Day 83: More Exploring in Chiang Rai

We hadn't planned on doing a whole lot today, as we'd seen the two biggest sights of Chiang Rai the previous day. So we took things easy in the morning - I did some laundry and other errands while Shandos napped and organised things for Chiang Mai.

As it was, we didn't end up leaving the hotel until after 1pm! Wandered the few blocks near our hotel before settling on a small cafe serving mostly Western and Thai food - I had a bacon & cheese fried rice dish, while Shandos had a salad.

Afterwards we visited the Hilltribes and Opium museum. Many of the hill tribes in northern Thailand grow opium as a cash crop (it's apparently very easy to grow and obviously very lucrative), and there was some interesting displays about the history of opium usage around the world and its cultivation in the region. The rest of the museum focused on the various tribal people of northern Thailand - the Hmong, the Karen, and a few others. Unfortunately the displays weren't that great - very dusty in places and the information seemed quite out of date. I don't think I saw any dates listed beyond 1997!

Back out into the heat of the city, where we decided to finish our visit with the two main temples in town, which thankfully happened to be nearby! So after a quick pit stop for a coffee and cake at a hipster cafe, we ventured to Wat Phra Kaew and Wat Phra Sing. Both temples were great in different ways, though they're all starting to look a little same-y. Wat Phra Kaew was the better temple - it was here that they discovered the Emerald Buddha (which we saw at the Grand Palace in Bangkok), and there's several murals and so on depicting the event. It's still dedicated to that Buddha statue, though obviously there's a replica in there now. The grounds were also very pleasantly green, which combined with the high walls made it a great respite from the city. Since we were there fairly late in the day (5:30pm or so), it was basically just us, a couple of locals praying, and the saffron-clad monks. Beautiful little spot - they even had a large pond with hundreds of turtles!

Walking back to our hotel we passed through the main market of Chiang Rai; the one for locals, not tourists. Stalls of fruit and vegetables, milk, and of course meat. I saw one lady carrying a plastic shopping bag containing an entire dead plucked chicken (head, wings, feet and all) in much the same way we'd carry a loaf of bread or some milk. We've been in Asia for months now, and every now and then you get a little reminder of how different this place can be.

Dinner tonight was at a hipster food truck spot a couple of blocks from the hotel - obviously tourists haven't discovered it (though there aren't many tourists here period), as it was just locals and us watching Thailand play Japan in a World Cup qualifier. We had a couple of delicious burgers and beers while keeping an eye on the game. Thailand played valiantly but were outclassed, and ended up losing 2-0, much to everyone's disappointment.Read more