After a couple days in Chiang Rai, we woke up early, had a yummy breakfast buffet at Le Meridien hotel and then went down to an outdoor shack by the Kok River to haggle our way onto a wooden boat that would take us to Tha Ton.
The lawn mower motor was so loud that we had to wear ear plugs and bandanas over our ears to try to muffle the sound.
The slow paced putt-putting down the serene river, with its verdant hills and lone fisherman made me feel as if I were traveling back in time to a calmer, simpler, picturesque life.
We passed by an elephant village, Ruammit, that seemed more like a tourist destination/tourist trap that was out of place with the more natural wildlife.
So, we chose not to stop but instead stopped on the left bank of the river at a bend. There were cows and a village at the top of the hill, but the grass was too high and the path a bit too uncertain for us to trek too far away from the boat and all our possessions.
Since that stop didn’t go so well, we thought we would give it another try at another village on the left bank. I think it was Akha. It was such an odd, run down, crowded village with chickens and near naked unhealthy looking, barefoot children running around. The houses were simple and bare. The kids were confused about how the people lived with virtually nothing.
After a quick, awkward stroll through town in which we clearly stuck out as these strange voyeurs, we climbed back in the boat
When I saw these two western guys, with all of their stuff barely above water on their tilting rafts, trying to propel themselves with a bamboo pole up the river, I was suddenly very grateful for our deafening motor that roared us toward Tha Ton.
After a few hours, we finally reached Tha Ton
We carried our bags up the hill to try to find a way to get us to Chiang Mai
Little did we know that the water leg of our journey was the shorter phase of our adventure. After a little wander over the bridge, we made our way to the bus stop (well, really an empty parking lot) to wait for the Chiang Mai bus to arrive.
Hopping on that non-air conditioned, loud bouncy bus which seemed to take hours to get anywhere and then stopped for indeterminate lengths of time transported me back to those backpacker years.
Asher was already a pro at making the most of a long journey! 
This “School of Rock” shop outside of Tha Ton made me smile and think of Jonah!
