Lampang - Northern Thailand

Lampang is 100 kilometres south of Chaing Mai in the north of Thailand and 800 kilometres from Ubon Ratchathani.  It is also the home of Mieow, Khamma's life long friend from Thamuang.  She moved there 7 years ago after getting married to Sac.  We decided to go and visit them, and after leaving Ubon on the over night bus, we arrived in Lampang 15 1/2 hours later - weary!  It doesn't take that long to fly from Bangkok to London.  However, even though our bus was a 'Gold' standard bus, it was a struggle, but at 800 baht each for a one way fare (that's £16) and seems reasonable enough to me.

The hospitality extended by our hosts was remarkable.  They run a roadside restaurant serving typical northern Thai food from early morning to late at night, but their profits are not exceptionally high.  They live in a small apartment type home with a front yard for the car, a living room, kitchen and downstairs toilet with two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs.  They have seven year old son called First, who is very bright and the apple of his Dad's eye.  They closed the restaurant for two days to take us on a visit to the Elephant Reserve, a National Park, an ancient temple and several excellent restaurants, including their own of course.



Khamma re-united with Mieow after 25 years, and Sac



The charismatic First

Khamma and Mieow never stopped talking about this and that, and it is was only afterwards that Khamma told me they had only met one time before in the last twenty five years. The reason being different circumstances in each of their lives took them to different parts of Thailand, and their paths failed to connect, even at important occasions like weddings and festivals.  However, they always talked on the phone especially when either of them had a problem or an issue to deal with.  True friends.

Sac could speak a small amount of English, that was probably equal to the amount of Thai I can speak.  It will not surprise you that our conversations were somewhat short.  But Sac was keen to make sure we did not pay 'Farang' prices to enter the parks, and drove a good bargain in the markets.
After a shy start, First came round to being a lot of fun.  I taught him farang tricks like touching fingers together behind your back and street-wise handshakes.  He responded by hiding under the stairs and touching my feet as I walked down them, making me jump a mile in the process.