Chiang Rai

 Chiang Rai is different from Chiang Mai, although they are near each other in Northern Thailand. Chiang Rai, however, is the northernmost province in Thailand and forms the Golden Triangle with Myanmar and Laos. We decided to take a week and get away from Bangkok to enjoy the cooler weather of the north.

Spike is right about it being cooler, too! At night it was getting into the low 60s (17C) and it was in the 70s or low 80s (25-27C) during the day.

Because we wanted time to relax, we chose to stay at The Legend Chiang Rai. This small resort hotel is on the Mae Kok River, and feels like it is far away from everything, but parts of the city are actually in walking distance, as you will see from our travels.

 

The first thing we did was explore the main road near The Legend. This was one of those walking tours with no knowledge of where we were going, or what we were going to see. My favorite kind of tour!

For whatever reason, Spike loves what he calls the "follow my nose" tour of a place. And I have to admit, we came across some interesting people and places, and had a great lunch we wouldn't have had otherwise.

So this is a pedestrian bridge we walked past and used to cross this fairly busy road.

We also came across the Cathedral of Our Lady of Nativity, which is the Catholic Church in Chiang Rai. Santivithaya school is a secondary boarding school for students who belong to any of the many hilltribes in this area. The hilltribe village schools only go through elementary. To receive a secondary education, students have to leave home. Many of the students in the hilltribes are Catholic.

We then continued walking until we came to a very large, highly decorated site in the island of a road. With some research, we learned this was the King Menrai Monument. King Mengrai was the first king over the unified Tai groups in the Lanna Kingdom. He founded the city of Chiang Rai in 1262.

 We continued our walk and found some interesting, and sometimes functional, sidewalk art.

 

Don't forget the wall!

 The wall? What, the Berlin Wall? Another brick in the wall?

The pieces of the city wall that still exist! Honestly, Captain, we're talking about Chiang Rai, remember?

Oh, that wall. We did see it near the Mengrai Monument.

And then we found a place to sit and eat pad krapow gai! One of our favorite things to eat here!

Minced chicken stir-fried with basil and Thai chile peppers  and rice! 

 

  So, is that all for Chiang Rai? Of course not! But some things deserve their own post to do them justice.

And so you don't have to read a blog post that's the length of a short novel.