Chiang Rai and Chiang Khong

After a couple more days in Chiang Mai, we headed north to Chiang Rai. The bus felt like it had no suspension at all on the mountain roads and duly broke down half way. Fortunately for us it was a rest stop and all buses on their way to Chiang Rai also stop here, so after an hour’s wait or so, we were able to get two seats on a bus to complete the journey. It meant we lost most of the day to travel but we at least arrived in one piece!

Chiang Rai itself is a small city but with a lot of traffic. The main features of the city are the clock tower – which I’ll get on to later – and the night bazaar. The rest of the sights are a few kilometres outside the city centre.

The most stunning – and perhaps the main reason to visit Chiang Rai – is the White Temple (Wat Rong Khun). 

The White Temple

At the end of the twentieth century the temple was incredibly run down and in need of renovation, but with no funds available to do so, so local artist Chalermchai took it upon himself to raise the funds and completely renovate the temple. His vision is to not be influenced – neither artistically, or through others’ monetary contributions – and he wants his temple to be as famous as the Taj Mahal, or Angkor Wat. 

Chalermchai is on site every day continuing his works and expects the project to be completed around 2070, ongoing even after his death. He has apparently raised and spent nearly £900,000 of his own money on the project so far!

Unlike other temples Wat Rong Khun has a much more modern feel. The idea is that you enter Hell as you approach and enter the temple, then once you have passed through the main building, you leave into Heaven. The ‘Hell’ section features sculptures of severed heads hanging from the trees, strange monsters and a moat of hands reaching up towards you!

Moat of hands

'Hell' at the White Temple

The same artist also designed the clock tower in central Chiang Rai – you can certainly see the similarities to the White Temple.

The clock tower

We also took the time to visit another modern temple, known as the Blue Temple. The building itself is in a similar style to other temples in the region, but painted in shades of blue and gold and is quite beautiful. Unfortunately, on the day we visited the Blue and White temples it was quite overcast so my photos don’t really do them justice!

Inside the Blue Temple

We also did a cooking class whilst we were in Chaing Rai, making four Thai dishes, including making the red curry paste from scratch. The day started with a visit to the market with the teacher to buy all the ingredients we’d need for our chosen dishes. Everything was really fresh and locally grown and sourced. 

Market visit

The teacher – a local lady – also gave us a tasting tour of the market, giving us the opportunity to try some of the weird and wonderful looking snacks for sale in the market, that we otherwise wouldn’t know how to eat! We tried sticky rice mixed with mung beans and sugar then barbecued in a banana leaf; sweet doughnuts with a savoury bean filling, coconut pancakes, more sticky rice baked inside a bamboo with sugar; and an appetite stimulating pepper leaf made into a parcel and filled with fresh ginger, chilli and lime – it was fiery but, gave us an appetite for our lunch after a morning of tastings.

Our shopping complete, we headed back to our host’s kitchen and were each allocated our own cooking station to make the four dishes under her supervision. 

Making the red curry paste

Busy in the kitchen!

First up was Pad Thai, followed by hot and sour prawn soup, Thai red curry with chicken and then bananas in coconut milk.

Pad Thai

Hot and sour prawn soup

Thai red curry with chicken

We were absolutely stuffed after we’d eaten all that, but proud of ourselves. We hope we can now replicate this when we’re back home! 

As an aside, the Thais find it quite amusing that us Westerners can’t handle our chilli like they can. When you order a dish in a restaurant they always ask how spicy you’d like it. Now, I’m a fan of spicy food, but apparently, what I call hot, they call ‘medium-low’!

Leaving Chaing Rai, we headed to Chiang Khong, on the Thai-Laos border. It’s a small town, popular on the backpacker trail for tourists crossing the border on land. It’s right on the banks of the fast-flowing Mekong River and it’s Laos on the other side of the river. 

Our first view of Laos, across the Mekong River

We’ll cross the border later today then get on a bus to Luang Prabang, our next stop. I’ll blog again once we’re there.

Pai

There are 762 curves on the 135km road from Chiang Mai to Pai – except ‘curves’ doesn’t really do the journey description justice. What this really means is three hours of sharp hairpin bends and steep mountain roads – a journey for the strongest stomachs only – made in a minivan by a driver who thinks he’s on a race track! (The minivan drivers here have a reputation for speeding and blindly overtaking on these mountain roads – perhaps because they want to get there quicker and squeeze in another journey, or perhaps they drive the route every day and know the roads well – but it’s not for the faint-hearted! For those who are familiar with the hairpin bends between Penberth and St Buryan in Cornwall, this is a fair description of the majority of the journey, without exaggeration!

Everyone in Pai hires a scooter when they arrive. All the main sights are a few kilometres outside of the centre – too far to walk, but easily accessible by moped – and at a cost of just £2 a day to hire one we decided to take advantage. Our accommodation was also up a steep mountain road and at night there were a lot of barking dogs – they probably meant no harm but it was hard to hold our nerve when the dogs ran up to (greet?) us – so the scooter also meant we didn’t have to run the gauntlet after dinner every night and we got back unscathed. 

We stayed in a hut/bungalow in the aptly-named Mountain View Guest House – and what a view it was! Every morning we woke up in the clouds and watched the mountains appear during breakfast as the sun burnedt though the morning mist. I could get used to waking up like that every morning! Some days we awoke to thick fog – and it was really cold – other days we were above the clouds, looking down on them like we were flying above the mountains in an aeroplane. By 10.30 everyday, however, the sun had won out and we had a week of perfect, sunny weather.

Our breakfast view

There is a downside, however, to living up a mountain in an area of dense jungle – that’s being closer to nature. Our bathroom at night kept on surprising us – one night we went in to find a scorpion (who on closer inspection put its sting up – eek!) We came back another night to find a large frog in the toilet (which we gladly flushed back down!) and pretty much every other night 2 large slugs came to visit – but always disappeared by morning. I’m not sure how they got in, or where they went but we always made sure we put flip flops on to go to the toilet in the night!

Our bungalow

So off on our scooter we went, visiting Mhor Pheng and Pembok waterfalls, Pai Canyon and the Land Split.

Pai Canyon

Mor Pheng waterfall

The Land Split is just that – where the land has split following earthquakes in 2008 and 2011. It’s not hugely impressive to look at in itself, but the enterprising farmer (who can no longer use the land for farming) turned it into a tourist attraction by giving all visitors a picnic of fruits grown on the land, including passion fruit, papaya, banana and roselle (which is in the hibiscus family) juice and jam – all for a small voluntary donation.

Roselle flowers drying in the sun

Pai is very beautiful and consequently, it’s almost impossible to do it justice on camera. The impressive mountain panoramas, ever changing as the sun and shade moves throughout the day, and picturesque natural wonders. There’s always the smell of wood smoke in the air (due to controlled burning in farming) and a humid, verdant smell which adds to its beauty.

The Land Split

The town itself is a small square, of which three streets are pedestrianised every night and as the sun goes down they turn into the night market – or walking streets, as they are known here. The stalls sell a combination of street food and drinks, clothes and souvenirs and are a great way to spend the evening, soaking up the atmosphere. 

Walking Street (market)

Pai is hugely popular with Chinese tourists and western backpackers and as the evening progresses the streets get busier as everyone heads into town for dinner. When we’d had our fill of beautiful scenery for the day, we enjoyed just hanging out in the town over a fruit shake and noodles in a street café, or a beer by the river.

If you’re ever in Northern Thailand I would highly recommend a visit to Pai – assuming you can stomach the minivan ride there, it’s definitely worth the effort.

Next up we’re continuing on to Chiang Rai (back via Chiang Mai for a couple of nights), then over the border into Laos. I’ll blog again next week.