chatting with her, telling her all about places in California she probably won't have an opportunity to visit during her upcoming package tour there.
We leave but swing by again later to pick up a shared taxi. We meet the teacher again and she gives us some mangoes and sticky rice; lovely and generous Thai people. We take the shared taxi to Jed Soo where we see astrology animals, monks sweeping a lovely garden, and a Manikin Pis statue near the toilets. For some strange reason, we will later see several of these Manikin Pis statues in Thailand. Maybe they make them for export to Belgium and keep a few for themselves.
We should have looked at our maps before rushing out to Jed Soo (or Je Dee Sao). We were thinking it was close to the massage place but they are not so near each other. We have to hitchhike out of Jed Soo. Some nice people pick us up but we don't know how to tell them where we want to go. We just say 'Lampang,' which is foolish because we're still in Lampang. So, we sit on the back of their pick-up not really knowing where they are taking us.
They wind up taking us to another wat! It's almost dark by now, but we don't care. Turns out to be a great place and it's empty except for some monks eating Popsicles. We find out this wat is called 'Prakaew Dontao' and discover it is not far from the massage place we visited last night. We guess on a side road and it takes us directly to the place. Time for another herbal sauna!
This time Lymdum gives us some sticky rice (kow neiw ping) and some coconut milk pudding stuff. If I lived in Lampang I would go to the herbal sauna several times a week.
We walk back to the TT&T and find Tom and his wife sitting outside with a German guy from Munich and a few other guests. We chat with Tom for awhile and he teaches us some naughty things to say in Thai. He tries to persuade us to go to a bar for a short time where he will play some music with the German guy. He's very persuasive but we are tired and have an early train to catch. So, he serenades us with a few songs: 'The Boxer,' 'Mrs. Robinson,' and 'Take It Easy.'
Wednesday, we're out early but Tom is up. He gives us a parting hug and his friendly Doberman insists on a pat. We taxi to the train station and find it crawling with soldiers armed with machine guns and rocket launchers. Later we will see several troop trains going out and we learn there has been an incident on the Myanmar border where some Thai troops went missing. There are 100,000 Karens camped out in the border area.
The station is very clean but our train is about 40 minutes late. Two large Aussie fellows shout back and forth to each other from different seats. Sybil entertainingly imitates them: 'This here must be the Mississippi River, eh Carl? And that could be King Tutankamma's Tomb over there.' Later, the more amusing Aussie narrates with his video camera aimed out the window: 'there's a rice field for ya. And over here on the right side...' swinging his video camera around to the other window ' ...is another rice field.' Throughout the ride he plays with a young Thai boy; later the youngster throws up on the floor.
Arriving in Phitsanulok we find the TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand) office and once again find them helpful and efficient. After several failures we manage to find an ATM machine that gives us some money. Then we find a cheap (for Phitsanulok, which is a relatively expensive place to find a bed) hotel. Later, I'll read that Lonely Planet describes this place, The Unachak Hotel, as 'an old stand by.' We should have followed the listing given to us by TAT as they leave this place out. Turns out it's a brothel and has very loud karaoke music at night. Sybil was careful about asking them about this ahead of time, but they ducked the issue. By the time they start playing it is too late for us to find another place.
The famous wat in town is Prasrirattana Mahathat, with its impressive gold Buddha statue. Nearby Wat Nang Phaya is less busy and we linger there. We stroll along Riverside Park looking down on the shanty houseboats that line the river.
Thursday, we are happy to leave the Unachak, moving to the Asia Hotel. They offer clean, large rooms, although you can hear the nearby train station. Much better than Unachak though and not too expensive at B200. Asia Hotel info: 176/1 Ekathodsarod, phone (055) 258378, fax 230419.
We catch the #1 city bus to the terminal, then get a WinTour bus to Sukhothai for 19B. Once there it is easy to get a shared taxi truck to the old city. We wander through a large local market that included some sort of religious revival - lots of chanting and drum playing. We cross a rickety bridge across a gorgeous lotus pond to see a small wat on an island. Then we head into the Sukhothai Historical Park.
They have some amazing ruins here, far too much to see in one day. This place was one of the highlights of our trip; an impressive civilization once flourished here and these ruins are its tombstones. We throw down our sarongs, lie down, and reflect on the ages. I would love to return here and see all of the many treasures.
We meet a Japanese guy named Kikuo Kaneko. We'd seen him briefly at the Phitsanulok train station when we came in. He was also in Chiang Mai and is doing a temple tour down to Ayutthaya. Later, I make the observation to Sybil that while you don't often see solo Japanese travelers, when you do see them they seem grateful when you make the effort to talk to them. However, they never seem to direct the conversation. In other words, they are happy to talk to you but seem too shy to ask questions themselves. I think this is probably due to limited English skills, but it might simply be reserve. Once I spent some time with a Japanese fellow in China. He spoke no English but we had about the same level of Chinese. Even though our language skills were on equal footing I still had to initiate all conversation. I don't mind this, just a silly observation. I'm extremely interested in Japan so I like to talk to Japanese travelers.
The trip back to Phitsanulok is a breeze. Sybil sees our bus (turns out to be the same one we took in) parked along a road and we jump in as it's leaving. Similarly, we catch a #1 bus just as it's pulling out of the terminal. After showering, we have some delicious street food at some nearby vendor stalls.
During our wanderings in Lampang, we smelled something in a drug store that resembled the medicine we'd been given at the massage place. We purchased it and now give it a try with a chaser of Thai honey. Really cleans out your sinuses! I've tried to have my Singapore, Hong Kong, and Indian friends tell me what is in it. They are all familiar with the smell and taste, and some even know the names of the herbs in Chinese, but the only ingredient they can identify is cloves. It's supposed to 'cure queasiness, vomitting (sic), stomatch (sic) upset, giddiness as well as nourishment of heart.'
Friday, we purchase our tickets for Don Murang station in Bangkok, near the airport, for Sunday. We check out some car rental prices and find that the cheapest in town is B800, including a driver, for the day. Not bad, but we decide we'll do it if we run into other people who want to share the car.
We visit the Folk Museum, which is the personal collection of handicrafts gathered by a local businessman named Dr. (Sgt. Major) Thani. Many interesting traditional items make this well worth seeing. We learn exactly how to castrate an ox by smashing its balls with a hammer and read the 38 steps involved in rice harvesting.
Next we go to Dr. Thani's nearby Buddha casting factory. Most of the workers are asleep but a few are carving wax Buddha images. The place is full of birds and (unhappily) dogs in cages.
Since we are in the neighborhood, we decide to check out the Phitsanulok Youth Hostel. We chat with the owner, Sapachai, and find him very engaging. Sybil knows something of his history already because she read about him in the Lonely Planet book. I'm looking at it now and give them full marks for recommending the place. Sapachai has created a lovely garden atmosphere here for the hostel, together with a restaurant and an Avis car rental place. His gives us a full tour and invites us back for dinner.
Later, on the train to Don Muang, we'll meet two backpackers who were unhappy with their stay at the Phitsanulok Youth Hostel. I'm surprised, such a nice place, how could you not like it? 'It's a rip-off,' they say. 'The Lonely Planet says it's B40 for a dorm room and it's B120.' I can hardly believe it. First, the LP prices are almost always badly out of date, even in the latest version. Anyone who follows them is a true novice. The TAT office lists their correct prices. Second, B120 is still the cheapest bed in Phitsanulok, which as I've explained has a dearth of guesthouses. It's a lovely environment and well worth the price.
So, here are the current (April 1998) prices for the Youth Hostel: single rooms with twin bed are B200, double bed is B300. |
