Chiang Rai

By Pete
07-09/03/2019
John and Tracy of Chateau Carter dropped us off at the Chiang Mai bus terminal mid-morning for our onward journey to Chiang Rai. The 200km journey through almost continuous road-works took a little over three and a half hour but the scenery relatively brown now after a long dry season made up for the bumps.

Arriving in Chiang Rai we made our way to the Tong Siam hostel, which according to reviews was “boutique” and it did not disappoint. It is a small hostel fashioned out of an old herbal pharmacy, the design was smart and the service friendly. It has only been open 5 months but certainly adds a bit of style to the hostel market.
We had heard Chiang Rai was quite.. well... sleepy and this didn’t disappoint either, we struggled to find traffic.. and after living in Thailand 15 years this is a good thing. (This is the High street at 8.30pm Friday, it becomes the market Saturday night)

We had visited this area on our honeymoon 26 years ago (to the week) back then we did a 3 day 2 night trek- hiking through the golden triangle, staying with ethnic hill tribes and rafting down the river. We remember this trip fondly - cooking and laughing with a local family as we helped cook dinner, chatting (more gestures and global words .. football...) to their son about the 15km round walk to the village that had electricity to watch football. We hiked, we rafted and yes we took an elephant through the forrest, it all felt authentic but then wandered into ‘more touristy areas’ where locals had started sell trinkets to tourists. Now, seeing the same treks available today we were in two minds, in the end we felt that 25 years of tourism and technology would not have improved the experience, so we choose to stay in Chiang Rai and explore the changes there.
These changes are pretty cool and include two new, wonderfully contemporary Wats and a Black House.

Wat Rong Khun also known as the white temple is the love project of the famous Thai Artist Chalermchai Kositpipat. Chalermchai purchased the, then dilapidated, Wat in the late 20th century in order to save it. He designed and built the Wat over several years opening it, partially complete in 1997. The full complex is not due to be completed until 2070!!
This is an amazing temple with contemporary interpretation of Buddhist philosophy in almost roccoco level detail.

The Black House, BaanDam is is a art installation / building complex by artist Thawan Duchanee.
The art pieces use a random selection of bones, skins and predominately buffalo horns to create art pieces and while it sounds and is promoted as ‘gothic and macarb’ it is actually just interesting and pretty monotonous, and full of tourist and selfie sticks!!

Less well prompted but equally as interesting is the newly completed (2016) Wat Rong Seua Ten or Blue Wat. This is a really nice and creative new temple that seems to break away from the traditional design and explore new aesthetic ideas within a traditional temple framework.

Chiang Rai is not just about the wats, although reading some guides it may seem to be, it is also a great place to just wander and explore. There are traditional villages within the city fabric, street markets selling fresh local produce, vendors touting local snacks and the central market, home to, the very early morning market, the morning market, the afternoon market, the evening market and the night market. There is also the old City Hall that has a great collection of old black & white photos from the past, it is free and surprisingly interesting documenting Chiang Rai’s early days.

In the evenings the tourist flock to the ‘Night Bazaar’ where they can buy typical Thai souvenirs and eat ‘authentic’ Thai hot pots or fried spring rolls while watching a pretty amateur drag show on stage. Not sure we need to experience that again.

One morning we were feeling guilty from our lack of exercise so, given it was so much cooler and less humid than Bangkok, we took the opportunity to get out and exercise. We embarked on a brisk walk to a riverside community park. Although slightly run down, there were many sporting courts and fields and a 1km running track. The walk was interesting and took us through small villages, where the locals loved to yell out “hello” to you.

To our surprise sleepy Chiang Rai wakes up on Saturday night and when a sleepy town wakes up it does it with gusto. The weekly night market kicks into life at 6.00pm and suddenly thousands of people are circulating through the 4 city block long street market. This market is a typical local market selling everything from phone chargers to flip flops second hand jeans to pot plants and everywhere food vendors. At one end there is a large open area that suddenly becomes a large, festive food market and mass circle dancing arena, with literally hundreds of people eating and dancing the night away to live music. It was truely spectacular. I’m glad we stayed the extra night to be part of this.