Very rainy holidays in the magnificent Thailand

I've never been particularly attracted by Thailand, but to get to Laos (as well as to go to Vietnam and Cambodia), in some way must pass. And this time, at least a few days, we have also decided to stay.

 

Something about Bangkok

A couple of days and in the smog of hell nell'afa gigantic Asian metropolis, walking between wats, stupas, museums and markets, still wet with sweat but also amazed at the corners of tranquility and beauty, the city still manages to give . Because even if we were not in love with this city, it must be admitted that the Royal Palace, or the Reclining Buddha or Wat Po (just to mention some of the beautiful monuments of the city) are truly amazing. In addition, after all, have a beer in Chiang Kaoh Sanh, perhaps while you massage your feet, not the worst thing that can happen.
After two days, however, Bangkok has grown tired. And not only about the heat. But before leaving for the north of the country, we spend a whole day to visit Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Siam, which spares no other Wat, other stupas, other buddhas, all shapes and sizes.

Rain in the north

The day after a plane takes us to Chiang Rai, our next stop. What we wanted to achieve with a different medium, and with more time, going to Chiang Mai. But in Thailand is the week of New Year (the year 2554, just to be precise) and are not available seats on planes, trains and buses, so we decided to skip that step and go directly to the far north.
Where in reality there's still a lot of people there and, above all, the New Year. What follows us everywhere, and we will track all week. Above all, the battle is behind us water. We had read about this weird habit, but we had underestimated. But you can not, especially when you can not receive, every time you go down the street, entire buckets of water on my face. This battle if you can not force you to live a week-perennial and perennial mind-soaked mind, worried that the money, documents, camera or mobile phone you can somehow save. Because we are around, with rucksacks on their backs, and we can not always leave all the goods at the hotel.
In Chiang Rai we officially acquainted with the water war, but also with a nice little town, where the climate is slightly cooler and the air more breathable. A city that is set in a beautiful nature, rivers, hills and lush rice fields, which we enjoy run with a couple of bikes for hire. We are bordering the Golden Triangle which, however, effectively explains the Lonely Planet, now greets more than the opium caravans, caravans of tourists. The second day, after a fleeting visit to a village in the hill tribes, we come up to Mae Sai, a town on the border with Burma, on the border so that my phone has taken the time zone of Myanmar, making the risk of losing ' bus.
Mae Sai has a huge Chinese market, many small restaurants on the street, sfattoni selling marijuana and converse with you in Italian when they want to place, and is dominated by a hill from which you see a beautiful view of Burma. On the return we get on the Mekong, where the river serves as the border between Thailand, Burma and Laos. It is from there, crossing the majestic symbol of Indochina on board a sort of sampam (the classic boat flat and narrow), that we leave the next morning and enter Thailand to Laos.

After spending a week we return to Thailand to Laos.
At the airport in Vientiane, which throughout the day celebrating the departure of Flight 14, 5 o'clock in the morning there is only one other tourist in waiting: he too is Italian, Bologna, and how we expect to return to Bangkok. The world is sometimes very piccolis-mum.
Our holiday line towards the end, but before returning to Italy we stopped a couple of days on the island of Koh Samet, a three hour bus ride from Bangkok, where we can rest and get some 'sunshine. The beaches are white and beautiful, clear water (even if too hot), little people. The island is very beautiful, green and hilly, but to be a natural park, for which you must pay the entry well (200 baht, 5 million), there is too much junk around. Plastic bottles and bags, tapping the green hinterland, and in some cases the smell is very strong.
The last image of Thailand (but we can say in all of Asia) is this: beautiful sceneries, monuments unsurpassed, but the inability to value and respect your own wealth is still evident. Too many times have we seen young Asians to throw on the ground, in a wonderful land and pristine, empty plastic bottles. It is true that even the so-called first world is not at fault or has solved all its problems with the waste of any nature whatsoever. But every time I go to Asia, I can not think about the fact that this amazing continent, including all the problems they are facing and will face, sooner or later will realize that the destruction of the natural environment will, for them, the consequences devastating.