Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai

We are on our last evening of four in Chiang Rai. We came up on the bus which offered a good look at the countryside between here and Chiang Mai. Interesting enough, and similar to rural parts of Vietnam North of Hanoi. Lots of people living/shops in huts along the highway.

Chiang Rai is quite a nice town. There are a few interesting things to do here, but not much to do after a few days of looking around. It is definitely a slower pace than Chiang Mai, but the people are friendly And  they had a good New Year’s bash on in the middle of town, which is only a few hundred yards from our door.

The hotel we are staying in is quite quirky, but we chose it because of that, and it has been a good place to stay.

Heidi has been a bit crook in the stomach this morning, but seems ok now. Sarah and Hamish are both still recovering from their illnesses, but are both getting better.

While here we have been to the White Temple (very interesting), Blue Temple (interesting but not as much as the White) and the Black House (Baan dam) which is a large art installation out in the countryside. 

You can get out of town pretty quickly here, and it is nice to get into the countryside after a few weeks in big cities.

Chiang Mai has grown a lot since we were last there, and the rapid growth has created a bit of a traffic problem. There is the old town of course, where there is no opportunity to change the roads. There is the a single major road that heads out tothe northwest where we were staying.

On our last day there, we managed to walk about 20 km with both Sarah and Hamish being quite sick.

We had heard of a track up the hill – The Monks Trail – to a temple for silent contemplation, so we all walked up the first couple of km to the first old temple, which was in an idyllic location, and would have been quite serene except for the hundreds of tourists, most of whom were oblivious to the ‘please keep quiet because we’re contemplating our navels’ signs. It was a reasonably steep climb to this temple, but there was another, further up the hill. 

Hamish was too sick to go on, and Sarah was not too well, so they decided to wait at the temple while the rest of us did the second leg. 

The second stretch was much steeper, and a very challenging climb in parts. It took us an hour to almost reach the second temple, where apparently there was a spectacular view on offer. We only reached a carpark though, and decided to go back down the hill (trickier than coming up) because there were so many people and cars going up the last stretch, and there was a smog hiding the views anyway .

So back down the hill, collected Hamish and Sarah, and then set off to the bottom where we were going to catch a cab, but ended up walking back to the hotel.

A swim for Hamish, Heidi and me, and a bit of an afternoon off, and we were ready to go into Sunday Walking Street – a weekly market which we remembered with great fondness from 15 years ago.

We walked into town, since we wanted an extra look around. We reached the market early with the idea we’d be in and out in a couple of hours, taxi back to the hotel and early to bed for everyone.

Plans are only made to be changed, however…

The markets were every bit as extensive as we remembered them, but there were about 5 times as many people as last time we were there. It was almost impossible to move through the crowds, and keeping 6 people together proved challenging.

We made it from one end to the other, buying a few things along the way including dinner. When we eventually got out we tried to get a taxi home, but the traffic was impossible, and by the time we were able to get a cab, we were almost home anyway, so just finished it off by foot. It was a long day on the hoof.

Chiang Mai has a traffic system to deal with the old moat. Clockwise road outside the moat, anti clockwise inside the moat. So when the inside road stops, the outside road also stops, and everything comes to a standstill (unless you’re on a motor bike).

Despite that, we had a really nice time and Xmas in Chiang Mai- different restaurant every night, bang up Xmas dinner in town, plenty of beer and some cocktails, and the kids and I got to have a swim most days in the icy cold pool at the hotel.

Tomorrow is Lop Buri. We’ll see what that brings…