Going Solo in Chiang Rai: Part 1
Is Chiang Rai and its Surrounds Worth a Visit? You Bet!
The 3.5-hour ride on the VIP Green Bus line is a comfortable way to get from Chiang Mai’s central bus station to Chiang Rai. In the rainy season, low clouds hang over the tops of mountains and the lush foliage along the roadside is wet and shiny from recent rain. Amid the green uninhabited areas, there are many small villages and roadside markets. As the bus pulls into Chiang Rai bus terminal at lunchtime, dozens of tuk-tuk drivers approach passengers offering their services, but it’s also easy to walk to many of the hotels including mine, the Diamond Park Inn Resort which I chose because the affordable offer included a pool, air-con, a bath tub and a buffet breakfast in a large, bright dining room.
Below: a double room at Diamond Park, its pool and buffet breakfast restaurant; the comfortable seats on the VIP Green Bus to Chiang Rai
Opposite Chiang Rai’s bus station are two restaurants with ‘healthy-food’ menus filled with Farang, the Connect Café, and BaanChivitMai Bakery and Restaurant – part of a humanitarian mission assisting ‘children at risk’. Both restaurants attract foreigners because they include Western food alongside their Thai dishes. I order a chicken and cashew stir fry, chocolate cake and coffee – all delicious – and have a long chat with an Aussie couple who tell me about their laid-back and exotic lifestyle in Bali over the past two decades, and their trips down the Mekong when they’d stopped at hostels or B&Bs overnight and boarded another boat in the morning. They’d also been to Malacca north of Singapore and swooned over the history and architecture they’d explored there. Needless to say, both Malacca and a trip down the Mekong are now on my bucket list. Such exchanges with fellow travellers are precious. The Aussie couple departs, and as I finish my meal the late afternoon monsoonal downpour begins its daily performance. After almost swimming to the Diamond Park hotel, I enter its reception dripping all over its white tiles. Taking a three-wheeled tuk-tuk would have been a wise move today as many streets lack footpaths, so walking along with traffic surfing large puddles and gifting pedestrians free showers is not pleasant; be warned if you intend to visit this time of year!).
A smiling young bellboy shows me my lovely room with dark teak furniture in traditional Thai style, coffee-making provisions, bar fridge, bathtub, hairdryer, small balcony, TV (in Thai) and a view of the swimming pool. Across the path is an attractive large dining room where buffet breakfasts are served from 6.30 am (for those heading out to explore the hinterland of the famous Golden Triangle) to 10.00 am – for late risers.
The rain finally gives Chiang Ria a break for a few hours. It’s a refreshing walk along narrow side streets to the Night Market where I book a driver at Kochaporn Travel Service for tomorrow (1,400 baht for 4.5 hours = 38 US$/56 AU$). Then, after taking advantage of low Chiang Rai prices, I do the obligatory shopping for gifts to take home and buy a tasty dinner at the Night Market hawker square where the crowds gather to dine and listen to music. They’re mainly Thais at the moment because the effect of the post-Covid reopening of borders – unlike the palpable inching towards ‘normal’ you might experience in Chiang Mai – hasn’t really hit Chiang Rai yet. Most diners have ordered jim jum served in clay hot pots over a flame and are busy cooking trays of fresh ingredients. In front of me, however, I have a large plate of greens with tempura prawns and a beer, all for the low price of AU$7.00.
A ten-minute walk north is Chiang Rai’s Walking street where hundreds of food stalls attract a cheek-to-jowl crowd and beside is a large square where music draws the community into synchronised line dancing while small children play to the side in multi-coloured air-filled bouncing castles. Farther along in the centre of a main intersection is Chiang Rai’s golden Clock Tower and nearby, one of the most impressive Wats I’ve seen – a lavish statement in orange and gold. Both are brightly illuminated creating incongruously opulent statements in the darkness of night.
Below: Recycled tyres make great trash cans all around town; a feline’s sun lounge on wheels and a stroll around CR at night: the Walking Street market, its food stalls, kids on jumping castles, community line dancing and impressive Wats and the Clock Tower illuminated at night.
The songthaew I take back to the hotel (utility trucks serving as taxis with bench seats either side that seat from one to a dozen passengers) has a silver-haired grandpa at the wheel while grandma sits in the back with me keeping their three-year-old grandson entertained – quite a typical routine in Thailand where both parents often have to work long hours. The child is happy in the care of his fully-engaged grandmother. There’s a sense of practicality in that all this takes place in a modest income-earning ‘taxi’.
Time to tuck in for night; tomorrow, promises to be an exciting day visiting three of the most unusual and stunning places in Thailand. See you in the next installment…
Below: dinner at the night market; my cute songthaew companion; typical Thai gifts; the porch of BCM bakery
