48 Hours in Chiang Rai

After a pretty long week of work in the hecticity that is Bangkok, I was more than ready to get on a flight that took me 1 hour North (11 hours by bus, with or w/o AC) to the small town of Chiang Rai. I'd previously visited nearby Chiang Mai, but had heard Chiang Rai was smaller, a bit more laid back and offered more access to the moutain areas.

Arriving in Chiang Rai from Bangkok aroung 8pm on Friday night,I had more than enough time to check in to a local $10 a night hotel, walk around town and find a quiet place to enjoy some Tom Yam soup, some fried rice and a cold beer (on ice, of course) along with the well needed and much deserved foot massage.

Chiang Rai offers a lot of the basic tourist stuff: trekking in the mountains, visiting indigenous hill tribes, elephant rides, visits to tea plantations and Buddhist monastaries, etc. But I was only here a short time, I wanted to see as much of Thailand's northernmost province as possible. It didn't hurt that I had basically experienced the list above in the mountains surrounding Chiang Mai a few years ago.

So Saturday morning I was up early. I arranged to rent a 125cc Honda scooter for the day. Total cost? About 6 bucks plus gas. I set out not really with a plan, just to get to the mountains off in the distance to take some windy roads at a high rate of speed. I reacquainted myself with a manual bike transmission quickly and was soon doing upwards or 100km/hr on the country roads. I followed signs to a waterfall about 20km away. Dodging slower trucks, sleepings dogs, and grazing cattle in the road, I evetually made it to the waterfall and a pretty nice lookout point on top of a mountain. I had beaten the Saturday crowds, for as I was leaving, a group of Thais, with Chang Beer in tow, made their way to the falls to enjoy a liesurely Saturday. There was also a hill tribe village/museum nearby, but I had to get on the road, no time to linger.

Having to retrace my steps back to Chiang Rai then follow a busier route north out of the city, I navigated a six lane thoroughfare whose occupants certainly didn't mind the lane restrictions. At one point, I slowed to a police checkpoint. I assumed that this being the Golden Triangle, an area that has been notorious for opium/heroin smuggling for the better part of the past fifty years, a checkpoint or two is to be expected. I was somewhat nervous as the police thoroughly checked the id and registrations of some local motorbikers ahead of me. (I didn't have my passport with me as this was the only collateral required by the gentleman who rented me the bike.) The Thai policeman took one look at me, muttered 'ah, farang' (oh, foreigner) then ushered me through the check point. The Foreigner Card, it's everywhere you want to be.

I eventually made my way to Mae Chan, a small town from which quite a few roads split off towards the mountains to the West and the Mekong River to the East. At this point I broke down and had to purchase some sunglasses from a local gas station to combat Thailand's late morning sun. I contemplated heading north for another 40km or so to the border town of Mae Sai. From Mae Sai, farangs (only) are permitted to cross into Myanmar to stamp their passports and purchase trinkets from the locals. I comtemplated doing this to get that Myanmar passport stamp (would be my second, actually, but realized I didn't even have my passport to get stamped). Plus the road to Mae Sai promised to be more of the same: busy and flat. Instead I hooked a left and headed towards the mountains.

Soon I was heading up into the foothills switching between second and third gear on the trusty Japanese made machine. I stopped off at a few roadside overlooks for some photos of the scenery. I was following a route on a map from the 1999 edition of the Lonely Planet Thailand guide book which I borrowed from my hotel for the weekend, but the map took up only a quarter of a page and was limited in its attention to detail. Secure however in the fact the all roads lead somewhere, I continued towards Mae Salong, a town with a pretty interesting history.

From LP's web site, read the full article here:

Mae Salong was originally settled by the 93rd Regiment of the Kuomintang (KMT), which fled to Myanmar from China after the 1949 Chinese revolution. After futile intermittent rearguard action against the Chinese communists, the renegades were forced to flee Myanmar in 1961 when the Yangon government decided it wouldn’t allow the KMT to remain legally in northern Myanmar. Crossing into northern Thailand with their pony caravans, the ex-soldiers and their families settled into mountain villages and re-created a society like the one they left behind in Yunnan.

The stomach started growling before I reached the town, so I turned into an interesting place called the Flower Hills Resort Mae Salong. Perched on a mountainside overlooking the hills, this place offers luxury cottages amid manicured gardens and colorful topiary. Even during lunch hour on a Saturday, I was the lone diner in an expansive dining room which I doubt gets much use these days considering Thailand's recent designation as a travel risk. Please. I enjoyed a Chinese style lunch of grilled pork, rice and a steamed bun along with some tea grown on site, while also thoroughly enjoying watching a small army of Yunnanese workers erect what looked like a new lodge at the resort.

Off once again, I took my time navigating the town of Mae Salong, noting most of the signs in Chinese even though still in Thailand. A few stores had large sheets spread out from with tea leaves drying in the sun. The smell was fantastic for a tea lover. Just before leaving town, I decided to stop at a small museum, dedicated to the Chinese martyrs of the aforementioned 93rd KMT regiment in their struggles with the Chinese communists and subsequest relocation and expulsion from Burma. This place also documented and expressed gratitude for Thailand's continued aid and dedication to make the displaced Chinese a part of Thai society.

A little low on gas, I began descending hoping to find some fuel and afternoon relief from the heat. Luckily, I managed to find both. A roadside home with a 55 gallon drum of gas out front quenched my Honda while another waterfall site allowed be a brief walk amid the locals splashing and cooling in the mountain waters. I also stumbled upon a nearly abandoned cultural village which a sign explained was built to share local cultures of inhabitants of the Mekong Valley with the rest of the world. Not a lot of sharing going on these days.

I finally made my way back to Mae Chan. The police manning the checkpoint heading back to Chiang Rai didn't do much to stop me from going through, after all it was late in a hot and humid day, plus I'm a farang. Getting back to my hotel around 5pm, I had put a total of about 200km on the scooter.

After getting refreshed for a bit and nursing some severe forearm sunburn, I headed out to the night market, where I perused the wares of both urban and rural vendors. I happily stumbled upon the dining section of the market, where I got ahold of some skewered squid, fish paste balls and a bag of fresh spring rolls. I sat down in the public square at a table with some gentlemen who were quick to offer me some of their peanut/sprout salad dishes. I think Mr. Noi explained that they were Hmong, one of the local hill tribe minorities. Fully satisfied, I soon headed back for a night's sleep.

I woke up this morning to a steady downpour. I had no plans, which was just as well with the heavy rain. I lounged and read a bit, checked the internet in the lobby, disappointed that the Bulls/Celtics game 7 didn't go into overtime. By the time the rain moved off and the sun came back, it was about 11am and I headed out to explore Chiang Rai on foot. Finding relief from the heat in a covered market, I bought a few Thailand essentials: avaiator glasses, beer t-shirts, cds of some local music, fresh pineapple and a cheap bag to carry it all. I walked the peaceful grounds of a few local monastaries and had some noodle soup at a sidewalk eatery. Ducked into a few stores and malls to cool off in the AC, but mostly just walked, looked, taking some photos as well.

Which leads me to 5:48pm. Back in the lobby using the internet, accompanied by the sound of a late afternoon downpour. An 8:20 flight to Bangkok awaits, but not before a (hopefully) delicious Thai dinner and a tuktuk ride to the airport. It's back to work in Bangkok tomorrow morning. All in all, I must say it was a most expleasurable weekend.