Chiang Rai and Laos June 2024

Our first holiday this year. Flying to Chiang Mai for transfer to Chiang Rai. Gratitude.

Aerial view of Chiang Mai.

Gotten the snack pack on our flight by Scoot.

As it is the first row, the table is hidden in the arm rest. Watch the movie on my tablet as there was no WiFi and screen for Scoot.

A lot of leg space for front row.

Bought the local sim card for unlimited data for 15 days at 699 baht. Should have bought the 8 days at 599 baht. The sales person was very kind to help me insert the sim card into my spare phone and activated it. I used the phone hotspot for wifi connection. Uploading is so much faster than the roaming from starhub.

Nannie met us at the arrival hall exit. She is such an awesome guide whom I highly recommend.

She drove us to the Coconut Market for lunch. What a wide spread of food. Love the Thai desserts, coconut pancakes, quail egg, Thai noodle soup and phad Thai. The market is only opened on weekends. 

Photo which Nannie took for us

Mushroom which some will buy back to cook.

A kind tourist volunteered to take our picture.

The ride to Chiang Rai was 3 hours. We stopped by the Maekacharn Hot Spring. It is more like a geyser with shots of hot spring water . You can see how hot it is from the steam emission.

The boss of Northern coffee was so good to let us soak our feet in the hot spring water for free. It was very hot and very therapeutic. Three cups of coffee plus one packet of of biscuits and one packet of rice crackers for only 250 baht. 

With our private tour guide, Nannie.

Photos which Nannie took for us. You can contact her by WhatsApp +66 88 801 9242 for private tours if you are in Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai. 

Beautiful building like Angkor Wat next to the hotspring.

Wat Rong Khun - White Temple

วัดร่องขุ่น

Entry to the White temple per person is 100 baht. Was stopped at the entrance as they mentioned my dress is too short and my legs needed to be cover. Luckily Nannie went back to the car to pick up my coat which is much longer. Remember to wear long pants or long skirt if you are visiting a temple.

Admission to Cave of Art is 50 baht per person.

Bought the 2 hand painted apes on stones at 1000 baht from the cave of Art. Beautiful piece of art.

The traffic cones are so unique with red skull.

Photos taken by Nannie

Wat Rong Suea Ten วัดร่องเสือเต้น

Admission to the Blue Temple is free so I donated 200 baht for a packet of rice.

Checked into our room at Le Meridien Resort. We love the balcony facing the river and pool. The TV is so gigantic. The hotel receptionist,Warm, brought us to our room and orientated us to the facilities in the resort. VIP treatment.

Walked out of the hotel and to the right are so many restaurants. decided to eat at Yun Nan restaurant.

A bit disappointed with the platter which consist of braised fried mushroom, spring roll, cashew nuts and fried century egg. Hubby love the fried mixed vegetable and steam debobed fish with egg. I like the peking duck though hubby said the deep fried duck meat is a bit weird. I love the red Ruby dessert. Its so crunchy and yummy. The ambience is good by the river.

The red Ruby dessert is awesome. The water chestnuts were so crunchy and the coating were thin. The coconut soup was thick and yummy.

Best dish was the mixed stir fried vegetables. 

Day 2

Breakfast at the hotel. Love the fried rice, winter melon soup and fresh tomato juice. Very personalised with dim sum station, noodle station, egg station and fresh juice station. The tropical fruits, especially the longan was very good.

The 24hr fitness room which is accessible via hotel room card.

Beautiful hotel and most relaxing ambience. 

On our way to the Golden triangle. 

We had to wait here for Nannie to complete some paper work for entry to Laos as she did not have her passport.  Luckily we brought our passports.

Reached Laos within 10 mins.

Stamped our passport for entry into Laos

Engaged a local tour for only 150 baht per pax.

First stop was a Chinese temple.

Next Laos Chinatown. Most shops are opened only at night.

Saw an one month old monkey which is so adorable.  It loves pistachios. 

A small hotel in Chinatown 

Next stop a casino hotel in Laos. Pretty expensive. Came here to see an exhibition on the 5th floor. We could see a lot of development taking place. They are going to build a mall opposite the hotel and there will also be boat rides along the river. Kind of reminded me of Venetian hotel in Macau.

The Lao tour guide brought us to the market and gotten hubby to try a snake wine.

Took the ferry back to Thailand. 

Back in Thailand. 

Very nice local food near Golden triangle. Love the Tom yum soup. Very crispy deep fried pork and basil. Fried kang Kong. The steamed fish was so fresh!

House of opium. Part of the history of the golden triangle.

Display of the tribes costume and history on the second floor. Many were migrants from Laos and Myammar.

An artist at work.

Next stop purple temple. We went to the original temple at the base of the hill. 

Wat Phra That Doi Wao วัดพระธาตุดอยเวา แม่สาย

Love the purple temple. Even the shuttle is purple with a scorpion on top!

Thr skywalk was closed due to the rain.

Sudden heavy rain and the skywalk was closed.

Had coffee while waiting for the rain to stop.

Too bad the sky walk was closed due to the rain.

The scorpion which is associated with the old King.

We saw a big Buddha and temple on the hill opposite.

Took the shuttle back to the old temple at the foot of the hill. Saw the skywalk along the way.

Thailand and Myammar border. As it was the Queen's birthday, a public holiday, the traffic was very congested at the border.

Very sweet pineapple from the roadside stall near pineapple farms. We bought one and loved it.

Baan Dam Museum พิพิธภัณฑ์บ้านดำ

We had the whole Black house to ourselves as it was closing. Saw the snake and alligator skin as well as many beautifully carved sculptures. 

So lucky to see a rainbow! 

Wat Huay Pla Kang วัดห้วยปลากั้ง

Red Temple and Goddess of Mercy statue.  Almost fainted seeing the stairs up to the Goddess of Mercy. Luckily there was a shuttle bringing us up. Love the shuttle with the Hello Kitty Design. There are the 18 Luohan and 12 zodiac sign statues at the top as well.

Lalitta Café was Hubby's favourite cafe for the whole trip. A beautiful dream like forest cafe.The entrance fee is 60 baht and can be used to pay for the food.

Lovely dinner at Lalitta cafe. I had a special crab meat glass noodle not from the menu. Hubby ordered curry rice. Nannie took Phad Thai which she also shared with us. The phad Thai is so nice with fried lard. The sticky mango rice is awesome! Both the colored sticky rice and mango were so fragrant and yummy. We also ordered two cocktails, one lychee soda and 1 Hawaiian blue soda. Total bill around 1120 baht.

Hubby love the Lalitta restaurant most!

Heavy downpour so we cancelled the trip to the night market.

Day 3

Breakfast in the hotel. The roasted pumpkin and fried mee were so nice hat I took a second serving!

Going off on a day tour by a local Chiang Rai guide, Dao, today! Just wanted to hear from a Chiang Rai guide though Nannie is good.

Passed by a bustling local market. Our guide, Dao, is a local Chinese and can speak both English and Chinese.

Our guide, Dao, said our hotel, Le Meridien Resort, is one of the two five stars hotel in Chiang Rai. Very serene by the river.

Mae Fah Luang Art and Cultural Park (Rai Mae Fah Luang) อุทยานศิลปวัฒนธรรมแม่ฟ้าหลวง (ไร่แม่ฟ้าหลวง)

Complimentary admission for Le Meridien guests. The call was made to our hotel to confirm we are the guests after we passed them the voucher given to us in our room.

Exhibit of candle platform and Buddha inside the main hall showing those from Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Lampang,  Mae Hong  Son close to myammar, Chiang Rai phayao. No nails were used in the construction of the structure. So tall and awesome but no photography allowed. The in-house guide was so welcoming.

Beautiful 3D painting.

The in-house guide, Mei Lan, showed us the exhibits and briefed us on the history.

The candle platform which we saw inside the hall which we could not take pictures. The ones there are much more ancient. A few hundred years old and the carvings are all down from one piece of wood with representations from different parts of Thailand.

The moment master sit on this to write the scripture.

A model of temple.

Musical instrument including a drum set, a guitar and xylophone made of wood.

The very old but popular Thai song.

The mascot four ears five eyes creature.

The little elephants are so realistic. So tempted to buy them.

Long neck village in Chiang Rai. It started to rain. There are bamboo sticks available to assist us in walking through the muddy road. We took some pictures with the long neck tribe villagers. I also bought a shirt from them at 300 baht. I took picture with the nanny who was 72 years old. We took pictures with this pretty girl with big ear lopp from the Kayan tribe. Bought some bamboo cups at 5 Baht from the Lahu tribe. There is a cute house for chickens. This long neck village is much bigge

The bug curled up to be a small round bug!

Bought the hand made bamboo cups from the minority tribe, Akha tribe. Only 5 baht for the small ones.

This is a house for the chicken.

The Lanyan tribe. They wear a big ear loop and brass ring on the legs.

Granny is 72 years old. This village was built 25 years ago. The early migrants from Myammar do not speak much Thai language.

Bought the local dress at 300 baht from this lady from the long neck tribe.

Pictures taken before I bought the local dress at 300 baht.

I could not even lift up the brass rings. Amazing they could wear it their whole life.

Hubby and I had to go to the mall to buy new pants and shoes as it was difficult to get the mud off.

At the Army View Point which is at the border of Thailand and Myammar. You can see the Myammar village and Myammar army post here.

Myammar on the other side of the fence.

Reached the Phahee cafe. We ordered fried basil pork with egg and coffee. Definitely the best fried basil pork rice I had. I ordered Vietnamese coffee and hubby cuppachino. Look at Hubby's coffee design. Definitely for the guys. Ordered a French fries and Expresso as the rain is still heavy and that's the only side dish they have. Our guide said there will be 20 and more on the menu Dec to Feb. Last month there isn't even rice on the menu. The whole area was enveloped in the mist of the cloud. 

The view from the cafe was breathtaking. Reminded me of Jiufen in Taiwan

The coffee beans from the locals.

The fried basil rice was so yummy though spicy.

Definitely for hubby. 

They actually peeled and cut the potato to make this fries. 

There are rooms for homestay below the cafe for 800 baht including breakfast and dinner

Completely engulfed in the mist of the clouds.

This little chicken was separated from dad and mum.

Saw many of these flowers which resemble music speakers.

Stalls selling souvenir to visitors mid-hill.

At Choui Fong tea plantation. The carrot cake, shrimp spring roll and tea were so good.

Free sampling of three types of tea.

The only orange among the green.

Doa shared with us her children has 4 school attire. School uniform, PE attire, private clothing on Thursday and  Traditional clothing school uniform on Friday. The temperature was so hot in early May it reached 42 degree Celsius.

We went to the night market. Hubby gotten a few shirts and me a night gown. Many stalls were closed due to the rain.

Many stalls selling this mini hot pot.

Bus station Street 1

Beautiful clock tower. 

Dao is based in Chiang Rai. Do look for her if you want a tour guide who speaks both Chinese and English well in Chiang Rai. Learned a lot about local life from her today. Her WhatsApp +66 86 914 2364

Dinner at Favalo, a restaurant in our hotel. Love the nice warm bread with carrot dip. Love the seafood platter though I find the portion too big. Hubby loved his meat platter with 2 types of Wagyu and lamb rack with cream spinach. AWESOME!

Day 4

Going for a dip in the pool later!

Breakfast in the hotel. The fried rice with pork was so good. The smell is like the yam rice. The fried noodle not as good as yesterday.  Love the winter melon soup too. You can make your own shaved ice dessert and there was longon soup too. I love their longon and baby pineapple. Hubby love their freshly pressed honey pineapple juice which was so sweet! 

We had the whole pool to ourselves. There are towels on the seat and the staff brought us cold water. Nice weather for a swim

There are bicycles with helmets available for guests

Random photos with the art elephant awaiting grab transport . The grab ride to Central plaza is only 100 baht.

Grabbed a car to Central plaza at 100baht.

Very antique TV in the mall.

We took our lunch at the Korean charcoal grill. Simply in love with with the premium beef set. Had to dip the meat in a marinate and then bbq. The meat was so good. So are the asparagus, corn and mushroom. Love the quail egg side dish too. Kimchi, veg, pumpkin and raddish prickle average. Awesome. 

Bought some snacks and donuts.

Bought a small pack of Durian and surprised that it was quite good. Very creamy and the seeds were so small.

We booked and tried out the body massage in the hotel. 

There are many restaurants and convenient stores outside the hotel. Some street vendors too.

We grabbed to another night market.

Lan muang market ไลค์วินเทจ,ไลค์แฟชั่น ตลาดล้าน Tha Sai, Mueang Chiang Rai District, Chang Wat Chiang Rai 57000. Another night night market. Heard that it is a fruit wholesale market in the morning. Opposite it is a newer food court with many shops.

Dinner at Lu Lam Restaurant Chiang Rai

ร้านอาหาร​ หลู้ลำ เชียงราย

Dinner at Lu Lam Restaurant near our hotel. It was so crowded on the floating platform today so we sat indoors. The fish is very soft and fresh. Red Talipia fush with plum. The fried pork a bit tough. Love the fried morning glory. The tofu soup with chicken is average.  Hubby asked for cut pineapple.

Day 5

Last breakfast in the hotel. Preferred yesterday's fried rice with pork and the fried mee on Tues morning. Really miss them. Shaved ice is interesting too. For cakes I think the cruises are much better. Love the waiting staff here. Very polite and fast to clear the table. The eggs were well made too.