Chiangrai Tour

 

 

Black house – บ้านดำ

hill tribe village – หมู่บ้านกระเหรี่ยง

Monkey cave – ถ้ำลิง

Mae sai – แม่สาย

Golden triangle – สามเหลี่ยมทองคำ

Chiang Sean – เชียงแสน

 

For three days I motorbiked around Chiang Ria. Seldom did I find my intended destinations but I did happen upon many an interesting spot. On the third day, returning to my hotel using a paper map as google maps on my phone always provided a route that was at least twice as far, sending me miles in the wrong direction to make a U-turn onto a road even farther away I stumbled upon a tour operator and walked inside.

All of my destinations and more in the comfort of an air conditioned vehicle for 1,000 baht, about $30. That sounded like a plan. I paid my fare and got an enormous hand written receipt detailing every stop. I guess there is no point in saying, “Chiang Ria and Golden Triangle Tour” when there is nothing else to do.

Ricky showed up promptly at my hotel at the designated hour of 8:30 the following morning. Along on the tour was Marco an Italian from Rome and a middle aged Japanese fellow.

White Temple / Wat Ron Kuhn / วัดร่องขุ่น

Our first stop was Wat Rong Kuhn, a temple unlike any I have ever seen. A visionary, possibly inspired by the legal mushrooms has created the strangest house of worship, it even features Superman.

Next up, Baan Si Dum, it’s hard to beat this for pictures and text, so I won’t bother.

My Picture

I was going to give the Villages of the Hill People a miss.  It was reported to be very exploitive and touristy, it was neither.

National Geographic Picture

I took a picture of this woman and posted it on Facebook.  A short while later somebody I know in Panama said that a National Geographic documentary had been done on these people and the woman was featured.  I expressed my doubts and then the woman posted this. Absolutely the same woman.

The collars weigh over four kilograms.  They don’t stretch the neck, they collapse the shoulders and rib cages.  Apparently they feel this is an attractive look.

I walked around took pictures of the cute kids and a homemade toy that looked like something out of the Flintstones.

Being new to WordPress, I am having a difficult time formatting this page.  Allow me to slap in some verbiage and I will pretty it up later (yeah, right).

Monkey Cave – Chiang Ria – Thailand

Monkey Cave

No Southeast Asia tour is complete without visiting some obnoxious macaques.  We saw ours at the monkey cave. <table><tr><td align=”center”>

There was a long stairway, a few more than two hundred steps and a little cave with a Buddha complete with a little klitzy LED apparatus that looked like something out of a 1960’s Sci-Fi movie.
We headed up to Mae Sai, the northern most edge of Thailand on the Myanmar border.  A long line of vehicles of every description were waiting to cross the border, laden with goods purchased in Thailand where the tariffs are significantly lower.  There was a lot of shit for sale for tourists as well as actual goods such as fishing gear and televisions.   We spent half an hour there, which was entirely too long.  If one crosses into Myanmar and wishes to proceed a guide must be hired for 1,000 baht a day and food and lodging must be provided.   When one flies into Myanmar one has much more freedom to travel.  Just crossing the bridge and returning in the same day results in one’s visa being reissued for a period of 15 days no matter how many days were left on the 30 day standard tourist visa.

Golden Triangle – Chiang Saen

We stopped for someplace for lunch.  By now it was 2:45, we were starving and the buffet had been raided.  There were empty chafing dishes and near empty dishes already stripped of any sort of meat.  Next up we headed to the border again, this time the intersection of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.  There was a large golden Buddha and near it some steps one could climb and throw a coin into a funnel that would slide down some tubes and deposit the money in the navel of a laughing Buddha.  Upon receiving the coin it laughed over loud speakers.  It was the tackiest thing I have seen on this trip.

The final stop was the Hall of Opium, a serious disappointment.  There were hand painted murals on the wall, plastic poppies and a collection of opium pipes.

Pictures

Wat Rong Kun

Baan Si Dun

Monkey Cave

Hill People

Driver and Tour Operator

The tour was arranged through Sopaphan travel https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sopaphan-Travel-Chiangrai/266911106697851

Our driver was Paween, which means bird, a very pleasant person who spoke English well.

phone number: 0897575377  Email: mickeytravels.cr90@gmail.com

From outside of Thailand call +66897575377

 

Further reading:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/26/thai-buddhist-temple-wat-rong-khun_n_1447032.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Rong_Khun

http://travelhighlighter.com/the-black-house-baan-si-dum/

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/tattoos-piercings-scarification-photos/#/thailand-long-neck-woman_12064_600x450.jpg

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