Nam Ruak

Yesterday was our Chiang Rai excursion day! Our hotel in Chiang Rai offered a service where you can be driven around to 4 locations from a list they provide. We were surprised to see that all of the things we wanted to do in Chiang Rai were on that list! So we booked it the night prior and scheduled to start at 9am and had a long day ahead of us. I don't want to have to do another multi-parter post again, so we're just gonna smush this all into 1 and can go into more detail/show more pictures in person.

We woke up and had the complementary breakfast that was offered at the hotel, then made our way to the lobby to hop in the car and get driven around to the sites we selected. The first stop on the trip was The White Temple. This was about half an hour south of Chiang Rai and was more of an exhibit created by an artist with the main point of interest being the White Temple. It was really cool to see the other buildings/pieces as they were all very intricately detailed. The park is free to enter and view, but there is a fee to go inside the White Temple premises. When we did our research it was only 50 Baht to enter, but when we arrived it turned out to be 100 Baht. We still paid as we wanted to see the exterior's details up close and see inside. The inside of the temple was interesting as one of the walls contained a whole collection of characters and people from pop culture scattered throughout the scenery. Sarah was delighted to find Elvis amongst the cast of characters. After the fact, we both thought we probably could've saved the combined 200 Baht as you don't really see much more than what you can already see from outside the premises. After finishing up there, we hopped back in the car and started the drive to the next location.

The next location was the Baan Dam Museum (also called The Black House). This museum had many different types of pieces such as paintings, wood carvings, taxedermied animals, historical items/tools, gongs and drums, and statues. Majority of these pieces were stored within the many black painted buildings that resembled temples. Another thing about this museum is that 90% of the pieces are quite inappropriate. So with not wanting to subject everyone to that (and to help keep this to only 1 post), Sarah can show you some photos of those pieces at your "pleasure".

The next stop was one that we were the most surprised to see on the tour's list since it's about an hour north from Chiang Rai, The Golden Triangle. The Golden Triangle is a point where 3 countries converge (Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar). It was pretty cool to see 3 countries all in one eyeline! We walked down to a restaurant on the river and enjoyed our lunch with a view of the 3 countries. We grabbed some lemonade and headed back to the car.

The fourth and final stop of this excursion was the Wat Huay Pla Kang. This was an area that contained a huge Budhist statue, along with a pagoda and a temple. The interesting thing about the statue was that there is an elevator within it that you can take up and look out the eyes and forehead marking. It was a pretty sweet view from up there and such a cool concept. After coming back down, we went over to the temple and then the pagoda. The pagoda had staircases going to the top floor, so we decided to walk all the way up there (as if we haven't gone up enough stairs). Once coming back down, we headed back to the car to return to the hotel.

Once we got back, we hopped in the pool, and then went into town. We planned to visit the Night Bazar, which is a night market that had several food vendors as well as some live music. On the way there, we passed by a separate night market and picked up a dumpling each for the road. Then at the Night Bazar, we grabbed some fried shrimp, Sarah got some chicken green curry, and Noah got some cashew chicken. After dinner, we grabbed some Thai pancakes with banana and nutella/peanutbutter for dessert. We then walked back to our hotel and called it a night!Read more