Chiang Rai, Thailand
Chiang Rai is a city in the north of Thailand, close to the borders with Myanmar and Laos. For us it was the next stop on the way to Laos.
Naive as we were, we thought we could just arrive at the GreenBus station to buy a ticket to Chiang Rai on the day itself. But everything was fully booked. Damn! We had a non-refundable booking already made in a hostel.
So we start doing research in the GreenBus office and finally decided to take a bus to Phayao, and see from there. So we book a ticket for 14:15 and go for lunch.
When we get back to the bus station at about 14:00, a guy starts pulling on Alena’s arm saying “Come with me! Come with me!”. Stupid tourists as we were, we didn’t realise that the GreenBus office was not a bus terminal at all, they just parked their buses there. So we were at completely the wrong place.
A guy told us to sit in the back of his pickup truck and we made our way to the real bus terminal. The bus was late, so no problem 🙂 lucky bastards…
In Phayao, we could instantly book another minibus to Chiang Rai. Success!
The next day, we rented a scooter for the first time. Renting cars or booking tours was expensive, and Chiang Rai is a calmer city than Chiang Mai so ideal to get accustomed to the scooter.
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
We decided to visit Singha Park. They make tea here.
By now we were quite tired of the standard Thai temples (there’s thousands of them) but the temples in Chiang Rai have much different style. It’s like they’re combining religion with horror.
Wat Rong Khun (“The White Temple”) is one of those temples. Super touristic but a must-see.
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
After the white temple, we drove on to Khun Kon Waterfall:
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
There were still some hours left in the day so we visited the second “doomy” temple, Wat Rong Suea Ten (“The Blue Temple”).
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
The last day in Chiang Rai we decided to go swim in a waterfall at Nang Lae Nai. The local kids were already swimming there, mostly naked. They were very enthusiastic about our arrival and started to shout at us and make “obscene” gestures. It was all good and well until they started pissing in our direction. Alena was not amused 😀
