Chiang Rai

Friday 12th February
Walked to bus station and caught bus to Wat Rong Khun ( the White Temple). Luckily the man at the information desk could translate and told the driver where we wanted to go, and the driver later told the conductor who made sure we alighted at the correct place.

The wat is about 15km southwest of Chiang Rai, close to the road and is a modern masterpiece. In traditional form, it is entirely coloured white but highlighted with a mosaic of millions of mirror inserts. We were told that a bus might be around in an hour to take us back, but as we reached the main road a songthaw pulled up and whisked us back to town in time for lunch. Tomorrow we enter Laos, so next post is uncertain!


Thursday 11th February

After a breakfast by the lazy flowing river to which Michael Winner would have given his sole superlative 'historic',we Walked into town to find the bus station. Buses to Chiang Khong ( for the Lao border) are frequent and well signed.

Saw lots of Wats on the way including one which had the Emerald Buddha, now in Bangkok but replaced by a 1.5m tall replica carved from a solid piece of jade. As the replica isn't allowed to be the same as the original, it is a few millimeters shorter. Also marvelled at the town clocktower, an exuberance of gilded flame shapes in modern Thai rococo style.

Back to the hotel for a swim, and then walked to see the town's Lak Meang. This is a recent revival of the Buddhist scematic view of the universe, and as it consisted of concentric circles of innumerable phalluses, Christine concluded that the Buddhists had a male viewpoint.

Later took a bicycle rickshaw to the night market and drank Singha beer whilst slight Thai girls gracefully performed traditional dances to both ancient and modern music.


Tuesday 9th February - Wednesday 10th February

Put our rucksacks on our backs at 7am and walked through the cold to Reading station to catch the Rail-Air coach to Heathrow. Slow traffic delayed the coach, which instead of taking us to terminal 3 dumped us at the central bus station so we had an extra quarter of a mile to walk.

The flight was excellent though, Thai Airways are so attentive and we landed at Bangkok slightly ahead of schedule early Wednesday morning, having lost 7 hours.

Because we had booked the onward flight to Chiang Rai separately, we went through immigration and customs at Bangkok and checked in for the domestic flight. Despite earlier worries about visas everything went smoothly, there were no delays and we landed without incident at Chiang Rai after an hour's comfortable flight.

The hotel minibus was at the airport to pick us up and transfer us to a 6th floor suite at the Dusit Island Resort. The walls are glass on three sides and the bed has enough space for polygamy. The hotel has a fabulous location on an island in the Mae Kok river and I write thislooking out over the sun setting behind the mountains on one side and the river on the other. We had a couple of hours sleep followed by lunch and a swim, and now we will attempt to stay up until 10pm. Unlike the temperatures we left, it is a beautiful 30 degrees centigrade here.