First week in Chiang Rai

Temples, street food, and animals, oh my!

Hotel Breakfast

Our first experience every day in Thailand is… the amazing breakfast at Nak Nakara hotel, our home for two weeks! There are staples, like made-to-order eggs, waffles, pancakes, all the breads, dessert, cereals, salad, yogurts etc, but also around 10 hot dishes that are different every day. Thai soups (amazing), fried mushrooms, fried rice, curries… it really takes the edge off of needing to go eat all the Thai food since we can try so many dishes starting at 6:30 am!

To top it off, all day there is always free fresh fruit available to eat at the lovely pool or in our room. In fact, I’m writing this post from the pool right now!

Street Food

So instead of eating big meals at restaurants, we end up eating a lot of street food. For our first week, the Lanna Winter Festival is taking place a block away. We don’t end up spending that much time enjoying the lights and the shows, but we do go almost every night for the food stands that pop up next door. We love the fried pork, chicken wing skewers and the rainbow jelly balls on a stick!

As if that’s not enough, there is also a Night Bazaar that happens every night just a 12 minute walk away. Here there are permanent stands surrounding a central eating area. Many restaurants are selling a 3-person grill-at-the-table set for $10, and many people we see are having thai hot pot (cooked in a clay pot on the table). The choices are overwhelming, but we run into a Taiwanese restauranteur, and order some simply cooked vegetables as we need to detox from all the sweet, spicy, oily, and starchy Thai food. It’s delicious!

Nearby the Night Bazaar is an interesting self-serve restaurant called Big Noodle Cafe. It looks like a convenience store that only sells instant noodles. Then you add in (per piece) fresh items like wontons and sausages and vegetables. Near the seating are there are hot plates for you to make your own instant noodle meal. There is even a frying station! Fun stuff.

But wait, there’s more. Chiang Rai Central is an indoor mall, a short drive away. We decide to check it out. Upon walking into the grocery store section, we are hit by dozens of little food stands and immediately buy some mushroom soup and skewers.

We finally make it into the actual mall and find that there’s an auto showcase going on with dozens of fancy cars and hundreds of motorbikes displayed in the central hallways of the mall. We check out a Chinese Tesla Model X clone complete with gullwing doors for just $50K.

There are dozens of restaurants throughout the mall, and an actual food court as well that seems rather empty. Soon we’ll find out why. The sun has set which means that the end-of-year night market is starting outside on the mall’s patio. It’s an upscale version of the Lanna Winter Festival. We try tiny portions of everything: skewers, noodles, fried ice cream… and enjoy our meal in front of the tree with live music under the night sky.

City Tram

We love free city tourist buses and discover that there is one that picks up right near the hotel. We show up for the 1:30 tour and get on a cute little trolley with a few more foreigners. We’re pleasantly surprised that the bus doesn’t just drive around but stops for 10-15 minutes at a few key places: the king’s monument, and three cool temples inside and just outside the city. It’s super pleasant to enjoy the breeze on the open-air trolley as we take our free ride through the city.

Cat Cafe

Walking through downtown Chiang Ria, we happen upon a cat cafe. There’s no cover charge, you just need to buy something, so we get two drinks and a pineapple fried rice (actually cheaper than a drink) and enter cat heaven. It’s a really relaxing place to just hang out as there are dozens of cats just lounging around. The cutest one we call “staff cat” as it constantly tries to go through the “Staff Only” door. It’s fur is a bit messy and has the shortest legs, making it incredibly cute. It enjoys our affection but gets a little snippy at the other cats.

Singha Park

For more animal experiences, we make our way out to Singha Park, a natural theme park of sorts started by the Singha company, a local beer and beverages powerhouse in the area. The giant golden lion, its logo, set on a green hill stands proudly at the entrance.

We pay for a little tram that goes through the park, stopping at a lake with swans, fields of flowers, and most importantly, a little petting zoo. There we feed zebras, look at giraffes and longhorn cows. We feed parrots, goats, rabbits, and more. Surprisingly our favorite part is getting Thai Iced Tea at the “tea plantation overlook”, a beautiful spot where we could just relax on the (artificial) grass and look out over the tea plants. Such a nice relaxing day.

Morning Sunrise in Laos

The next morning we get up at 3AM. Yes, 3AM. The hotel packs us a breakfast and we take a 2 hour car ride to Phu Chi Fa, a mountain trail along the border with Laos. We start an arduous hike up the mountain in the dark, racing to get to the viewpoint by sunrise. It’s a cloudy day, even raining a bit on our drive here, but the trail is nice and dry. We arrive just in time. Though the clouds cover most of the sun, we are able to look down upon the valley, ringed with layers of mountains with misty clouds gathered around them like islands emerging from a tranquil sea.

We watch as a sliver of red peeks out from the cloud cover, like an angry egg yolk daring to be eaten. It appears only for a few minutes before it sets again, rising up into the cloud above it. Meanwhile we feast upon our breakfast sandwiches to the envy of the other shivering sun worshippers.

Then we notice that we’re now in Laos. Half of the viewpoint is in Laos, and half is in Thailand. It’s fun to stand half in each country, visa-free!

On the way down, local kids sing and dance in traditional costume. We give them some cash for tips and take some pictures. Some seem to enjoy their daily job more than others (not everyone is a morning person).

As our first weekend approaches, we look forward to more adventures. Soon another family will be joining us soon. Stay tuned!