Thailand the return, Chiang Rai

Chiang Rai

We’re back in Thailand. We went from Mandalay (forgetting that our cab was at 9.30, not 10.30), to Bangkok for a couple of hours, to Chiang Rai in northern Thailand. We arrived quite late so a bit of work and bed.

Next day we try and work out what we wanted to do. We thought about going to Pai, a little village which is a haven for backpackers in the mountains, but once we realised it was a 7+ hour drive, the road leading up to it had over 700 twists and turns and that we had to come back to Chiang Rai to go onto Laos (so we were told), we decided against going. We’d heard it had turned from a gorgeous little village into a backpacker haven and we wanted a little slice of Thai nature that was more accessible and maybe slightly less popular.

Wat Rong Khun

We chatted to the receptionist in our hotel who gave us a wealth of knowledge about where we should go and how to get there. We soon headed off to the White Temple, Wat Rong Khun. If anyone has ever heard of Chiang Rai, the picture that you would have been presented with is of the White Temple. It was built in 1997 by Chalermchai Kositpipat and it is a private temple owned by him. It is stunning but really strange up close. It looks almost heavenly, but really it is formed of gargoyles and hands reaching up, seemingly pleading for salvation. 

There was also a gallery of the artist’s work, some of which was very trippy, some was amazing, and some was not really to our tasts let’s say. It seemed a bit arrogant in a way as there were full size pictures of him everywhere and we weren’t allowed to cross the red line and go near the work, which meant that at some points you couldn’t read what was written about it. (The full size cardboard cut-outs seemed to be the done thing here, we soon found out). The designer would have been great at making flyers in the ‘90s for World Dance or Fantasia…remember that weird futuristic design!?

We had taken a local bus up to the temple for 20 Baht (50p) each and we didn’t want to pay any more coming back, especially as it was quite a good journey. We wandered back onto the main road just missing a couple of hitchhikers, and sat waiting for the bus. I was well up for hitching into town (about 10km) but Baby D refused. Luckily before we fell out, a ‘local car’ or songthaew turned up and took us back for 20 bt. These local cars are blue trucks with an open back and seating. They stop whenever they see someone that looks like they need a lift and away they go.

Back in town we strolled up to the Hill Tribe Museum, through the fruit and veg market where we bought a pomelo HURRAH! New favourite fruit but takes about half an hour to peel. No joke, we paid the guy £3 for it, including peeling it. 

Singha Park

We stumbled across a strange but cute little spot called Singha Park which had a huge memorial to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the adored King who died last year, and lots of odd lifesize cartoon type characters. 

Finally we made it to the Hill Tribe Museum where we learned about the different tribes that have travelled over the years from areas like Myanmar, Laos and China and settled in Chiang Rai. One tribe is the Karen, or the long necked ladies who use brass rings to lower their collar bone to make them appear to have long, swan like necks which they believe is more attractive.

Another tribe is the Akha. They believe that twins are from the beast spirit and of a woman from the tribe doesn’t kill her twins at birth, she is banished. They believe that only animals such as cats and dogs should carry and give birth to multiple offspring. Take note lucky twin nieces of mine!

Next day we were up early to go on the free city tour we’d heard about. The hotel told us it was at 9am so after walking in the wrong direction for 2km we legged it back the other way and got there 10 minutes late. The tour didn’t start until 9.30. I am guessing we are not the only stupid tourists as the hotel probably gave us the wrong time just to be on the safe side.

The tour was actually on a trolley bus so we didn’t need to do much walking which was good in the heat, but when the tour guide started speaking Thai and 10 minutes later was still speaking Thai, we were a bit bemused.

Wat Ming Muang

Actually it was fine, the tour was free and why shouldn’t they speak Thai in Thailand?! We saw the chariots they use for new year celebrations, built in 2005, which were ordered to be built by the mayor to make the city proud of itself. We also visited several temples including the famous Wat Phra Kaew temple and Wat Ming Muang temple, and we saw the clock tower. The tour was about an hour and a half long and for most of it we had no idea what we were looking at until we got back later and googled it, but it was free and it was fun. The tour meets daily at 9.30am or 1.30pm behind the King Mengrai memorial.

After the tour we wanted to do the rest of the city’s main sights so we took a bus up to the Black House, otherwise known as Baan Dam. This is on a site in a forest where Thawan Duchanee, an artist and designer wanted to house his collection of dead animals and carvings and uses the space to inspire budding artists. It’s an eclectic and interesting mix of art, architecture and artefacts such as large shells, animal furs, skins and horns and furniture and a couple of those cardboard cut-outs of himself too.

Baan Dam

We took a bus back towards town and jumped off a few miles down the road to visit the blue temple Rong Sear Tean.

Rong Sear Tean

Back in town and we headed to the night market for some food.  We bumped into a Canadian lady, Marjorie who we’d spent the morning with on the city tour and who was travelling all over Thailand for 6 weeks, and we strolled round the huge night market together and grabbed some hotpot. This is a spicy soup in a clay burner, to which we added raw meat, veg , chilli and noodles as we wanted. 

The market had everything you could possibly imagine for sale, food, drink, clothing, selfie sticks (yep we got one), souvenirs, art and so on.

Hotpot

We tried bua loi which is a dessert of rice flour balls, vermicelli in coconut milk and served with coconut ice cream. 

Bua Loi

Marjorie, who had been too polite to jump off the tour bus at the last stop where it would have been easier for her to get back, told us how she had been waltzing into posh hotels all over Thailand to use their pools under the pretence that she was staying there, and that was where she had been today…!

We had planned a day trip to a mountain village for the next day, but we decided we needed a day off so we followed Marjorie’s lead and gatecrashed a swimming pool for a few hours. Later on I finally went for a massage which was not the relaxing experience I had envisaged. The masseuse was 3 foot nothing with fists the size of water melons which pummelled my back into oblivion! All in all though, it was a great way to spend our last day in Thailand.

#chiangrai #thailand #whitetemplechiangrai #blackhouse

Observations on Myanmar

Everyone sings, loudly. I know we all sing while we are in the shower, or cooking, but we don’t tend to belt out songs in public at the top of our voices. They do in Myanmar, and they’re usually pretty good.

Bus journeys are interesting. The hostesses speak on the mic with echo and it is impossible to understand a word they are saying. Many of the night buses play something like Myanmar MTV at the highest volume possible for most of the night. We think this was to keep the driver awake…but it also kept everyone else awake.

Myanmar loves loud colours and every bus we got on, or hotel we stayed in had garish bedspreads, tiles, curtains and so on. Inside a lot of the pagodas were Buddhas with flashing neon lights, or there were markets leading into the pagodas selling mini Buddhas made of shiny lairy coloured glass or metal. One of the night buses had teddy bears hanging up throughout, and Dora the Explorer neck cushions.

People working in service and hospitality are so eager to help and probably get in big trouble if they don't. This appeared to be more noticeable in Mandalay. Each time we left our hotel, we would pause for a second to work out which way we needed to go and immediately a bellboy would appear asking if we needed assistance. When our cab driver hadn't appeared one day, we went and sat in the air conditioned reception area and Baby D was immediately presented with the local paper to kill some time. We stopped one evening to get a cake in one of the many bakeries around town and we were followed everywhere by a tiny girl with a tray to put our cakes on. She was optimistic; we only bought one. It also happened in a supermarket. It can be quite off putting but it's sweet. At least they're following us to be helpful rather than because they think we are nicking stuff which is the usual reason.

Men of all ages, including too many young guys, chew betel, which seems to be similar to paan in India. Betel which is a leaf wrapped around areca nut and tobacco, is addictive and stains the chewer's teeth bright red. All over India, Nepal and Myanmar you’ll see men and women spurting this revolting red juice from their mouths and you can see the stains it leaves everywhere.

   
In Myanmar they drive on the right hand side of the road, but most of the vehicles are right hand drive, which means they can't see when they're overtaking. Burma was under British rule until 1948, where we of course drive on the left and sit on the right so the Burmese followed suit. There are a few stories behind the change to driving on the right. In 1970 when Burma (as it was known then) was under General Ne Win rule, an astrologer advised him to move the cars to the right. Another story goes that the General had a dream to move them to the right. Others say he did it to stick 2 fingers up at Britain. There are still a lot of old cars in Myanmar and many imports from other parts of Asia where they drive on the left, and no one has bothered to change the system yet, although this may be changing. They manage pretty well actually, I have seen many worse drivers in places with better systems. 

Yangon has some very high buildings. Our hotel room was on about the 15^th floor and there was no lift as is common in these old colonial style buildings. As you stroll around town you will frequently walk into bulldog clips hanging down from buildings, sometimes attached to shopping bags, newspapers and other useful items. 

We worked out that they are used on a pulley system to collect things from ground level and are then pulled up to the required floor. This is very trusting, as many items are not collected immediately. It’s also a bit annoying when the corner of a bulldog clip hits you in the face which happened 3 or 4 times to us.

Ladies love a velveteen flip flop…

People are often seen shaking big silver bowls, collecting money on roadside, while music is blaring in the background or a man is saying something through a mic. We have also seen people on the roadside giving out free food to car passengers. We were given watermelon one day and no donation was expected. We tried to find out why but no one could explain it to us. I like to think it's just because they are community minded but I don't know.

 

Thanaka is a cream or yellow paste that is extracted from Thanaka tree branches by grinding the wood against a stone plate adding water to make the paste. It is applied over the face and sometimes other parts of the body and is said to protect the skin from the sun and help with skin complaints. It is mainly children and women that use it although we saw several young men with it on, especially in Yangon. Some might just have a couple of small spots of it, others will have it smeared all over their face and many have it as squares on their cheeks.

It is said to be used for cosmetic purposes too although the girls I spoke to denied this. Maybe that was to get me to buy some. I did try it and I am convinced it help get rid of a nasty spot I had under my eye. Everyone in Myanmar has amazing skin so maybe there is something to be said for it. I bought some and will use it like a face pack in private, but I don't think it will catch on back in London.

Bottled water at the petrol station often seems to be given out for free. Our driver gave a full bottle of water to a guy at roadside who was holding a bottle and shaking it at traffic to show it was empty. Our boatman in Bagan stopped a couple of times to drink water from big water bowls left at pagodas. I don’t know if it is simply great community spirit or altruism in Myanmar as I said before because maybe clean water is too expensive for some, but you don't often see this sort of behaviour elsewhere.

Men of all ages and social backgrounds wear long wraps, like sarongs, called longyis. I would say more men wear them than trousers. Women wear something similar but in a much brighter or more patterned fabric.

#longyi #thanaka #myanmar