Blogs from Chiang Rai, North-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 6

My plan for today was to travel from Chiang Dao to Tha Ton in the North of Thailand, where it is possible to get a boat to Chiang Rai, down the Kok river, a tributary of the Mekong. The boat leaves daily at 12:30pm but my plans went awry as I had not realised that on Sundays the bus from Chiang Dao does not go as far as Tha Ton but stops at nearby Fang, from where you have to take a shared taxi. Various delays - the bus was late, then got stuck on the winding road to Fang, then I had to wait a while for the shared taxi to arrive - meant I arrived flustered at Tha Ton at around 12:25pm. Worse though was that when I arrived the woman at the boat ... read more

Chiang Rai was only supposed to be a short stop for us and unless you're interested in touring the wats, you could easily leave after 1 or 2 days. However, we stayed 3 nights in total, the main hook being the night bazaar. After walking the stalls on the first night admiring the colourful wares we came across the food court. 44 booths in total lined two sides of a square, the market stalls were on one side and trailing off in all directions and at the front was a stage. Nothing happening on stage (it was a week night) but plenty of people eating at the table filling the square. The food on offer ranged from battered fried food to hot pots to crunchy insects. We opted for a selection of fried food - squid, ... read more

Today, Sarah and I got picked up by a mini van at 7am to head up to Chiang Rai. The trip firstly consisted of a stop at some hot springs so we could get a coffee or snack - I had a clear noodle soup with pork for breakfast which set me up for the day. We could bathe our feet in the springs. Continuing the journey, we stopped off at the white temple 'Wat Rong Khun'. This was unlike any other temple I've seen on the trip so far. It was white (of course) but also made out of bits of mirror. Walking onto the bridge of the temple, there were hands coming up from the ground (one in which had its middle finger up with a painted red nail). It was surrounded by a ... read more

We finished up our 10 day visit to Chiang Mai in quite the good mood. Chiang Mai is an easy place to like. It’s pretty and easy on the budget. The food is good, plentiful and inexpensive. It’s easy to walk almost anywhere a tourist would want to go and there seemed to be something of interest going on every evening that was either free or inexpensive. The museums are excellent and the Wats are gorgeous. During our stay we had a few cloudy, overcast days but all they seemed to do was cool the day down and make Chiang Mai even more engaging. In general, I’m not a big fan of over-touristy towns. Travel to places that have lost their sense of self doesn’t interest me. Even though Chiang Mai has lots of visitors and ... read more

Mit dem „Green Bus“ (so heisst der Busanbieter) sind wir von Chiang Mai in knapp ca. 3 Stunden bis nach Chiang Rai gefahren. Dort angekommen haben wir per Fahrrad ein bisschen die Stadt erkundet. Weil es in der Stadt selber nicht so viel zu sehen gibt, entschieden wir uns einen Roller zu mieten, weil wir nicht immer von den teuren TukTuk oder von den Tourveranstaltern abhängig sein wollten. Die Asiaten haben wahrscheinlich das Rollerfahren im Blut und deshalb hat Vy fürs erste das fahren übernommen. Mit dem Roller wollten wir einen Ausflug zu den Sehenswürdigkeiten im Süden der Stadt machen. Zuerst sind wir zum Weissen Tempel gefahren. Der Tempel selber ist sehr prunkvoll und sieht von aussen sehr gross aus, aber innen ist nur ein kleiner Raum mit einem Altar. Vy hats supertoll gefunden, für Jan ... read more