August 24th: Chiang Saen in Northern Thailand

On August 24th 1981 I was in Chiang Saen in northern Thailand, travelling with Mary.

On this day, our last day before heading south, we hired bicycles and made a tour of some of the hill villages in the area.  We rode through largely unspoilt country, paddies, cassava plantations, bananas, lovely Thai villages, a Lao village, an Akha village.   I remember eating soup at a good lunch-stand in the Thai village of Wiang Keo.  The Akha village was a small place, a few long, low bamboo and thatch houses, spread around a little slope.  The people became more friendly once they realised we didn't want to buy opium.  More than anything else the trip was nice for the peace and quiet and the best chance yet to see some fairly unspoilt Thai scenery, the workers in the fields usually happy to smile when greeted, the children always; the clothes blue mainly with large blue hats and tied-up trouser legs. 

Hill Village:  Our picture

We stayed by the Mae Kong a little way away from the town.  The river was very peaceful with Laos straight across the river.  For such a large river it was surprising to see so little traffic: in fact we can hardly have seen more than four or five small boats in our time there.  Further upstream you could catch a glimpse of Burma.  Many of the people around seemed to come originally from different places or countries, like the people in the hill villages we visited.  Our landlady was Burmese, married to a Thai, and smoked a cheroot incessantly.

The town of Chiang Saen was also quiet and rural.  It was full of ruins, mainly ruined temples.  Crumbling walls ran around much of the city.  We walked along one of these to another ruined temple, Tat Chom Kitti, going up a hill with a beautiful rural view out over the paddies, the hills and the distant river.   Walking around the town at night I felt I was really in Asia.

In a Hill Village:  Our picture

Roadside Food:  Our picture

Chiang Saen:  Our picture

August 19th: Fang in Northern Thailand

On August 19th 1981 I was in Fang in Northern Thailand.  I was travelling with Mary: we had visited Bangkok and Chiang Mai and were hoping that we would find places that were more rural and less modernised.

Road near Fang:  Our Picture

We took a long afternoon walk towards the hills on the western side.  We began slowly through open rice paddies, seeing some birds almost for the first time in Thailand.  Eventually the threatened downpour came, just as we were beside the only house we saw with cold drinks, and we were invited in for the storm.  Snaps of young children kept things amusing and the owner played us Santana.  The drizzle kept on but we persevered, getting a little wet sometimes and sheltering, but it seemed worth while to get through a string of villages, albeit pleasant and the houses mainly wooden, and get a little bit into the hills.  At the first hill there was a temple and a market and a whole lot of hill-tribe people, and for the next few miles it kept much more rural and more tribal.  The hills themselves were green and grass topped, bright in the sun, but forbidding in the dark black clouds of the earlier part of the walk.  All the houses had flowers and gardens, the people smiling and friendly, curious, especially a group of schoolchildren who walked with us for a while.  On the way back we stopped for a drink in the first village in the plain and soon got a lift back in a driver in a pickup who took us a scenic back way and charged us an exorbitant fee.

Mae Kok River:  Our Picture

The next day we took a bus to Tha Ton, where we planned to take a boat down the Mae Kok River.  This was a recognised thing for tourists to do and a little group of foreigners duly assembled as we waited a couple of hours sitting by the river.  The boat ride was good, not exciting, but certainly worthwhile and beautiful.  Best was further downstream where the river passed through a narrow section, the jungle came down the edge of the river and there were almost rapids to get across.  The hills and trees were green and there were as few birds as elsewhere in Thailand.  As we came in to Chiang Rai an almighty rainstorm began.  As it eased off and the tourists landed wet, we went straight to a decent little hotel in the quiet  town which almost felt European.

Wooden buildings in village:  Our picture

Village people near Fang:  Our picture

View Fang in a larger map

September 9th: Ko Samui

On September 9th 1981 I was on Chaweng Beach, Ko Samui.

It's hard to extract memories of a fortnight spent on Chaweng beach from thoughts about change and exploitation. Of course 30 years ago Chaweng was relatively "unspoilt", but it was still a beach resort, and Europeans, like me, came for a holiday on the beach. There were a handful of people staying at our set of bungalows (Long Beach Bungalows) and it was a good stroll to the next set, and maybe a ten minute walk to the central part of Chaweng. Our bit of the beach seemed deserted. There were no hotels on the beach, but the central part was beginning to solidify into development. Many of the owners of properties were planning developments and thinking of how the place might change... roads, hotels, an airport. Many of the tourists were on short breaks from Europe, and there were a few Western men passing through with Thai girlfriends. Of course road veterans looked down upon Ko Samui at this point, but it was fine for me.

We spent a week sunbathing and swimming and eating in our restaurant before thinking that we might go further. We tried other restaurants and they didn't offer anything better or worse. We doubled up with neighbours for trips to the harbour to get fresh fruit, like mangosteens, lichees and a durian.

Finally we went for a walk to Big Buddha and from there tried to find a coastal route back.  From my journal - 9th September, the only entry for Ko Samui.

Buddha beach was disappointing as they're building a highway, but we found a back way there which involved crossing a hill with Mediterranean views and a bushy-tailed squirrel. We walked north on to the peninsula, sat on a shallow shady beach and decided to try to walk back down the coast. The rocks were lovely, and there was some good swimming in between, particularly the first deserted little cove we found. It was a hot day and we had no water until we found a mine caretaker who gave us hot water and directed us back to Big Buddha.

We had merely walked around a headland and still had the journey back to do.

Chaweng Beach 1980 (My picture)

I think the route of this peaceful walk passes near what is now Ko Samui International Airport.





There are pictures and description by Sanuk from 1981:  here 

View from our bungalow (My picture)