Chiang Rai

After our time in Chiang Mai we decided to head úp north to Chiang Rai because the two cities names rhymed and Meg is writing a poem about our travels and thought it would make it easier. After an early wake up (it seems like you end up with alot of early mornings when you travel about. Catching planes, trains, or buses seems rarely convenient) we hopped on a bus up to Thaton. The bus ride was really nice, as we got more north the landscape was more forested hills/mountains and Meg even saw a monkey in the trees. This was a nice change from the flatness of central Thailand we saw on the way up from Bangkok. From Thaton we caught a long tail boat (so named because the propeller for the boat is attached to the motor by a very long drive shaft) down to Chiang Rai. The boat trip was beautiful, with the river winding through fields and forests and passed a temple or two. Our boat driver was also quiet adept and we were all impressed by how smoothly he navigated some interesting water.

Shan, feeling alone on our bus ride up to Thaton. Soon after this though, the bus flooded with locals and she had new friends to make.

Something I saw from a long tail boat on the way to Chiang Rai, Pt 1.

Something I saw from a long tail boat on the way to Chiang Rai, Pt 2.

Something I saw from a long tail boat on the way to Chiang Rai, Pt 3.

The Chiang Rai area is part of the "Golden Triangle" because it borders closely with Laos and Burma. That explains the triangle part though we weren't sure about the golden part until we realized that for a long time the region was a prime grower of poppies for opium. The Thai government is working hard to undermine the drug industry there by getting the locals to grow crops for food instead of poppies and from what we could see it seems to be working.

We arrived in Chiang Rai expecting it to be a laid back version of Chiang Mai. I think the reason we thought that was that we had read that "Chiang Rai is a laid back version of Chiang Mai". What we actually found was that Chiang Rai was like Chiang Mai except with nothing to do. That's not actually fair, there is this crazy town clock that, every hour in the evening lights up in crazy colors to some Thai music, but really that was only good for about five minutes of fun.

Colorful Clock Tower

We also visited an informative hill tribe museum which gave us the low down on the various small minority groups in Thailand called hill tribes (though as a documentary we watched told us, many of the tribes now have diversified into valleys). It also had a bit talking about the Karen "Long Neck" Tribes which are a tourist favorite, and which apparently are actually Burmese tribes that have fled across the border to escape the conflicts there. Some enterprising Thai's now pay them to wear their neck rings and that, and money from tourists who come see them, is how they survive.

Looking back actually Chiang Rai was pretty good. We also took in a fun little "Food Fair" with many stalls of random Thai food (not all of which we were brave enough to try) and the highlight of our stay was visiting the White Temple. The White Temple is a brand new (and still in progress) temple designed and implemented by a pretty amazing Thai artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat.

The temple is really stunning from the outside with strange gruesome statues and definitely unlike the other temples we will see. Inside there are paintings by the artist including scenes with Spider Man, Super Man, Avatar characters, George Bush Jr and Osama Bin Laden. Pretty crazy!

The White Temple!

Crazy @#$% at the White Temple