The city of Chiang Rai, located in the far north of Thailand, had been on our wishlist from day one of our journey. We had both seen pictures of the famous Wat Rong Khun, the "white temple" of Chiang Rai. Sara never needs an excuse to go on a weekend adventure, but for myself, being more of a homebody, I was excited to see the white temple in person.
After our rewarding but stressful trip to Phitsanulok and Sukhothai last weekend, we planned a much more manageable journey to Chiang Rai. Sara had yet another long weekend due to yet another Thai holiday, and thanks to her friendly fellow teachers swapping classes, we were able to leave Hang Chat early Friday morning to catch the bus "non-stop" from Lampang to Chiang Rai. The non-stop bus takes a much more direct route to Chiang Rai, heading almost pure north from Lampang rather than sidestepping to the travel hub of Chiang Mai before continuing on. Of course, in typical Thai fashion, non-stop doesn't mean the bus doesn't make stops; believe me, it does. The great (awful?) thing about Thai buses is that they not only stop at any and every bus stop in any and every little blip of a village, they also go the extra mile by asking literally every individual passenger where they'd like to be dropped off. This means, in theory and practice, that the bus will stop every block for several kilometers rather than drop the passengers off as a group in a central location. Are we having fun yet?
We arrived in Chiang Rai after our five hour bus ride with sore butts, but otherwise energized and optimistic. Chiang Rai seems to be a bit of a hidden gem due to its location and unjustified status as inferior to Chiang Mai, the latter of which feels like it only exists to cater to foreigners who read about it in Lonely Planet. Chiang Rai, on the other hand, was sleepy and peaceful enough to feel like an authentic Thai city while being big enough to keep we tourists entertained. A big plus right off the bat was the bus station, something I've come to evaluate in every city we visit. Unlike Phitsanulok and Lampang, the bus station in Chiang Rai was orderly, relatively clean, and easy to navigate.
The second huge plus came in the form of a stupidly-adorable dog that spent our entire meal with us when we stopped across the street from the bus station to refuel. The cafe was a typical "farang-friendly" Lonely Planet pick; overpriced and underwhelming food with an English speaking waitstaff and lots of cute crap on the walls. However, anyone that knows Sara and I would understand why the little dog showering us with attention more than made up for its shortcomings. We figured out the directions to our guesthouse and hired a tuk-tuk to take us there.
Our hotel, the Lek House, was on the far northwest side of the city. The food and room were nothing to write home about but the woman running the place was incredibly helpful in hiring us a cab for the trip to the white temple, as well as helping us find an alternate motorbike rental location when they ran out of rentals the following day. There were a couple other foreigners staying as well, and one couple was taking a cooking class right inside the hotel's outdoor kitchen.
We were motivated to take care of business rather than dawdle around town, so we got our cab and headed southwest to Wat Rong Khun. The drive was beautiful, not just for the cab's air conditioning, but for the serene countryside views and picturesque mountains rising to the east and south. Our driver was also friendly, though I think he got a kick out of saying one Thai phrase slowly that we could understand before following it with six or seven rapid-fire sentences that left us completely bewildered. The trip took about fifteen minutes and our driver dropped us at the temple, agreeing to wait for us at the 7-11 up the road.
Our trip around the temple was fantastic, genuinely awesome, and Sara took a lot of wonderful pictures. The ornate design, the creepy sculptures, and the vibrant and visionary mural inside the main temple (by Chalermchai Kositpipat) make the white temple a singular destination in a country filled with thousands of noteworthy temples. The temple was so impressive it joined the royal pagodas on Doi Inthanon as the second entry on my list of "must see" locations in Thailand - the places I would force anyone who came to visit us to check out. (Be sure to click on an image to see a larger version.)
Photography is prohibited within the temple so Sara couldn't get pictures of the mural. However, others have apparently disregarded this rule and captured some of the art.
After exploring the temple and the surrounding grounds, Sara and I bought a silver ornament to hang on a sculpted tree - after the entire family signed it of course =) It'll be hanging there well after Sara and I are gone, so hopefully Bubby and Doodle can visit it in a few hundred years and share a laugh and a memory or two.
Back in the city, we had some delicious Kao Soy (my favorite Thai dish) for dinner before shopping the Chiang Rai Night Bazaar. Again, unlike Chiang Mai, the prices were reasonable, sometimes even cheaper than Lampang. I think I counted thirty-six different items Sara considered buying - she likes shopping a lot more than I do and I could tell this was her favorite shopping destination thus far.
We also learned that Chiang Rai was about the same size, population-wise, as Lampang, which was surprising considering how much more well known Chiang Rai is. Walking around the city, I was struck by how peaceful and manageable it seemed for a relatively big city. We explored about a fourth of the city, in the central and western parts of town, in about two hours. Also impressive was the town center's clock tower, which had an ornate design and wow-factor similar to Wat Rong Khun. When we were sufficiently exhausted and well-fed, we crashed back at the hotel to rest up for our trip into the mountains the next morning.
Sara had stumbled upon our next destination almost accidentally, and I'm still not sure it really existed: Bamboo Nest de Chiang Rai. Located about fifteen miles outside the city, high, high in the mountains, surrounded by valleys of lush forest, waterfalls, hot springs, and terraced rice patties. As soon Sara saw the pictures she fell in love, so I was utterly unable to talk her out of staying there due to my anxiety over being able to find it on our rented motorbike. Turns out we'd have been a lot better off not being able to find it and paying the extra $20 to have the owner pick us up in the city.
You see, there IS a road that takes you from the foot of the mountains to the Bamboo Nest, and it IS possible to navigate a rinky-dink scooter up the sheer cliffs and through the thick, slippery mud piles that constitute a high percentage of said road - we found out it was possible after the owner of the guesthouse agreed to retrieve our motorbike from the spot on the side of the road we abandoned it after wiping out about three quarters of the way up the mountain.
I have to laugh in hindsight because we did an almost unbelievable job to get the bike as far as we did without killing ourselves, but I was quite shaken by the time we finally arrived at the top of the mountain, drenched in sweat and bloodied. Noi, a thimble-sized Thai who owns and operates the guesthouse with his wife Nok, couldn't do much but shake his head at our plight. We owe him BIG TIME for not only bringing our bike all the way to the top of the mountain, but for taking pity on us when it was time to leave and driving it all the way back down. =)
Other than that bit of bad luck which could have been a lot worse, our entire stay at the Bamboo Nest feels like a dream. The sights, the sounds, and the incredible smells of that remote corner of the world were so pure and rewarding that I couldn't help but feel undeserving. After all, the single biggest element of its beauty was the lack of human influence. It was just Sara and I, Noi and Nok, and a very friendly family from the Netherlands, surrounded by breathtaking nature.
Just down the mountain was a tiny hill tribe village, with chickens running through the streets and pigs sleeping peacefully in the shade. Sara took a solo trip through the village to take pictures while I rested in our bungalow. Our rustic cabin had huge windows that opened up on three sides to let the breeze through and provide views of the vivid green countryside.
Sara and I both logged crucial hours in the hammock out back, and I think we both could have happily lived and died there.
We spent a lot of time hanging out in the clubhouse, enjoying the view, eating the above-average guesthouse food, and getting to know the other boarders; first the family from the Netherlands and then the amazingly sweet dogs and cats that lived at the Bamboo Nest. Khao, the big dog named for the Thai word for white, the friendly and happy neighborhood dog who Noi tries unsuccessfully to chase away all day long, and, Sara's favorite, a stumpy little dummy dubbed Scrappy Doo who absolutely LOVED Sara and would follow her around until he heard a noise somewhere and would run off in a barking frenzy. Later in the evening, I came up from our cabin to find Sara giving major rubdowns to two VERY happy cats while Khao and Scrappy wagged their tails nearby, waiting patiently for Sara to return to the game of fetch she'd previously initiated. Any time we get the feeling we are bringing happiness to this country's innumerable animals we feel happiest ourselves, and this was definitely a high point for the trip!
Our time in paradise flew by and, with a lot of help from Noi and some very slow and cautious driving on my part, we made it back to the Chiang Rai bus station with ease. We even had a little bit of good luck come back to us when the motorbike rental shop didn't notice or didn't care that we scratched their bike up in our spill! Another butt-numbing five hour bus trip later and we were back in sweltering Lampang, bloodied but not broken, wiser for our mistakes, and incredibly grateful to have seen and enjoyed Chiang Rai city, Wat Rong Khun, and the countryside surrounding the Bamboo Nest. I already wish I were back in the mountains, and I know I'll be just as grateful to have these memories and Sara's pictures to look back on many years from now. =)
After our rewarding but stressful trip to Phitsanulok and Sukhothai last weekend, we planned a much more manageable journey to Chiang Rai. Sara had yet another long weekend due to yet another Thai holiday, and thanks to her friendly fellow teachers swapping classes, we were able to leave Hang Chat early Friday morning to catch the bus "non-stop" from Lampang to Chiang Rai. The non-stop bus takes a much more direct route to Chiang Rai, heading almost pure north from Lampang rather than sidestepping to the travel hub of Chiang Mai before continuing on. Of course, in typical Thai fashion, non-stop doesn't mean the bus doesn't make stops; believe me, it does. The great (awful?) thing about Thai buses is that they not only stop at any and every bus stop in any and every little blip of a village, they also go the extra mile by asking literally every individual passenger where they'd like to be dropped off. This means, in theory and practice, that the bus will stop every block for several kilometers rather than drop the passengers off as a group in a central location. Are we having fun yet?
We arrived in Chiang Rai after our five hour bus ride with sore butts, but otherwise energized and optimistic. Chiang Rai seems to be a bit of a hidden gem due to its location and unjustified status as inferior to Chiang Mai, the latter of which feels like it only exists to cater to foreigners who read about it in Lonely Planet. Chiang Rai, on the other hand, was sleepy and peaceful enough to feel like an authentic Thai city while being big enough to keep we tourists entertained. A big plus right off the bat was the bus station, something I've come to evaluate in every city we visit. Unlike Phitsanulok and Lampang, the bus station in Chiang Rai was orderly, relatively clean, and easy to navigate.
Our hotel, the Lek House, was on the far northwest side of the city. The food and room were nothing to write home about but the woman running the place was incredibly helpful in hiring us a cab for the trip to the white temple, as well as helping us find an alternate motorbike rental location when they ran out of rentals the following day. There were a couple other foreigners staying as well, and one couple was taking a cooking class right inside the hotel's outdoor kitchen.
We were motivated to take care of business rather than dawdle around town, so we got our cab and headed southwest to Wat Rong Khun. The drive was beautiful, not just for the cab's air conditioning, but for the serene countryside views and picturesque mountains rising to the east and south. Our driver was also friendly, though I think he got a kick out of saying one Thai phrase slowly that we could understand before following it with six or seven rapid-fire sentences that left us completely bewildered. The trip took about fifteen minutes and our driver dropped us at the temple, agreeing to wait for us at the 7-11 up the road.
Our trip around the temple was fantastic, genuinely awesome, and Sara took a lot of wonderful pictures. The ornate design, the creepy sculptures, and the vibrant and visionary mural inside the main temple (by Chalermchai Kositpipat) make the white temple a singular destination in a country filled with thousands of noteworthy temples. The temple was so impressive it joined the royal pagodas on Doi Inthanon as the second entry on my list of "must see" locations in Thailand - the places I would force anyone who came to visit us to check out. (Be sure to click on an image to see a larger version.)
Photography is prohibited within the temple so Sara couldn't get pictures of the mural. However, others have apparently disregarded this rule and captured some of the art.
After exploring the temple and the surrounding grounds, Sara and I bought a silver ornament to hang on a sculpted tree - after the entire family signed it of course =) It'll be hanging there well after Sara and I are gone, so hopefully Bubby and Doodle can visit it in a few hundred years and share a laugh and a memory or two.
Back in the city, we had some delicious Kao Soy (my favorite Thai dish) for dinner before shopping the Chiang Rai Night Bazaar. Again, unlike Chiang Mai, the prices were reasonable, sometimes even cheaper than Lampang. I think I counted thirty-six different items Sara considered buying - she likes shopping a lot more than I do and I could tell this was her favorite shopping destination thus far.
We also learned that Chiang Rai was about the same size, population-wise, as Lampang, which was surprising considering how much more well known Chiang Rai is. Walking around the city, I was struck by how peaceful and manageable it seemed for a relatively big city. We explored about a fourth of the city, in the central and western parts of town, in about two hours. Also impressive was the town center's clock tower, which had an ornate design and wow-factor similar to Wat Rong Khun. When we were sufficiently exhausted and well-fed, we crashed back at the hotel to rest up for our trip into the mountains the next morning. Sara had stumbled upon our next destination almost accidentally, and I'm still not sure it really existed: Bamboo Nest de Chiang Rai. Located about fifteen miles outside the city, high, high in the mountains, surrounded by valleys of lush forest, waterfalls, hot springs, and terraced rice patties. As soon Sara saw the pictures she fell in love, so I was utterly unable to talk her out of staying there due to my anxiety over being able to find it on our rented motorbike. Turns out we'd have been a lot better off not being able to find it and paying the extra $20 to have the owner pick us up in the city.
You see, there IS a road that takes you from the foot of the mountains to the Bamboo Nest, and it IS possible to navigate a rinky-dink scooter up the sheer cliffs and through the thick, slippery mud piles that constitute a high percentage of said road - we found out it was possible after the owner of the guesthouse agreed to retrieve our motorbike from the spot on the side of the road we abandoned it after wiping out about three quarters of the way up the mountain.
I have to laugh in hindsight because we did an almost unbelievable job to get the bike as far as we did without killing ourselves, but I was quite shaken by the time we finally arrived at the top of the mountain, drenched in sweat and bloodied. Noi, a thimble-sized Thai who owns and operates the guesthouse with his wife Nok, couldn't do much but shake his head at our plight. We owe him BIG TIME for not only bringing our bike all the way to the top of the mountain, but for taking pity on us when it was time to leave and driving it all the way back down. =)
Other than that bit of bad luck which could have been a lot worse, our entire stay at the Bamboo Nest feels like a dream. The sights, the sounds, and the incredible smells of that remote corner of the world were so pure and rewarding that I couldn't help but feel undeserving. After all, the single biggest element of its beauty was the lack of human influence. It was just Sara and I, Noi and Nok, and a very friendly family from the Netherlands, surrounded by breathtaking nature.
Just down the mountain was a tiny hill tribe village, with chickens running through the streets and pigs sleeping peacefully in the shade. Sara took a solo trip through the village to take pictures while I rested in our bungalow. Our rustic cabin had huge windows that opened up on three sides to let the breeze through and provide views of the vivid green countryside.
Sara and I both logged crucial hours in the hammock out back, and I think we both could have happily lived and died there.
We spent a lot of time hanging out in the clubhouse, enjoying the view, eating the above-average guesthouse food, and getting to know the other boarders; first the family from the Netherlands and then the amazingly sweet dogs and cats that lived at the Bamboo Nest. Khao, the big dog named for the Thai word for white, the friendly and happy neighborhood dog who Noi tries unsuccessfully to chase away all day long, and, Sara's favorite, a stumpy little dummy dubbed Scrappy Doo who absolutely LOVED Sara and would follow her around until he heard a noise somewhere and would run off in a barking frenzy. Later in the evening, I came up from our cabin to find Sara giving major rubdowns to two VERY happy cats while Khao and Scrappy wagged their tails nearby, waiting patiently for Sara to return to the game of fetch she'd previously initiated. Any time we get the feeling we are bringing happiness to this country's innumerable animals we feel happiest ourselves, and this was definitely a high point for the trip!
Our time in paradise flew by and, with a lot of help from Noi and some very slow and cautious driving on my part, we made it back to the Chiang Rai bus station with ease. We even had a little bit of good luck come back to us when the motorbike rental shop didn't notice or didn't care that we scratched their bike up in our spill! Another butt-numbing five hour bus trip later and we were back in sweltering Lampang, bloodied but not broken, wiser for our mistakes, and incredibly grateful to have seen and enjoyed Chiang Rai city, Wat Rong Khun, and the countryside surrounding the Bamboo Nest. I already wish I were back in the mountains, and I know I'll be just as grateful to have these memories and Sara's pictures to look back on many years from now. =)
A big THANK YOU to Jack for writing this post! ♥
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