Blogs from Chiang Rai, North-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 32

Rebecca and I had a short stay in the Anantara resort, close to Chiang Rai, in the Golden Triangle May 17-21. Luckily for us, we had a window of 4 days of good weather, and took advantage of this to participate in the elephant training course that they offer at this splendid resort. But be warned, you have to be prepared to get hot, dirty and sore! If you get saddle-sore from riding a horse, then you can imagine what bareback riding on an elephant is like! My legs were stretched apart for hours, so that when I got off, I couldn't walk upright for a while! Riding the elephants into the river was the most fun, although with a fast current, the brown water didn't look too attractive. My elephant totally submerged, with just the ... read more

Our last stop in Thailand before heading to Laos was Chiang Rai. It was a strange kind of town and not nearly as busy as we had been expecting. I'm sure compared to Chaing Mai, the other popular destination in the north, it's a ghost town. We found a great little guesthouse just off the main drag which I'd certainly recommend if I could remember the name! We really wanted to get out of the town and try to see some of the hill tribes that the north is famous for. What better way than to hire a motorbike? This was my first time on anything more complicated than a twist'n'go in Greece but after a few jumpy gear changes we were cruising. We headed out along the river where we passed loads of ornate ... read more

3 farang walk into a Starbucks, an American, a Brit, and a German… Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but it’s actually a scene I witnessed this morning that made me realize that it is time to leave Thailand. I am not really sure of the nationality of these men, but I was sitting on a bus heading to the Golden Triangle when I witnessed three Western men walk into Starbucks pulling roller laptop bags. They ordered their coffee, sat down, opened their laptops and started working (the traffic light was that long!). It seriously gave me chills. I could almost see co-workers faces through the window…this could have been any of the hundreds of Starbucks in Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, LA, Phoenix...all those place where I used to do the same thing. I don’t ... read more

Okay....where did I leave off? Oh, yes. We'd arrived in Chaing Rai, done the home stay and boarded the farm tractors.... The tractors took us up into the hills as far as they could - then we got out and started walking. The first day was almost all up hill for about 14 km. We went up about 1300 feet to the first village. I was totally exhausted and reaffirmed my belief that I'm not really an outdoors person. I was so glad I hired a porter to carry my bag, I probably would have kissed him at the end. :-) We arrived at a sort of guest house at the first village. It had definitely been built for tourists and over looked the village rather than was inside it. it was almost luxurious - by ... read more

Well, it has been an interesting few days! Since I last wrote, we woke up on New Year's Day and boarded a public bus to Chaing Rai. The family behind us had obviously had a great celebration as they threw up all over the back of the bus. This made the 3 hour ride seem even longer. We arrived here in Chaing Rai where we stayed with a Thai family on their living room floor. We did a short walk to town - which consisted of 3 stalls selling crepes with blueberry jam, dried pork and chocolate. Nobody tried one. We also saw a pig head that was quite fresh. Then we played soccer with the neighborhood kids. We had dinner at our homestay then thekids performed traditional thai instruments and dance for us. That was ... read more