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Published: February 13th 2007
Well after a quick bus ride we got to Chang Rai a small place north east of Chang Mai.
We got a guest house after spending at least 20 minutes wandering around the town and had a quiet evening. Chang Mai and Chang Rai are great as they are places you can chill out in after Bangkok etc. Charlie decided to take a days tour but because Owen had had enough of walking he stayed back at the guest house.
Charlie found the tour really great and got to see some more of the amazing scenery around this beautiful area. The tour took us to first see the Karon Long neck hill tribe, which Charlie wasnt that taken with because they seem to be exploited and only there to act as a tourist attraction. After this the tour guide took us to up to the edge of Burma to see this amazing temple right on the crest of a large mountain which had a magnificent view of the surrounding area, appartly this is where the king of Thailand was at residence for a while. We were then taken further along the border to see all the tea plantations and
My, what a long neck you have!
My guide named Gan and one of the Karen 'long neck' hill tribe women.
Those rings around there neck are so heavyalso got to try some of the variouos types of tea they produced here including green tea and jasmin tea. Sadly there was no English breakfast tea which dissapointed Charlie some what as he was really craving for decent pot of English breakfast tea! (nothing bets it does it mart!)
The tour finished with a visit to the Queen mothers old house of residence. This is quite a big attcation as she was gretly loved by the people of thailand for all the things she has done for them over her life time. Surrounding her house had the most amazing gardens Charlie have ever seen and thats saying something cause flowers and stuff really aren't his thing, all charlie kept thinking was if only his Gran was there to see it she would have fallen in love with the place. The Queen mothers house was very surprising as it was so basic and simple, espicially compared to all the palces we have seen while travelling around asia.
All Owen did all day was chill out and relax spending most of his day just going to bars and wandering around. We went out that night but Charlie was feeling a
Traditional hill tride costume
Not sure what shes smoking, could be tobacco, could be opium little under the weather so he went back early and Owen went out with another Brit and a few Americans which was a bit of an eye opener as a few girls attached themselves to us and scared Owen at how up front they were.
There were a few places to see in Chang Rai but they were pretty much the same as what we had seen in many of the other places. We did pop into the hill tribe museum to find a bit more information on how the hill tribes in this area lived and came out with a degree in opium/herion production! I think more than 70% of the museum was dedicated to the history, production and uses of opium, which was definately a surprise to us.
The following day we caught bus to Chiang Thong which is the town at the border to Laos. Owen was amazed at how different it was up there it was pretty much what he was expecting much more rural the town was just one long road and had a few guest houses on the riverfront. The place we stayed at was quite nice but we had to share
a double bed again. It seemed the more north you go the better the guest houses are it's probable go to do with the fact that they are cheaper and you get more for you money. The guest house was in a tucked away corner and down a few steps where they had cracking food it had hot water and was clean. We walked around quite a bit as we had to work out how far the area was to the port. Guess what we went to two wrong buildings first before finally finding the correct place to head to the next day to cross the river into Laos.
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