So this is our last update from Thailand (until our second visit in mid June), as we will be crossing the border into Laos later today. This means we have spent 29 days out of the 30 days allowed on our visitor visa.
Our trip to Chiang Rai from Chiang Mai was on a 3 hour (VIP’ish) bus ride that covered the 180 kilometres.
The rationale for us visiting this town was two-fold. The first was it was on our way to Laos, but it also has two major temples Wat Rong Kuhn (White Temple) and Wat Rong Suea Ten (Blue Temple). Both of these were stunning, but without a doubt the White Temple was so special and we would say it would definitely have to be in the top 3 temples in Thailand.
On the way back from visiting these temples we decided to stop for a cold drink in a local store in the middle of no where. Amazingly, the old couple had some baby civets that they showed us. These adorable ‘critters’ are known to aid the production of ‘kopi luwak coffee’ which costs NZ$50 for 50 grammes!!! The civets aid the by ingesting the ripe coffee berries and then when excreted they are used to produce the coffee.. This collection process is very labour intensive due to the traditional ways farmers look on land and in forests for suitable beans.
As the sights in Chiang Rai are spread out, it was scooter time again. We managed to squeeze in more temples (including Wat.Chet Yot, Wat Tham Phra and Wat Namlat Wang Sang), trip to the local shooting range (so Alan could shoot 20 live rounds at a target – 15 hits out of 20 wasn’t bad) and a waterfall (Kuhn Korn Waterfall).
We also did a 200 kilometre bike ride to visit the ‘Golden Triangle (where the borders of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos all converge), Doi Sa Ngo village/lookout, viewing marijuana fields and visiting the hillside village to see the ‘Karen Long Neck’s’. This last stop was one that we had mixed emotions about, but on balance we were so pleased that we went to view how the hill tribes live and earn money (most of this comes from tourism viewing the women). We spent some time just interacting with the women, their babies and also visiting (and donating) to the school in the village.
Our next update will provide information about two of the experiences Alan has spent 3 years waiting for (because of Covid travel restrictions!!).
👌👌👌 such a beautiful world!
How right you are, but also looking forward to heading to India in mid July (Northern area around Jodpur to try and miss some of the monsoons).
Lovely photos , what an experience
Thanks Cecilia, now in Laos and have an amazing experience coming up.
Looks like fun!
White temple looks amazing. Love the civets. Were they hyper on caffeine?
They were only babies 4/6 weeks old – they were sooo cute, but had very sharp claws.