Chiang Rai: Sunday Fun Day
Villages, temples, and the arrival of our friends!
Karen Long Neck Village
We decide to visit the hilltribe villages, knowing that it’s a tourist trap, but also very curious. There’s a complex where they have five different hilltribes with small villages in one area. We pay the entrance fee and then go for a little hike through the villages. It is VERY rustic, with a few bamboo huts and villagers just chilling. Some sell hand crafted items. Others do a little music playing and dancing. The last village we walk through has dozens of women who wear the traditional neck coils, a sign of beauty in their culture. They are very happy to take pictures with us as they apparently get a government stipend for wearing traditional dress.
Later we visit a museum do some online research to learn more about the hill tribes in Thailand. We find out that these tribes originated in China and spread all throughout Myanmar and Thailand. The tourist “hilltribe villages” are actually refugee camps. Tribes have recently been fleeing the violence in Myanmar where they are being persecuted. Thailand doesn’t want to give them legal status, but have allowed them to settle in these “villages” where they provide them food and water. The admission fee from tourists goes towards paying for this. The villagers go ahead and live their lives, farming a bit and selling trinkets to tourists, but they aren’t allowed to leave these villages and settle in Thailand proper.
We also learn that the tribes are nomadic. They burn fields to farm (thus the widespread air pollution for several months each year) and then move to find new places to farm. It’s a good lesson that “traditional” does not always equate to sustainable.
Black House
The Black House is a famous museum, probably mostly visited because people want to collect all the colors (White Temple, Blue Temple, Red Pagoda, and Black House… yes, there’s an opening for something Green). It’s honestly a very odd museum with loads of animal pelts and horns littering the grounds. Baby Bear does enjoy catching fish in the little pots of water.
Mama Bear and I discover a concrete building built as a perfect dome and do some singing. I sound like a whole chorus of Buddhist monks chanting when I stand in the middle.
Random Temple
On the way home, we ask the driver to stop at Wat Khua Khrae. It’s not a “famous” temple, but it’s gorgeous. Our driver even comes out and takes pictures because he’s never been there before. In Chiang Ria, we see dozens of temples, but each one feels new and impressive in some unique way. This one has beautifully colored naga in the front with a lot of mirrored tiles.
Golden Clock Tower
And then our friends arrive. A family from Portugal is joining us for the next two weeks (both in Chiang Rai and in Ao Nang/Krabi). The first thing they do is jump into the hotel pool. Then we celebrate their arrival by walking over to the city Clock tower area for dinner and a show.
The clock tower is a richly adorned golden spire in the middle of a traffic circle. golden fences line the street for several blocks leading up to the tower. It seems ridiculously ornate given the ramshackle construction of the city itself. And every hour at night, the tower lights up with a multi-colored light show. It’s not Bellagio-fountain level, but it’s still a fun little show for a traffic circle.
More importantly, we find a crowded little pad thai shop with awesome pad thai. Yum. It’s the first of many shared adventures we will have together, and our first trial of Voyaging Village, our dream of traveling the world with other fun families.