Chilling in Chiang Rai

 

As an overall we did not do a massive amount in Chiang Rai. After a pretty full on few weeks we decided a chilled out couple of days was needed.

 

Our first night was very entertaining ! We had heard about the ‘stormy season’ in South East Asia, but we had been pretty lucky so far having no rain at all. After arriving we headed out for some dinner and found a great little night market. Within minutes of us sitting down the thunder and lightning started. Next thing we knew the whole street had a black out and we couldn’t see a thing. This made dinner with chop sticks a little difficult! A few beers in the dark still went down nicely though.

 

The next couple of days we spent either by a swimming pool or at a Temple. There are three temples we went to, the white temple, blue temple and the black temple. The white temple is the most well known and very grand. There was not a massive amount to do at the blue temple however it was still just as impressive. Finally, the black temple was more of a museum with beautiful gardens surrounding it. The museum contents were mainly based around large penis shaped sculptures- which is apparently a symbol of good luck and fertility in Thailand.

 

Other than temples and swimming we also had a couple of nights at Steves sports bar. Steve and Lala (owners of the bar) were fantastic! They insisted on offering us loads of food, even if we didn’t want seaweed soup half way through Manchester United’s penalty shoot out at 1AM! This bar has got to be one of our favourites in SEA so far, helped by the Guinness on tap!!!

 

To conclude, Chiang Rai was very relaxing! We spent a good few days getting some rest and enjoying the heat.

 

On Tuesday morning we had a very early 4am start to begin our 2 day journey through Laos. We were picked up and taken to the border in a minibus, where we then had to wait a while for border control to open. The visa process was very well organised and the staff were absolutely lovely, a staggering difference when comparing it to entering the UK. We were even referred to as ‘Mr Handsome, Mrs Beautiful and Mr LadyBoy (unlucky Sam !). After a quick journey across the friendship bridge we were officially in Laos, where we were then taken to the harbour to board the slow boat. The first journey took 8 hours, and took us to PakBeng. The scenery was fairly pleasant, but it was ruined a little by how tired and uncomfortable we all were . After some food and a long sleep we were then ready to board again at 8AM the next morning. The second boat was another 8 hours, but time seemed to fly by due to a combination of decent sleep and a better boat. We arrived in Luang Prabang last night and the first impression has been good so far.

 

Favourite moment of Chiang Rai: eating in the dark mid storm!

 

Beer Choice : Chang (330ml) 70baht (£1.75).