One of the things we seem to do when we turn up to a new town, is to have a wander around in the evening and see what we can find. We don't really pay attention to guidebooks so it was a bit of a surprise when we stumbled across the main clock tower in the centre of town. It's a golden monstrosity covered in coloured LED lights, with the middle of the tower hollow. We laughed at the tackiness while wondering why a busload of Japanese tourists were standing around. Then the clock struck 9pm and music started to play. For the next ten minutes, lights flashed and changed colour in time with the music, some kind of gold egg descended and opened up to reveal what looked like a big jewel inside, then it closed and was taken back up inside the clock. We couldn't believe what we had seen. Come on Oamaru, while the Opera House does have lights it certainly doesn't have a musical show. If Chiang Rai can do it, I think you should too!
Since we were in Northern Thailand, there was some slightly different food from the South. A bit like Southland and its cheese rolls, but slightly more varied. The delicious dish of Khao Soi (pronounced 'Cow Soy') is what we went in search of one day, and after asking our guest house where the best was we found it was just down the road, jackpot! A yummy mild chicken curry noodle soup served with crispy noodles, pickled cabbage and lime, the guest house did not lie when they said this was the best. We even went back the next day. You'll find it at a blue coloured restaurant on Jet Yot St opposite Wangcome Hotel - and you should definitely hunt it down if you're ever in the area, so good!
Once again I was talked into hiring a scooter - but I'll admit it's a good thing we did else we probably wouldn't have seen the White Temple. It was spectacular, like stepping into a fairy tale: a temple unlike any we've seen before. Completely white and covered with tiny squares of mirrored glass, the whole temple shimmered in the sunlight. A bridge over a pond to get inside is guarded by fierce looking guardians and hundreds of concrete hands reaching up to grab at your ankles. You just can't take your eyes off it, it's so pretty yet scary. Inside the temple an artist was hard at work painting the walls. But they're not your traditional pictures, instead he's incorporated pop-culture icons along with his own tradtional buddhist interpretations. Unfortunately no photographs are allowed inside, but we found everything from Superman to Caption Jack Sparrow, Michael Jackson to Dragon Ball Z, a pair of Converse Sneakers, Angry Birds, Sailor Moon, Harry Potter and much more!
Not too far from the temple was also a national park, so we got back on our scooter and headed off to check it out. As we zipped along the quiet back road, green rice paddies swooshed by. Then the rice paddies became hills, forests and small villages as the late afternoon sun dropped behind them. The sealed road became covered in potholes and we had to slow down, moving out of the way of approaching cars. Not far from the park entrance we passed a large creek running alongside the road. Hundreds of locals were cooling off, swimming, floating on tyre tubes, having picnics and relaxing in the shade of the trees. By the time we made it to the park entrance it was about 4pm and the guards waved us away. They didn't speak any english so we're not exactly sure why but it was probably closed for the night. Oh well, we turned around and headed back to the creak we had passed on the way, it seemed that was the place to be anyway.
A bunch of food stalls were set up on the opposite side of a shallow section of the creek, looking out over little bamboo platforms which floated on stones above the water. Small bamboo bridges had been built across the two sides and waitresses hurried across with food and drink while diners dangled their feet in the water. We stopped to have a drink, and watched locals bring out bottles of Thai whiskey, drink, eat, talk, laugh and lay around. Now that's definitely the smart way to do it in the heat of summer!
We left Chiang Rai and caught a local bus to Chiang Khong, a small town on the banks of the Mekong River and our final quick stop in Thailand before heading into Laos. Crossing the border into Laos is pretty much the only reason people go there, and from the other side there's two options: head up into northern Laos, or go to Luang Prabang. We were heading to Luang Prabang as Jade's cousin and her husband were there, so we decided on a two-day slow boat down the Mekong River. It sounded nice and relaxing.
Back in Chiang Khong there were visa and slow-boat trip packages advertised everywhere. Since we were sure we'd pay more to book a package rather than doing it all ourselves, we opted to do it ourselves. Doing it ourselves involved: purchasing lunch, getting to the pier, stamping out of Thailand, taking a boat two minutes over the river to Laos, purchasing a Laos visa, getting a songteaw ten minutes up the road to the docks and finally purchasing a boat ticket to Luang Prabang. It all went off without a hitch, but we saved maybe 50 baht ($2). Next to nothing, but we had the advantage of not having to wait on people, so we arrived first and got good seats right up the front of the boat. If we had booked a package we would have been one of the last on the boat and stuck right down the end near the motor, believe me, you do not want that! So, if you want my advice just get up early and get to the boarder crossing by 8am. It's all easy peasy from there. Just remember to be stamped out of Thailand!
We thought the boat would be nice and relaxing and a great way to see the scenery. Our first day on the boat was exactly that. We saw little villages along the way, children playing on the river banks and buffalo bathing in the river. The jaggered rocks and tree covered mountains were a lovely backdrop and the whole thing was quite enjoyable. As dusk fell we arrived at the midway point - Pakbeng, a tiny village wedged high up between a hill and the river. We got off the boat, haggled for a room, managing to get one for 150 baht (NZ$6). It was clean, comfortable, had a hot shower and it was the cheapest accomodation we'd ever paid for! So it was pretty good for it's price. The next morning we hoped back on the boat looking forward to our second day but they'd changed boats on us. It was the same size as the day before except they'd squeezed in a lot of extra seats so we were completely wedged in and could barely move. Not great when this was going to be 9 hours, longer than the day before. There actually weren't even enough seats for everyone, so some got off and opted to take a speedboat instead.
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| Our boat waiting to depart |
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| Leaving Pakbeng for our second day |
The day drifted by (sorry, couldn't help myself) and everyone either slept, read or watched the scenery. The boat would occasionally stop at small villages in the middle of nowhere and locals would hop on or off. The occasional group of kids swimming would yell and wave at us, and occasionally we'd navigate shallow rapids through steep rocky gorges. By late afternoon we were feeling restless, tired and sore. The mountains had diminished in size, the Mekong spread itself out and slowed down, and we started to see more signs of life. A couple of large villages, then a few buildings watching down from in-between trees. It was beautiful, but we couldn't wait to get off the boat. The boat finally moored, we dug our backpacks out from the pile and jumped off into a buzzing crowd of touts. Welcome to Luang Prabang, Laos everybody.
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