Chiang Rai
For the next few day in Chiang Mai we didn't do much except collect our Indian visas. Then on the 28th of August we took a trip to Chiang Rai. It took about three and a half hours from Chiang Mai and when we got there we were greeted by about ten guesthouse guys, each trying to get us to go to their guesthouse. They were all very insistent, but we decided to ignore the salesmen and asked a songthaew driver to bring us to a guesthouse we looked up in my lonely planet. It turned out to be a bit of a dump and we headed for a different one which we had been recommended at the bus station by one of those guys. There they had no air-conditioned rooms so we headed for a third place, the White House. We loved the name so much that we decided to stay. It was decent enough and clean and it cost 500 baht a night.
After eating and showering we decided to head for the night market and first stop off at the Hilltribe Museum. Unfortunately the Hilltribe Museum was closing about 20 minutes after we got there so we decided to wait until the next day so we wouldn't have to rush. Across the street from the museum there were basketball courts and loads of Thai teenagers seemed to be warming up for a game. Sheena has uploaded a few of my pictures on her blog. We didn't get to see them playing any actual games but it was cool to see. Then we walked the rest of the way to the night bazaar. It was cool there, same auld shite as any other night market on sale, but they are usually interesting to walk around. This one also had a big food section where you could get french fries, spring rolls, shrimp rolls, chicken drumsticks, squid and a just about anything else. There were loads of seats and a stage with acoustic guitarists singing songs in English and Thai.
The next day we went back to the Hilltribe Museum, which was interesting, but there was an awful lot of writing, particularly on the history of opium, it would be better in the form of a leaflet than having to read it all on a wall. At the tourist office in the hilltribe museum we booked a driver to take us on a trip to hot springs which were outside Chiang Rai. First we had lunch in the restaurant downstairs called Cabbages and Condoms which aims to make condoms as easy to find as cabbages, apparently. I had beautiful shrimp spring rolls there.
http://www.pda.or.th/eng/
The Population and Community Development Association runs the Hilltribe Museum and Cabbages and Condoms and runs other programmes to aid rural Thai communities.
The Hot Springs were not very exciting. There are a few different spas around, which we didn't realise and we got there at first and just saw a big swimming pool with no one in it. It cost 20 baht to take a dip, so in we hopped. It was quite strange being in there. The water felt denser than ordinary water and if you rubbed your legs or arms they felt very soft and silky. It was also very hot (I think about 26 or 27 degrees, we can't remember exactly). It made us feel a little sick also, like it was taking your energy away, but we sat out a bit and felt okay. After we left that spa we drove to another hot spring area, which was really scenic. We didn't get into the hot springs there but the views were great so we just looked around for awhile.
The follwing day we were going back to Chiang Mai so we arranged a trip around the Golden Triangle, informing our driver that we had to be back by four in order to get our bus. This trip was great.
We started by heading to Chiang Saen where we looked at a few temple. Then we went to the Golden Triangle itself. This is where the borders of Myanmar (Burma), Laos and Thailand intersect. First we stopped and just enjoyed the view, which was great, then we took a boat trip on the Mekong river which forms the border. First we drove towards Burma where there is a very large casino, then we went back towards Laos and stopped on an Island which is part of Laos, there there is a market set up to cater to tourists like us, and you pay 20 baht and can shop to your hearts' content. I didn't buy anything, but there were alcoholic drinks with snakes and gekkos inside the bottles. They looked tempting but I managed to resist the temptation.
Then we drove to the opium museum nearby which details the history of opium production and has many old opium pipes and other artifacts such as weighing scales and weights used for measurements of opium. After this we drove to Mae Nam (I think) and had lunch. The border crossing with Myanmar is in this town and there were a lot of police checkpoint on the road to there. After this we went back to our hotel and collected our bags, before getting a lift back to the bus station.
The next day was Sheenas birthday and it plummetted rain all day long. We had intended going quadding or something but the rain was a deterrent and we ended up just posting our photo albums home and relaxing in the hotel. Then we went to a big fancy hotel for Sheena's birthday meal. It was good fun.
The following day we went for dinner with Noo, the travel agent who had booked all our activities in Chiang Mai. She was very nice to us and very friendly so we decided to take her out for dinner, and we also bought her a photo frame with a picture of us with her which we had taken a day or two beforehand.
On the Saturday we stayed in the hotel where we'd had dinner for Sheena as it was our last night before India so we wanted to splash out.
After eating and showering we decided to head for the night market and first stop off at the Hilltribe Museum. Unfortunately the Hilltribe Museum was closing about 20 minutes after we got there so we decided to wait until the next day so we wouldn't have to rush. Across the street from the museum there were basketball courts and loads of Thai teenagers seemed to be warming up for a game. Sheena has uploaded a few of my pictures on her blog. We didn't get to see them playing any actual games but it was cool to see. Then we walked the rest of the way to the night bazaar. It was cool there, same auld shite as any other night market on sale, but they are usually interesting to walk around. This one also had a big food section where you could get french fries, spring rolls, shrimp rolls, chicken drumsticks, squid and a just about anything else. There were loads of seats and a stage with acoustic guitarists singing songs in English and Thai.
The next day we went back to the Hilltribe Museum, which was interesting, but there was an awful lot of writing, particularly on the history of opium, it would be better in the form of a leaflet than having to read it all on a wall. At the tourist office in the hilltribe museum we booked a driver to take us on a trip to hot springs which were outside Chiang Rai. First we had lunch in the restaurant downstairs called Cabbages and Condoms which aims to make condoms as easy to find as cabbages, apparently. I had beautiful shrimp spring rolls there.
http://www.pda.or.th/eng/
The Population and Community Development Association runs the Hilltribe Museum and Cabbages and Condoms and runs other programmes to aid rural Thai communities.
The Hot Springs were not very exciting. There are a few different spas around, which we didn't realise and we got there at first and just saw a big swimming pool with no one in it. It cost 20 baht to take a dip, so in we hopped. It was quite strange being in there. The water felt denser than ordinary water and if you rubbed your legs or arms they felt very soft and silky. It was also very hot (I think about 26 or 27 degrees, we can't remember exactly). It made us feel a little sick also, like it was taking your energy away, but we sat out a bit and felt okay. After we left that spa we drove to another hot spring area, which was really scenic. We didn't get into the hot springs there but the views were great so we just looked around for awhile.
The follwing day we were going back to Chiang Mai so we arranged a trip around the Golden Triangle, informing our driver that we had to be back by four in order to get our bus. This trip was great.
We started by heading to Chiang Saen where we looked at a few temple. Then we went to the Golden Triangle itself. This is where the borders of Myanmar (Burma), Laos and Thailand intersect. First we stopped and just enjoyed the view, which was great, then we took a boat trip on the Mekong river which forms the border. First we drove towards Burma where there is a very large casino, then we went back towards Laos and stopped on an Island which is part of Laos, there there is a market set up to cater to tourists like us, and you pay 20 baht and can shop to your hearts' content. I didn't buy anything, but there were alcoholic drinks with snakes and gekkos inside the bottles. They looked tempting but I managed to resist the temptation.
Then we drove to the opium museum nearby which details the history of opium production and has many old opium pipes and other artifacts such as weighing scales and weights used for measurements of opium. After this we drove to Mae Nam (I think) and had lunch. The border crossing with Myanmar is in this town and there were a lot of police checkpoint on the road to there. After this we went back to our hotel and collected our bags, before getting a lift back to the bus station.
The next day was Sheenas birthday and it plummetted rain all day long. We had intended going quadding or something but the rain was a deterrent and we ended up just posting our photo albums home and relaxing in the hotel. Then we went to a big fancy hotel for Sheena's birthday meal. It was good fun.
The following day we went for dinner with Noo, the travel agent who had booked all our activities in Chiang Mai. She was very nice to us and very friendly so we decided to take her out for dinner, and we also bought her a photo frame with a picture of us with her which we had taken a day or two beforehand.
On the Saturday we stayed in the hotel where we'd had dinner for Sheena as it was our last night before India so we wanted to splash out.
posted by Alan at 1:31 AM
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