Part 1: Chiang Rai, Northern Thailand. Around the city, up the river and through the jungle

With our wedding over and my Swedish visa about to expire, Kristian and I jumped on a plane and ended up in Chiang Rai. 

Road signs, Chiang Rai style

It is one of the most northern provinces in Thailand and has a completely different feel to Bangkok and the cities in southern Thailand. With a population of about 69,000 in the city and 1.2 million in the greater province, it felt super quiet, especially as it only took 15 minutes to get from one side of the city to the other. We also found the people much friendlier and willing to direct us to interesting and remote places of their towns and villages.

Normal restaurant we commonly ate in

As we were on our honeymoon, it was supposed to be a relaxing week. However, there was so much to see and do in the region that I kept Kriss busy with new adventures and sites to see every day.

The White Temple is - according to Trip Advisor - the number 1 attraction in Chiang Rai. To an extent, I can understand why. The guy who designed and is still building the temple has combined traditional Buddhist icons and typical Thai Wat (temple) architecture with images of hollywood characters, world leaders, creepy skulls and mirrors to create a one-of-a-kind tourist attraction. I was certainly in the minority with my 1 star review entitled ‘Ghastly…with a hint of awful’, but am still glad to have seen the monstrosity with my own eyes.

The White Temple reflected in the pool

Skull-topped road cones are an unfriendly welcome to the Wat

Predator rises from the ground

Bodyless arms hold up bowls and heads

Batman, Freddy Krugar and others growing plants for bodies

Tiny mirrors reflect the light

Side view...

Sorry everyone, 2 thumbs down

Day 2 began with a cruisy long-tail boat ride up the Mae Kok River, followed by an arduous 15km trek. I honestly didn’t realise it was 15km when we signed up the day before. I believed the woman when she said 2-3 hours easy walking!

River boats - actually very comfortable and stable

The easy, relaxing part of the day. With Krill our guide

Not keen on swimming today

Buddha watching the river

Local woman fishing along the river bank

What made the day so memorable were our guides, the smiling brothers Chill and Krill (at least I think those were the names they said!). They led us, along with Matt from Ireland and Alberto from Spain, around hot springs, up and down hills, through the jungle, between houses and across waterfalls, all the time telling stories and teaching us about many of the plants along the way. (It was handy to know about the plant that stops bleeding when both Kriss and Alberto cut themselves).

56 degrees hot springs

Village in the jungle. 3 hours to walk there, 30 mins by motorbike

At the waterfall

Dodgy bamboo bridges

As we walked, the brothers chopped off stalks of bamboo and carved and shaped them. When I asked what they were doing, they simply replied, ‘a cup’ or ‘a spoon’. I thought they were just passing the time and practicing whittling. However, all was revealed when we stopped for lunch. Cups, a ladle, cooking tubes and chopsticks came out of their packs! All beautifully formed and finished.

Chill carving chopsticks

Our lunch table and cutlery

Chopsticks even tied together

Lunch was an omelette and noodle soup with pork and vegetables, all cooked in bamboo tubes over an open fire and then mixed together in banana leaves on the ground where we sat. It sounds simple but I think it was the tastiest meal I ate all week.

Chill and Krill did all the hard work...we helped a little bit :)

Cooking the omelette, veges and meat in bamboo tubes

Hot water for the noodle/vege/meat soup

Omlette anyone?

Best lunch ever!

Chill’s skills didn’t end with his bamboo carving. After lunch, he handed Kristian something wrapped in a banana leaf and said, “Open it - for Megan”. While we were finishing lunch, he made a braided ring from bamboo fibre - I still can’t find the beginning and end of it!

The mystery parcel...

My new ring!

The last 1.5 hours walking were tough with steep hills, hot afternoon sun and tired feet. The scenery was beautiful though, seeing winding valleys, rolling hills and a tea plantation stretch into the distance. 

Through the tea plantation...a rare downhill!

These signs list the names and house number of everyone in the village

A cup of tea overlooking the tea plantation

It was a welcome relief to sink into some natural hot springs at the end of the day and let the tiredness seep out of our feet.

Kriss lapping it all up

Crazy grins after a crazy walk

We slept in the next day, then jumped into a crowded minivan heading north of the city. We had no idea where Doi Tung was. And as very few road signs are in English, we wondered if we would get off at the right place. But this is where the hospitality of the Thai people really comes in. The guy who dropped us at the bus station, found us a minivan heading in our direction. He told the driver where we wanted to go, agreed the price (36 baht each) and the driver made sure we got off a couple of hundred metres away from our hotel in Doi Tung. Just wonderful.

To find out about our next explorations and the fun people we met, head over to Part 2...Doi Tung, Mai Sae and Chiang Sean.