Northern Thailand: Something for everyone

Lovers of adventure, culture or nature, in the far north of Thailand everyone gets their money's worth.

Get to know the beautiful nature full of bamboo forests, hot springs and waterfalls, visit picturesque villages of the hill tribes, enjoy an adventurous elephant ride or a relaxing boat trip and be surprised in interesting museums and ditto temples.

Gateway to the North

The city of Chiang Rai in the north of Thailand is a typical Thai provincial town, capital of the province of the same name with approximately 62.000 inhabitants. Chiang Rai is located on the Kok River about 800 kilometers from Bangkok and 180 kilometers from Chiang Mai. The city was founded in the 13th century by King Meng Rai, but was not definitively annexed to the kingdom until the 18th century Thailand attached.

In terms of attractions, it has less to offer than Chiang Mai, but it is an excellent starting point to explore this part of Northern Thailand.Thailand to explore, the gateway par excellence. From Chiang Rai you can visit the various hill tribes, whether or not via multi-day treks, explore the unique nature, take a look at hot springs and waterfalls and immerse yourself in the interesting culture and turbulent history of the region.

Suspension bridge

 Together with Toony de Kroon, a sociable Brabant native, who has been living near Chiang Rai for years and, together with his Thai wife, operates an intimate mini-resort at a beautiful location just outside Chiang Rai (www.homestay-chiangrai.com), I go out. We drive towards the idyllically situated Mae Chan and partly follow the course of the Kok River. The roads are initially good, although narrow, but as we penetrate further inland the road surface more often turns into a sand track with pits and holes worn out by erosion.

Toony knows the area like the back of his hand and unperturbedly heads to an area with hot springs and then to a wooden suspension bridge high above the river. This is narrow and certainly not designed for car traffic, but it is busy with mopeds that drive over it at a good speed, with the planks of the bridge deck rattling loudly. An old woman, bent low under a heavy sack that she wears with a band around her forehead, begins the crossing unperturbed.

Akha village

 And then there are the villages of the mountain people. They usually consist of a higgledy-piggledy collection of houses on stilts, between which children, chickens and small black pigs scurry. At first no one seems to be home, but once we have stopped at what you could call the village square, women soon appear with baskets full of home crafts: self-made necklaces, bracelets, embroidery.

They are not pushy, rather shy, and you have to be made of stone not to buy something from them. Men are nowhere to be seen, except for one old boss, who silently watches what happens from the stairs to his cottage. What is especially striking about the women are their black teeth, their colorful clothing and the headdress decorated with silver, coins and beaded necklaces. These are women from the Akha tribe, who, like the other ethnic minorities – Hmong, Karen, Lahu, Mien (Yao), Lisu and Padaung (long necks) – have their roots elsewhere in Asia (Burma, China) and in the moved here over time.

Solar panels

Life in the mountain villages is primitive, but not so primitive that the outside world has no influence at all. The male population goes out every day by moped to work elsewhere, because of the many hiking trips that are organized, the mountain residents regularly come into contact with tourists and the TV dishes that have been set up here and there speak for themselves. In one of the villages that Toony and I visit, we even come across solar panels, one at each house, which supplies the village with electricity. Those who make a trek can spend the night here and there in the villages, and that has something, although you should not expect luxury, of course, but friendliness and hospitality, because the mountain people have a positive attitude towards visitors, although they keep their customs and traditional way of life in honor .

Chinese village

Doi Mae Salong also has an ethnic minority, but these are descendants of Chinese who fled to the south at the time of the rise of communism in China (1949), unlike their compatriots who fled to Taiwan at the time. Members of the 93rd Division of the Kuomintang left China's Yunnan province and ended up in Burma, were expelled from there and finally found a place to live in peace in the far north of Thailand.

Now the beautifully situated Doi Mae Salong with the village of Santi Khiri (“Peace Hill”) is their main settlement, a bustling place at an altitude of about 1200 meters full of Chinese shops, hotels, cafes and guesthouses with Chinese inscriptions and the production of tea, coffee and fruit - which replace the opium of the past - is an important source of income.

Mae sai

Via Doitung, where several projects have been realized at the initiative of the late Queen Mother of Thailand - including a vast park full of exotic trees and flowers - Tony takes me to Mae Sai, the northernmost point of Thailand. Here is an official border crossing with Myanmar (Burma) and the possibility exists to visit the Burmese town of Tashilek on the other side of the Mae Sai River.

Mae Sai is a typical frontier town, busy and cluttered, with streams of tourists flocking past the endless rows of stalls filled with more and more of the same in clothing and souvenirs. Just outside the tourist violence it is significantly quieter. On the Thai side, a few boys are fishing in the river, while on the Burmese bank a woman rinses clothes in the brown water. Mae Sai, you want to see it, but it makes a lot less impression than the Golden Triangle, the three country point where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet.

drielandenpunt

 At that three-country point, the Mekong River plays a major role. This river, which originates in the mountains of Tibet and is more than 4000 kilometers long, is wide and impressive, one of the great rivers of Southeast Asia, navigated by fishing and tourist boats and by Chinese-flagged cargo ships carrying goods unloading or loading in Chiang Saen, 10 kilometers to the south.

The actual border triangle is a haven of peace, with the luxurious 5-star Anantara Golden Triangle resort on the one hand and the Hall of Opium on the other, a new and very instructive museum about everything related to the production and use of opium. The small village of Sob Ruak, 4 kilometers to the south, is full of tourists who crowd around a giant Buddha statue and on the pier from where you can take a boat trip on the river or the crossing to Laos, but Chiang Saen is quiet and you as a tourist almost alone. I walk along the river, watching in amazement the coolies with heavy packs on their backs loading a ship via a steep staircase and over shaky gangways.

Chiang Saen

Chiang Saen, founded in 1328, is an ancient town, one of the oldest in Thailand, with a rich history and cultural heritage: no less than 66 temple ruins within the city walls and 75 outside, with the Wat Pa Sak (“Temple of the Teak Forest ”) from 1295 as one of the oldest and the Wat Phra That Yom Kitti on a hill with 350 stone steps and a magnificent view of the Mekong and Laos.

The history of Chiang Saen is told in detail at the local museum, which is filled with Lanna-style Buddha statues, ceramics and artifacts unearthed during excavations. When I leave the museum, my tuk-tuk driver suggests a visit to a temple that he thinks is very worthwhile. And he's right. Wat Phra That Pha Ngao, 4 kilometers outside Chiang Saen on the road to Chiang Khong, is a sight to behold, a complex of beautiful buildings in many colors with a bell-shaped chedi on top of a rock.

Author: Henk Bouwman (henkbouwmanreizen.nl)