After a few, well deserved, days of rest in Chiang Mai, it is time for us to leave and continue discovering the North of Thailand. We will spend a few days in Chiang Rai, before heading to Laos.
Bus to Thaton, and then boat to Chiang Rai
From Chiang Mai there are several different options to get to Chiang Rai, some 120 miles away.
The first way, which is also the easiest and fastest, is by bus.
But we aren’t on a schedule and we decided to go with another option, way longer, but also a lot more scenic. First we have a 4 hour bus ride to the village of Thaton. From there, a 3 hour boat ride on the Mae Nok river to Chiang Rai. It’s our friend Luc, who lives in Bangkok, that told us about this option, and we can only thank him !
We wake up at 4:30 am to catch the 5:30 am bus from Chiang Mai to Thaton. There is another bus at 7:20 am, but buses here in Thailand are often late, and there is only one boat per day at 12:30 pm. So we don’t want to take the risk, and take the earlier bus.
We end up being the only tourists on the bus !
The bus is pretty unusual, very colorful, with fans on the ceiling. Fans that we will not need because it is pretty cold this morning, and like in South America it looks like they enjoy travelling with the doors and windows opened, no matter the outside temperature !
Despite the small uncomfortable seats, especially for Matt, who can’t really fit his legs, we are able to fall asleep until arriving in Thaton.
Thaton is a tiny village on the Mae Nok river, right by the border with Myanmar.
We arrive a few hours before taking the 12:30 pm boat. This is the only public boat that goes to Chiang Rai and leaves if at least 4 people have booked the trip. The other option is to charter a boat, but that is a lot more expensive, and worth it only if we are 6 on the boat. As soon as we arrive we go book our seat on the boat, and it looks like there is a fair number of people already registered, so no fear of the public boat getting canceled.
We wander around Thaton, small and pretty cute, where we will sit for a coffee and quick lunch.
At 12:30 pm everybody is gathered around the dock by the river. In total we are 14 wanting to get to Chiang Mai, half of us being French. So we get separated into two different boats, 7 of us per boat.
The boat are classic long tail boats that you find all around the country that look like this.
Our bags are thrown in the front of the boat, and then we start our 3 hour navigation to Chiang Rai.
Despite the uncomfortable seats, the ride is very enjoyable.
Historically the river was the main way of transportation in the region, and was very often used to transport people and goods between Thaton and Chiang Rai before a road was built.
We go down the river, through many tiny villages surrounded by lush vegetation. We see many locals that seem very welcoming and wave and say hi to us. We are in a pretty isolated region, still preserved from mass tourism.
Fields of banana trees and pineapple plants are everywhere.
The current sometimes is pretty strong and we get wet from time to time.
We are lucky enough to see an elephant drinking by the river. Maider is super excited!
We arrive in Chiang Rai around 3:30 pm, where we go straight to our hostel. After a short walk around the city we sit down to have a cold beer. At first sight we find Chiang Rai a lot less charming than Chiang Mai. But given that we are staying only 2 days it doesn’t really matter .
Visit of the white temple
If we came to Chiang Rai it is to visit the famous white temple, Wat Rong Khun.
After a good night of sleep, we take the local bus to get to the white temple, located 8 miles South of Chiang Rai. In the bus, we are the only tourists, with another Canadian couple. They just arrived from Laos so we talk about our different experiences. They give us plenty of tips for our time in Laos and we give then a few tips for Thailand.
The white temple is probably to most famous temple in Thailand. It is so bright and white that it almost hurts our eyes.
This temple started to get built in 1997 by the Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat, and will only be finished 60 or 90 years after his death (according to him).
Using the traditional codes of Buddhism, the artist also added some contemporary artistic features. For example, leading into the temple you first cross two forest of hands that are reaching for the sky and symbolize lust.
Inside the temple, where it is forbidden to take pictures, there is the usual statue of a Buddha. But you can also see painted on the wall opposite to the Buddha a giant mural with Buddhist representations mixed with paintings of Matrix, Star Wars, George W Bush and Bin Laden or even Kung-fu Panda.
Around the temple are many other of the artist’s creations, like super hero’s heads hanging from the trees.
Way too touristic for us, Wat Rong Khun remains a very intriguing temple and a must-do in the region.
On the way back we hop into the back of a tuk-tuk that asks for the same price as the bus.
Visit of the black house
Back in Chiang Rai we take another local bus, just as colorful as the one this morning with the same fans on the ceiling, to go see the black house, Baan Si Dum, also called the museum of death.
Just 6 miles North of the city, the black house, is a little less visited than the white temple. And the artist seems even crazier than the one that built the white temple.
The area around the main “temple” is home to 40 little black houses made of wood, glass or clay.
Created by the artist Thawan Duchanee, the decoration is pretty atypical. With plenty of animal fur or skin (he seems to like dead crocodiles), paintings, sculptures (again he seems to have a certain taste for penises), animal bones and plenty of other things having a link with death.
The place is pretty weird and mysterious but made us laugh a lot. Really unique.
Night market
We get back to Chiang Rai in the afternoon and go grab dinner at the night market.
We try for the first time a hotpot. These little pots, made out of clay, heat some soup where we cook our noodles, chicken, egg and veggies. All the locals seem to be ordering this so we decide to try it.
We asked for the non-spicy version of the soup, but end up with something really spicy. Not sure if they didn’t understand or if the spicy version is REALLY spicy. Anyway, Maider starts sweating from the nose again but the whole thing is super tasty.
Last day in Thailand
We have a last day left in Chiang Rai, where we work on the blog and prepare our itinerary for Laos. There are plenty of other things to do in the region but we are pretty late on the blog… and we just realized that our arrival in Laos will coincide with the Chinese New Year. That means we have to change our itinerary because the prices of hostels in major cities sky-rockets during this period.
Our 4 weeks in Thailand end here, since the next day we are taking a bus to Huay Xai on the border with Laos. As we mentioned on the previous article, about the Mae Hong Son loop, Thailand was an awesome surprise. We discovered a loving and smiling population, saw incredible landscapes off the beaten path and ate delicious meals everyday.
We hope to come back and maybe spend more time in the North of the country. Definitely our favorite part of Thailand.
Next step Laos, see you on the other side of the border!