We arrived at Chiang Rai about 7 or 8 in the morning after a very smooth border crossing. Sorry to see the end of Laos but very happy to have had an uneventful exit! Hungry, tired but very relieved to have that 17 hour journey out of the way! We had a quick look around the high street opposite the bus station and found a likely looking bakery for a slap up breakfast and a much needed coffee. Appropriately fueled we saddled up again and hiked the short 10 mins or so to our guesthouse 'Grandma Kaews' tucked away in the quiet Chiang Rai backstreets.
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| Our first glimpse of Thailand immediately after crossing out of Laos. Relived to have had an uneventful border crossing! |
The guesthouse turned out to be a real gem, spotless large room with comfy bed and AC and a special area to dry clothes you wash yourself. Good value and good accommodation. We then flaked out for a long midday siesta.
Chiang Rai town during the day is not a hugely touristy place. It has good food places and interesting monuments and of course, some impressive wats but the town itself has a more local industrial feel. I headed out to explore looking for an ATM that wouldn't charge an arm and a leg. Mission failed, after trying 9 or 10 ATMs and walking for ages in the heat I conceded that we may have to pay for once. I did however stumble on a large air-conditioned shopping mall were I took refuge and finally found an interesting looking tiny laptop/tablet transformer thingy that I felt confident buying from a reputable source. Happy times! No more blogging from our phones which is taking ages and is painful!!
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| Ooooh. A tablet and a tiny netbook all in one. Perfect, now to persuade Ana we need it :) |
Back to the room to find Ana still asleep from the not so brief siesta! Once awake we got sorted and headed out for an afternoon's explore around town. We saw the local clocktower a heavily gilded typically Thai (not at all subtle) monument and checked out a local wat with a big Buddha inside where a nice caretaker lady gave us some bottled (and sealed) water to cool down :)
We cooled down back at the guesthouse and then headed out to the central night market to explore the tat stalls and grab some local food. Cool little stalls surrounding a central courtyard which was lined with food vendors peddling their local dishes and a central arena packed with hundreds of tables. Order from a stall and they come and find you with your food - I have no idea how! At either end of the eating arena were 2 large stages on which we saw some local dancing (of course) and after a couple of guys playing guitar, it was a bit like an open mike night -a great accompaniment to some really good local grub. Suitably full and entertained time to crash out again. The heat is really taking it out of me!
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| Ana enjoying the funky little night market that winds around the food court |
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| And inside the food court. This stall is the Iceland buffet, it's all beige! But of course I had a tray! |
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| Noodles in an egg crepe, a tray of spring rolls and beige goodness and a stir fry for Ana - good food! |
Up early the next day and headed to another local coffee shop for breakfast and then on to explore the town in a little more depth (oh and to buy the laptop - hurrah!)
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| Thai breakfast for me and fruity goodness for Miss B - nice place! |
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| Me with my new toy (sorry Ana, 'our new toy', now time to interpret the Thai user manual! |
A thoroughly productive day down, we headed back to the central food market having spied some more interesting dishes whilst we were eating the previous night. Also, thought I'd take this opportunity to sample some of the 6 legged offerings...
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| Night market - take 2. Big old pot of do it yourself stew Thai style! |
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| With a side of grubs and bugs...hmmm Silk worm larvae and crickets. The larvae taste a little like mushroom - honestly! Ana tried one too, although just one... |
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| Argh, he's getting away. I know you shouldn't play with your food but I couldn't resist! |
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| And on to the main course - great soup - although you are supposed to crack the egg into it not hard boil it - doh! |
Next day we got up early and hired a couple of sturdy looking bikes for a long cycle out to the white temple. I didn't really know what to expect, just that it is not yet complete and has been in construction for 20 years under the watchful eye of a single artist who is undertaking the interior decoration himself.
Breakfast was a thoroughly local affair, Ana spied a little place crammed with locals so we ducked in to see what they had. More noodle soup in a truly authentic local kitchen. It was great fun and we were certainly the odd ones out and got a few odd looks, smiles and curious kids pointing. Good fun and good food.
We pedalled out of town to try and beat the worst of the heat (it's regularly in the 40s now) and between 11:30 and 15:30 its properly intense and very, very humid. The trip was great, along the side of a big well surfaced road with big, clear signs (Laos seems like a million miles away now!). It was quite a long way in the heat (about 16K - it's harder in the heat before you comment!) and we turned up at what was quite obviously the white temple. It is bright white and inlaid with silver mosaic tiles which make it glimmer in the sun. We had a little explore of the grounds and immediately could see this was no ordinary wat.
In the trees where hung stoneware heads of demons with plant roots trailing out of them, some of these I did not recognise, they just looked 'demony' others, it took me a while to see were famous horror characters including Freddie Crouger of 'Nightmare on Elm Street' very odd and contemporary decoration for a wat!
There are some really interesting features and side buildings before you even get to the wat itself with a sea of hands that seem to be clawing at you before you cross the brilliant white bridge guarded by fantastic creatures. The toilets? Well these are probably the most elaborate design I've ever seen for the gents!
Once inside on the far wall is an incredible traditional painting of Buddha and typical Buddhist scenes from his childhood in really bright colours and intricate details right down to the pupils of his huge eyes being made up of little demons staring back at you.
Turning to the opposite wall was a little bizarre, symbolising moving away from the divine to the struggle for good over evil was a wall that contained a huge mural of symbols of the best and worst of todays society. This includes a painting of the twin towers and some modern day heroes including Neo from the Matrix, Captain Jack Sparrow, Spiderman and probably my favourite - one of the Minions from Despicable Me.
Seeing all of these together was a real surprise and a total break from anything we had seen so far in a Buddhist temple. It seems that I am going on at great length about this temple but it was really entertaining and we had cycled a long way to get there. Also shortly after we left Chiang Rai we heard some bad news. The area was hit by an 8.6 earthquake and this has severely damaged the buildings and has done irreparable damage to the artworks inside. It sounds at the moment like the artist leading the build has decided that he should not attempt to repair the temple and it may stay as is unfinished and damaged which is very sad. I feel quite lucky to have seen it in it's nearly finished condition.
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| The main building of the white temple complex. You see where it got it's name? |
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| This is the toilet block - yes, really. They must have spent a pretty penny on this (pun intended ;) ) |
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| One of the many heads hanging in the trees |
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Decapitated 'demon' heads hanging from a tree - Hellraiser, Freddie Crouger, Hellboy and .....Batman?!
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| Ana posing with the white temple. Radiant, isn't it :) |
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| Me too! |
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| These 'trees' are made up of thousands of individual thin silver leaves that you buy and write a prayer on. There are loads of them throughout the complex. |
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| Ana inspecting the prayers. |
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| A wishing well, what are you wishing for Ana? We'll never know... |
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| Elaborate shrine |
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| Nicely reflected in the pool |
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| Guardians by the pool |
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| We were here! |
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| Every little detail, down to the water features |
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| Big fat fish |
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| A slightly eerie sea of hands clawing at you as you cross the bridge |
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| Gets creepier on closer inspection |
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| This hand has a mouth and nose... |
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| The bridge across to the temple itself |
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| Still shiny |
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| Archway under construction - nearly done! |
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| Ornate pagoda |
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| Freshly manufactured Ganesha stature ready to install. |
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| My favourite no smoking sign to date, there's a lot of detail to appreciate in here! |
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| Post explore refreshments. |
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| At least we know where we are now then...errr perhaps not, quick get google maps out! |
After we had finished looking around and grabbed the now mandatory post explore ice-cream and coffees to cool down we hopped on the bikes for the trip back to town.
As the bikes did not have to be back for quite some time, we used them to head out and explore a monument to the Thai king
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| Monument in town with locals coming to pray |
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| Nothing is ever over-the-top in Thailand |
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| Parasol for one |
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| More animal statues the merrier |
We then headed off for a very civilised afternoon tea at a place called melt in your mouth an 'English' tearooms of sorts. We were certainly the worst dressed and sweatiest people in there and had stumbled on where the affluent middle classes of Chiang Rai head out for a treat for the family!
Tucked into some good grub and a nice coffee and headed back into town to drop the bikes off and have a relax for the afternoon.
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| One is cyclin en route to some afternoon tea don't you know... |
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| Chiang Rai river |
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| Venue for lunch |
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| The cake counter here is like an upmarket version of the 10th hole! |
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| Nope, we are not at home, this is middle class Chiang Rai |
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| Andy happy after his afternoon treat |
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| An English, sorry Thai country garden |
Later that evening we headed out to the Chiang Rai walking street market. Held every week and a bigger affair than the daily market. We sought out some good local grub to take away and sat on the steps to a monument assembling our DIY curry-in-a-bag (I love the bag approach to takeaways in Asia, Soft drinks, coffee, tea and curries all get stuck in a thin polybag and tied up for you to take away).
Sated we wandered around and decided to get a foot massage right there in the centre of the market. It might sound weird but it's the thing to do so we packed under a tarpaulin with 20 or so locals and enjoyed a good massage for 30 mins or so for GBP 1.40 each!
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| If you do come to Asia I suggest perfecting the shoulder barge - it's not rude here - apparently! |
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| Really hoping this is an abbreviation for assorted chicken |
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| Steamed rice in a banana leaf package |
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| Bag-o-curry |
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| Assembly complete, now for the taste test |
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Some random people Ana befriended at the market in their cos-play outfits! Alison - thought of Joe and Wayii when I met these kids
The next morning we checked out and headed into town to catch our onward bus to Chiang Mai. We'd arrived pretty early in the morning as the journey was a good few hours by bus only to find that we couldn't board another bus until 6pm that evening. Apparently everyone and their dog wanted to be in Chiang Mai that day, so we sat it out in a coffee shop before deciding to see if they had any cancellations on the bus and they had! Hurrah, so we were able to jump on a 3pm bus from the other station the other side of town (of course).
This involved a rather precarious 20 minute journey crammed onto the back of a packed tuk tuk, literally hanging off the back whilst we sped through the town traffic. An adventure to say the least and I'm 100% sure that 'hanging off the back of fast moving vehicles' is not covered in our insurance so glad we made it to the bus stop in one piece!
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| Extreme Tuk tuk selfie |
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One little space in the middle for Andy... Oh actually just as we left another guy jumped on the back too!
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Next stop - Chiang Mai
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