Chiang Rai was a welcome change from Chiang Mai. Less tourists, and better coffee! Chiang Rai is also better suited for motorcycle day trips. These pictures were all taken on day trips.
Way out on some backroad, we happened upon a small hilltribe festival. Not much to see really, so we only stayed for about 15 minutes. Nice people though.
We drove up to a tea plantation. Did some tasting and bought a box of tea.
One morning we drove out to a local monastery that was carved into the side of a cliff. This was the only monk who was there.
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Chiang Mai, New Years Eve 2012. The whole city lets off floating lanterns starting just after it gets dark, and building until well after midnight. Instead of joining the tourist horde, we slipped into a temple that was in the middle of its own celebration. Quiet meditation music and all the lanterns we could light, was the highlight of the evening. In Chiang Mai, we stayed at the Yindee Stylish Guesthouse. It was great. Nice location, friendly owners, clean flashpacker-friendly rooms.
Chiang Mai isn’t really a location that I would heavily recommend. It feels like it’s been overrun by tourists and kind of lost most of its character. Better to just keep going to Chiang Rai. The only reason I’d want to visit either one, would be to rent a motorcycle and do more touring of the surrounding hills. TOTAL.VACATION.WIN.
lift off.
Right at 12:00 fireworks joined the lanterns in the sky.
We met this monk and he told us all about the ceremony and his experiences living in Chiang Mai.
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Anne and I had a good time in Bangkok. Public transit here is great. This makes a big difference in how visitors view a city. We were able to comfortably cover a lot of ground in short amount of time, which left a good impression. I’d say that Bangkok is worth about 2 days on a traveler’s itinerary. There’s just so much more to see in the rest of Thailand. In Bangkok, we stayed at the Sunflower Place. The location was central to everything. The hotel was clean, and everyone who worked there was very helpful.
Bangkok local BBQing on her boat.
Largest reclining Bhudda in the world at Wat Pho.
Grand Palace, Bangkok
Catfish on sticks
Bhudda hands and feet
If I had a dollar for every Bhudda…
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by P-Lo
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