The End of Thailand

11/2 - 11/4

As our last destination in Thailand, we went to Chiang Rai. The road to Chiang Rai was long and windy with a stop at Chiang Mai. (Levka wrote all about the road in the transportation post). At the Chiang Mai bus station we had a lovely surprise: bumped into Katya who we met at Pai. We kept each other company, caught up on recent travels and exchanged advice while we waited for our busses. And soon we went our separate ways.
Katya, if you read this, let us know how the rest of your trip was. Hope you made it safely to Phangan and found Zhaba :)

Four hours later we arrived to Chiang Rai's bus station. After a usual amount of haggling with a tuk-tuk driver, he delivered us to our guest house. We stayed at Baan Rub Aroon. This was by far the nicest place we stayed at. Huge light rooms, comfy beds, helpful owner who actually spoke English and breakfast was included. The owner had a tiny kitten that she recently adopted. And that was an added bonus for me :)

There is not a whole lot that I can say about the town. It's dirty, stinky in most places, the are no decent restaurants. Overall it's unremarkable. Generally people come there as a starting point for the treks into the native villages (ex: long necks) or a stop over before crossing the border into Laos.

We briefly considered one of those treks. It feels like one of those things that you have to see when in Thailand. But then we heard many negative things about these tours as well. Most people say that it feels like a human zoo. It's very sad that these people were made into a tourist attraction. So we decided to skip that. And had a lazy day instead.

The one attraction in Chiang Rai that is worth mentioning is the White Temple. We were told to catch a local taxi to the temple. By local taxi we mean the back of a pickup truck. So we got on the taxi for our 13 km ride. The driver asked whether we would need a ride back and we said that we wouldn't that we would catch another taxi later. Through an interpreter, another helpful passenger, he told us that taxis don't go that late. Having been "misinformed" before, we decided not to listen to the driver.

It took about 40 mins to get to the temple as the taxi stopped frequently at unmarked stops to pick up or drop off passengers. At exactly 5 pm we were there and it turned out that that's the time that the temple closes :( We still walked around it and took pictures.

The place is incredible. Unlike any other Wat that we have seen. It's modern. In fact it's still being built. And it incorporates a bunch of popular culture. You can read more about this temple here:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Rong_Khun

So after we were done admiring this temple, we were ready to head back. Our logic and past experience told us that there should be many taxis, tuk-tuks and busses around this tourist attraction. When we didn't find any, we asked around the local shop owners. Turned out that the taxi driver wasn't kidding when he said that there is no transport after 5 pm. So we went to the main road and started walking in the right direction and attempting to hail a cab. We did this for quite some time and none of the cabs stopped. And did I mention that we are 13 km out of town?

Then our savior came in a form of a local girl in her early 20s on a scooter. In her broken English she explained once again that taxis don't stop in that area after 5 pm. (the logic of this is still a mystery to us). And she offered to take us to the closest bus station, 10 km away. Having no choice, we both hopped on her scooter and were off. It was a little scary especially when she told us that it was the first time that she had 3 people on her bike at once. Thankfully she shared that tid-bit only after we have safely arrived :) Throughout the ride we felt like true locals, we were only missing a small child or a basket of chickens. Ann got us to the bus station safely and helped negotiate a price with a tuk-tuk who eventually got is back to the hostel. Ann, thank you for your kindness!

2011.11.02 Chiang Rai

The following morning we were on our way to cross a border to Laos.

Goodbye Thailand. You've been good to us!