The fact that we were in general heading our trip to Ban Phaeng was because my husband has an old colleague who lives there with his girlfriend.
It's always fun to have the privilege of explore a place with someone who live there, kind of seeing the country from the inside and out, instead of outside and in.
In Ban Phaeng, you really felt like an alien bird, it was a bit of a small town feeling, with many activities going on everywhere, like mechanical workshops, small specialized businesses, and a couple markets for meat, fish and all kinds of vegetables.
The market also offered living snakes and turtles if you were having cravings for something like that.
We traveled a lot in the counryside, went through small villages consisting of a few houses, stopped and have meals in small cozy places along the way, and ate foods that were so strong that made even me, who still thinks I'm quite " tough "when it comes to chili, gasping for air.
Rubber is a big part of the supply up here so we visited one of all the rubber plantations we passed by and learned a little about the production and how it worked with those little cups hanging on the trees and how they were taken care of.
Here the days were pretty cold, but the sun felt quite hot if you found a good spot, but at night the cold became even more noticeable when we lived in a bungalow that had a little to much ”airy” construction, we slept with long pants and jackets under the extra blankets we asked for, and when the morning's first warming rays of sunshine explored, we ran out and set ourselves to thaw a little.
This was an unusually cold January that we managed to peak, people were freezing to death and the government handed out blankets to needy.
A few days after we gave up, the heat came back to Ban Phaeng, but then we were already far south, sucking in the heat of some sunny beach.
Ban Phaeng may not be a place you plan to visit on your asian trip, but I think these places, like there are 100's similar to in Thailand are still worth paying a little attention.
Certainly it's not as "cool" as Chiang Mai and Pai, but it's still the largest part of the country that is built by these smaller communities that nobody goes to.
Thank you for Reading 🌺❤️☮️