My Man had the opportunity to travel up to Chiang Rai (the Thai province directly north of us) for an outreach project at work last week. Since we've been wanting to head up there anyway, he decided to ditch the official transportation and take all of us in our own car. The hotel we booked for the first night was about 3 hours north of Chiang Mai. On the way, we stopped at the renowned Charin Pie House, which everyone we told we were heading to Chiang Rai assured us we HAD to stop at.
There was a cool garden area with caged exotic birds, including peacocks, and a bridge over the river. We got kind of excited because the map on our phones said "Lao" and looked like a border. "Wow, we are crossing into Laos!" we thought as we walked across the precarious-looking bamboo bridge. Turns out the river is just called Lao and we were still in Thailand but it was still cool. :-)
We watched people fishing in the river, ordered some pie (definitely not as good Grandma's!), then headed out. Honestly it was too hot to enjoy staying for long, and the kids were anxious to get back to our Harry Potter book anyway (which we read on the drive). We stayed our first night in Chiang Rai at Le Meridien, a beautiful hotel with an even more beautiful infinity pool (and the most expensive buffets I've seen in Thailand!). We opted to eat at the Chivet Thammada Café instead and it was wonderful.
The next morning, while My Man worked, the kids and I headed to the pool and had a wonderful time swimming, reading, and sun bathing. Too soon it was time to check out and head to our next hotel, the Nak Nakara, a smaller hotel more centrally located downtown. My Man ended up needing to do a jail visit that afternoon, so we changed plans and instead of heading to the Golden Triangle as we'd originally planned, the kids and I hit the pool again. They were glad to have another chance at swimming since 2 1/2 hours that morning hadn't been nearly enough.
For dinner we decided to head to the Chiang Rai Night Bazaar, a short walk away. We got there just as vendors were starting to set up, so we opted to eat first. The selection was fantastic and everyone found something they enjoyed. Pork satay, fresh pineapple, French fries, fried rice, fruit smoothies, mangoes and sticky rice, and more. I even found a place selling tacos! We had just started eating when the place got hit by an incredible thunderstorm. There was lightning, thunder, and torrential downpours. We moved under cover and watched the rain.
We read Harry Potter for awhile, hoping the rain would slow down before we braved walking home. We had to shout to be heard over the storm. After awhile, My Man dared the kids to run across the courtyard. They were absolutely soaked in seconds! The rain did stop, though, and about an hour later we headed home in light sprinkles; the night bazaar shops never did open so we had to save our souvenir shopping for the next day. After a wonderful breakfast at the hotel, we said good bye to Nak Nakara and Chiang Rai and headed up to the Golden Triangle, the place where the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Burma (Myanmar) come together.
We got there early enough to beat the tour busses and easily booked a ride on a longtail boat for a quick ride up the river to see Burma, then back down and across to an island in Laos. It was great. We stopped in Laos for about an hour, browsing the traditional wares and souvenirs. We bought bananas to feed an elephant. And we got a beautiful dress for Darling Daughter. She was only disappointed we wouldn't let her bring home the cute little puppy she befriended.
The kids had decided ahead of time how much of their money they wanted to spend and it was cute to see them choose how to spend it. The boys found a collection of snakes and lizards embalmed in liquor that they thought would be good souvenirs until we explained what it really was! They still had fun looking at all the specimens though. Darling Daughter and Young Man both got great hats to keep the sun off. And My Man got me two beautiful Laos paintings for Mother's Day! Still, the highlight of the trip was definitely the boat ride.
After that we walked around the tourist areas on the Thai side. There is a huge golden Buddha statue, lots of vendors, and other statues.
Although it was getting hot, I really wanted to hike up to the wat on the hill nearby, so we braved the steep dragon staircase. It was worth it!
There were lots of beautiful stone statues and the wat doors were intricately carved, but the best part was the view.
There was also an extremely old Buddhist statue and an old temple that was in ruins.
But there was another set of dragon stairs to the top of the hill, so of course, we kept going.
It was so beautiful! I really loved stopping to enjoy the beautiful views, exotic carved stone monuments, and amazing flowers.
These yellow flowering trees are everywhere and they always take my breath away.
Supposedly from this point, you can see China, Laos, Burma, and (of course!) Thailand. Four countries from one spot. Wow!
We took a different trail down from the old temple ruins we found at the top of the hill, hiking down the side of the mountain through the jungle and I was thinking, "Wow, this is just so cool!" Then I thought, I wonder if the kids know this is not an ordinary experience? When I asked, they admitted that this one was pretty cool, but they didn't feel a need to see EVERY Buddhist temple in Thailand because there are just too many and a lot of them are kind of the same. It makes me happy and sad to know that these extraordinary experiences are kind of normal for our kids. I love that they are seeing the world and that exploring an old temple in the jungle on the border of three countries is something that they take in stride. But still, I hope they aren't missing out on that thrill that I feel as I experience the exotic strangeness of other places, cultures, foods, people. I guess that's just part of growing up as a TCK (third culture kid). We stopped at a wonderful little restaurant for lunch on our way out of town, then headed to Mae Sai and the Burmese border crossing.
My Man probably won't be happy until every country in the world has stamped his passport, so we couldn't pass up the chance to cross into Burma when we were so close. The kids and I preferred to browse the shops while he went over the bridge and through immigration. It was interesting to see how many people pass back and forth over the border here, but I was more excited about our next destination: Wat Thompla.
Wat Thompla means Temple cave fish. I had read that there were caves and a lake and a monkey temple but couldn't find a lot of details. I'm so glad we decided to check it out!
The lake was beautiful. Set at the foot of a verdant jungly mountain, it completely took our breath away. Although there weren't boats on the lake as I'd expected, there was a bamboo walkway across the lake to a trail and set of caves.
The cave offered a nice respite from the 103F (feels like 118!) temps and included ladders to explore all the way through. The lake was filled with giant fish, some looked bigger than Funny Guy! A part of me wanted to jump in to escape the heat, but the other part thought if I did, I might become fish food! I'm joking. Kind of. I didn't jump in.
According to Google Maps, the monkey temple was a bit down the road, so after a couple hours of exploring, we headed over there.
The monkeys were great! My Man bought some peanuts to feed them and was instantly surrounded. Unlike the monkeys we encountered in Bali, however, they were fairly calm and we never felt worried about getting bit.
After playing with the monkeys, we explored the main cave, which was much deeper than the one at the lake (500 m). Funny Guy got a little claustrophobic, so I came out early with him and we went to see the old stupa.
After reuniting, we watched the monkeys play for awhile, contemplated climbing up another steep set of dragon stairs (to another Buddhist temple, I presume?), but it was getting late and was just so hot, so we decided we should head home and save it for next time instead.
On our way home we read Harry Potter, finishing The Goblet of Fire. We also enjoyed some of the juiciest, sweetest pineapple we've ever had from one of the many pineapple stands along the way.
As we drove the rest of the way home, munching sweet pineapple and talking about our trip, we all agreed the weekend had been an incredible success. On our next trip to Chiang Rai, though, we hope to go mountain biking and bamboo rafting on the Mae Kok river. But we'll save that for the cooler season!
