Car Battery Hooked In Series

: Kunming , Xishuangbanna, Mohan, Chiang Khong, Mae Sai

I'm back from the super nice

(!) Thailand, after a nearly two-week vacation with Tik. Today is day 148 , but because Thailand is so exciting and worth telling and I have made over 400 photos, I shall divide my report, for the benefit of all. I should mention that the destinations are fairly stated by my last time itinerary distinguished. So I begin the exciting journey from Kunming to Thailand ... It started on 7 January (day 135) with a taxi from our hostel here in Kunming (昆明 [k ʰ únmǐŋ]
) to the bus station in the east of the city. With the party were out of me as only used Tik (ติ๊ก
[tics] ) and her friend Foam (โฟม [for ː m] ). The weather was surprisingly sunny and warm and I thought for fun, since we would not even to Thailand. There, we met with four other Thais in Yunnan Normal University, friends of Foam: Bow (โบว์ [bo ː] ), Tai (ต่า ย [ta ː j] ), Boat (โบ๊ ท [bo ː t] ) and Pet (เป็ด [pet] ). We waited there, ate and then mounted the coach: a Sleeper (pictured right) , something I knew not yet: in three rows and two planes were there close but comfortable beds, a metal grid structure held a dependent on falling out and allowed to climb to the beds. Shoes had to move out before. Each had a Location and hand baggage and the shoes you got in somehow. It was really very close and musty. For this kind of funny. The bus seemed to be populated for the most part, however, two Chileans were on board with the Chinese, Thais and Laotians. Towards evening, went off, leaving ... came the next morning at 8:30 we Xīshuāngbǎnnà (西双版纳 [ɕíʂwáŋpãnnâ]
;
Note: The tilde does not represent nasalization, but a falling-rising tone !) In the south of Yunnan Province (云南 [jy̌nnǎn] ) and then went right up to the Sino-Laotian border in Mohan (磨憨 [mɔ̌xán] ) and Bohan (ບໍ່ ຫານ [bɔ hǎ ː ː n] ), where our passports were checked and serviced short. The two Chileans had some problems since they could neither Chinese nor Thai nor Lao, but English. So I've helped them a bit. Unfortunately, they were also not quite clear where they would go now ... naja. Next we took a minibus to get us seven half a kilometer further to the right border crossing visas. The Thais do not need someone who can simply durch Laos durch. Deutsche müssen sich allerdings für 38 $ (die ich hatte, hehe) ein Visum für die Volksrepublik Laos besorgen, was aber "schnell" an der Grenze zu erledigen geht. Schnell ist hier relativ, denn die Schlangen waren lang und der Stempelmensch sehr langsam, zudem hatte er das Wechselgeld nicht, weswegen ich mir das dann in laotischen Kip (ກີບ [kìːp] ) habe auszahlen lassen. Ich kam außerdem wieder mit den Chilenern ins Gespräch und obendrein mit zwei Schweizern (einer davon hieß Urs), die gerade auf Weltreise waren, mit ihrem Auto. Nach vielleicht einer Stunde oder mehr hatte dann auch ich meine Stempel im Pass, die mir 30 Tage in Laos ermöglichten. 3 Stunden would have done but also's. Then we went for the seven of us with a van (in Chinese funnily 面包车 miànbāochē = "bread car") through Laos. Laos seems to be really poor, at least we have only tiny village of wooden huts with crumbling
seen. Tik said to me, the house of her grandmother would look so out of ... uff da na. In a small, overpriced Essschuppen
on stream flow Nam Fa (ນ້ໍາ ຟ້າ [nâ ː m for ː] ) went on the trip then. Three or four hours later we arrived at the Lao-Thai Border town (as is the only?) , and with a small paddle boat to seventh with our luggage on the Mekong River (Lao: ແມ່ນ້ໍາຂອງ [mɛ ː nâ ː m k ʰ ɔ̌ ː ŋ] ; Thai: แม่น้ำ โขง [mɛ ː ná ː m k ʰ ǒ ː ŋ] ) geschippert (see right) and then arrived in the Promised Land. After we had welcomed the parents of Foam and our luggage taken away from the shore, someone called me from behind: Andrew! - it was tip (ทิป [T ʰ ip]), Guy's girlfriend, with whom we wanted to meet. They had also just arrived by car. Another passport control there in Chiang Khong (เชียงของ [ʨ ʰ ī ː ə̯ŋ k ʰ ɔ̌ ː ŋ] ; Note: / k ʰ / is in Thai and Lao almost always as [x] spoken ), the departure of the other Thais, and then Tik and I went (oops, there, in Thailand so left!) with Guy and tip in the car with. Guy drove us for the evening to Mae Sai (แม่สาย [mɛ ː sǎːj] ), einer Kleinstadt an der
thailändisch-burmesischen Grenze
, die wir aber nicht überquerten, weil es schon spät war. Wir haben dort lecker gegessen, uns den Markt angeguckt, gequatscht... das ist übrigens nicht so einfach: Ich spreche Deutsch, Englisch und Chinesisch, Tik spricht Thai und Chinesisch, Guy spricht Englisch, Thai und Deutsch und Tip Thai und Englisch. Es gab also keine gemeinsame Lingua Franca und wir mussten alles immer irgendwie zweimal sagen. ;) Dann fuhr uns Guy nach Chiang Mai (เชียงใหม่ [ʨʰīːə̯ŋ màj] ), suchte für us - because he seems to really know about everywhere in Thailand perfectly - a cheap hotel, totally beautiful drum with all the trimmings, each for 800 ฿ (about 19 €) night. The next morning we were supposed to meet four of us again ...
To be continued ...