Chiang Rai Days

What to do without visiting a wat

Chiang Rai is a fairly unprepossessing town in northeast Thailand. Most tourists who visit are there for a day or two while passing through to Laos, and may visit some of the historic wats, take a trip or two out of town to somewhere like the White Temple, and visit the Night Bazaar in the evening. Few people spend a week or more. This is a shame because Chiang Rai is a very friendly town and a pretty good place to explore normal northern Thai life away from the main sights and activities. If you do want to spend more time here are some ideas for things to do, places to see, from longtail boat trips and walking market shopping expeditions to coffee and classical music. This complements my reviews of Chiang Rai wats and the Night Bazaar.

There is a TAT Tourist Office in town. It has free maps and some useful info on places to go too. There is also a quarterly free English-language Chiang Rai magazine with some ideas for places to visit in and outside town as well as useful maps.

Take a Longtail boat
With the dusky Mae Kok river running through Chiang Rai, it is a good point to take a trip or tour on a longtail boat to see the forested hills sweep by. They can be chartered from the pier near to the bridge past the Bamboo Wat. Prices depend on distance and bargaining charm. You can go upstream to Ban Ruamit Elephant camp, My Dream at Khaew Waaw Dam village and Tha Ton or downstream as far as Chiang Mai.

Sniff the flowers

Orchids in 2009

Chiang Rai hosts a colourful flower show every January on the enthusiastically named Chiang Rai beach. Its worth going for the extensive displays of orchids alone. You can catch one of the many longtails ferrying passengers between the pier and the beach for about 20B a person one way.

Tell the time

Clock tower counting down to new year 2009

The artist who designed the White Temple also donated a new clocktower to Chiang Rai. He felt the old one was a bit shoddy and that Chiang Rai needed a new tourist sight. It is a gold tower in his flamboyant neo-Thai style. Not only does it tell the time but it also displays its own mini light-show on the hour at 6pm, 7pm and 8pm. It is near to the local produce market, to where the old clock has been relocated, at the junction of thanons Suksathit, Phahonyothin, Jet Yot and Banphrakan.

Drink tea, do coffee

Panja Bakeshop

Chiang Rai has lots of great little, independent café-cum-bakeries dotted throughout town. Each serves Chinese and black teas, coffee and home-baked cakes. There are plenty to choose from by strolling around town. Here are three of my favourites. Panja Bakeshop is a very friendly Thai-Chinese café on Th Suksathit between the produce market and the clocktower. It is great for small Chinese-style savoury or sweet pastries. You can also say hello to Elvis the fish. BaanChivitMai is a Swedish-run place near to the old bus station in the centre of town. It has delicious cakes and a vast range of 5B cookies as well as internet. All profits go to local charity work. Doi Chaang is the café of one of the local premium coffee estates. An air-con ground floor room and a first floor balcony surround two side of an atrium full of plants cascading around a naturalistic fountain. It is just north of the Night Bazaar on Th Ratanaket.

Listen to classical music

Orchestral manoeuvres in Doi Chaang

Doi Chaang hosts free chamber concerts by the Chiang Rai Youth Orchestra. They are currently weekly on Sunday afternoons. The atrium fills with young violinists, cellists and a worker of the double bass playing a range of light classical classics. The orchestra leader is a very dedicated music teacher.

Read a book
There are two secondhand bookshops in town where you can buy and part-exchange paperbacks. Gare Garon is near the bus station, while the cheaper Orn’s Bookshop is just past Wat Jet Yot. Orn’s is the eponymous shop of a very friendly German ex-pat.

Walk to the shops

Walking Market food market

Every Saturday night Th Thanalai is closed to traffic and converted into the Walking Market, a very long market boasting plenty of stalls selling local handicrafts, clothes and food. One adjoining square is given-over to a large food market with stalls selling a range of meals and snacks. Music and dance performances are scattered along its length. The market competes well with the Chiang Rai Sunday Walking Market for atmosphere and range of stalls, while surpassing its more famous twin on food. It begins about 4pm and gets pretty crowded by 8pm, before closing about 10pm. It is a great place to browse and buy gifts, eat some great food and join in with Thais doing one of their favourite leisure activities – shopping combined with eating.

Do lunch

Rimkok pool

Most of the upmarket resorts in and around town put on sumptuous and extensive buffet lunches. You can enjoy a vast range of Thai and Western meals, salads, fruit and desserts for about 150 baht a person. The Rimkok, just outside of town on the otherwise of the river, has a particularly good one for 140 baht. It is served in the restaurant near the pool. If you’re vegetarian simply ask them to cook you some veggie meals when you buy your ticket and they’ll being them to your table shortly after you sit down. We were served four different veggie Thai dishes. The Rimkok also has the only pool open to non-guests. You can enjoy the long, curving pool with outdoor jacuzzi for the day at 80 baht a person. Go five times and your sixth visit is free.

Discover where old spirit houses go to die

Spirit Houses under the Big Tree

There is a beautifully big tree near the public library. Turn left off the main road at the tourist office and go down the quieter road, take a right turn, left and another right on the same road and you'll see the spreading canopy of the tree span the road. People deposit old spirit houses under this auspicious tree.

My Dream Guesthouse

My Dream

Many years ago a Karen man from Chiang Mai province worked in a guesthouse in Chiang Rai. He lived with his wife in the small Karen village Khaew Waaw Dam a few kilometres out of town on the Mae Kok River. For the last ten years his dream has been a reality for tourists staying in his village. After a week at My Dream Guesthouse it is firmly in my top five guesthouses in Thailand.


Riverside bungalows

Anan and his wife Polly have worked hard to create a small place to stay that is more than just a collection of wooden bungalows by a river. For a start the bungalows are arranged around an immaculate forest garden, alive with birdsong and colourful dashes of passing butterflies. Each of his 13 teak and bamboo rooms is tastefully and simply decorated, each with a large bed encased within a mosquito net that hints at the opulence of a four-poster. He was determined to create the garden, despite others in the village questioning why he spent time on something that didn't earn money, so that visitors would get the most pleasure from their stay in rural northern Thailand. His ethos that shines through in lovingly tended flowering bushes and lawn brightens everything that is provided at the guesthouse and reflects his effusive, sunny disposition. He welcomes new guests with a smile and laughing conversation when he is not on a mountain leading one of the treks he offers to guests. You can do one, two or three day treks around tribal villages in the surrounding mountains.

Delicious large portions of Thai food are served in the riverside restaurant. If, like us, you have a baby evening meals are brought on a tray to your balcony. A fire is lit on the small private beach each evening from where you can sit and gaze at the milky way or find your way around by the light of the full moon. The view from the beach is of the surging river flowing by and the forest-and-bamboo-clad hills beyond. The beach and garden are perfect for hanging out with a family or just taking it easy after a trek.


My Dream beach

During our week staying at My Dream we met Didi, a French cycling tour leader, who was returning to My Dream for his fourth year in a row with 14 cyclists on a two-week mountain biking tour. He values the personal service that Anan provides. A rep from a Swiss tour company offering tours for two to three people stayed the night to check out the guesthouse for their next brochure. Some of the guests come with pre-arranged tours to use My Dream as a base before heading higher into the mountains for trekking. Many companies employ Anan to lead the treks for them. We also met a young Austrian who was passing through on his way from Tha Thon to Chiang Mai, partly travelling along the river itself. If you don't fancy a long trek but prefer to move beyond the garden there are plenty of easy activities to leave the guesthouse for, from visits to elephant camps and hot springs to hikes into the mountains, more of which in my Khaew Waaw Dam blog entry which I'll post soon.


Anan with his daugher Dia

Everything at the guesthouse has been thought about to make your stay memorable, to remember My Dream and to remember Anan who dreamt of having a forest guesthouse by the river. Live his dream and make it part of one of your own.


Garden view to the river

Getting there and costs

You can reach My Dream by land or water. It is on the long-tailed boat taxi service connecting Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Tha Ton. A one-way trip between My Dream and Chiang Rai costs about 120 baht per person and takes 1 1/2 hours down river to the town. Expect a little longer upstream. Polly's father runs the only taxi in Khaew Waaw Dam. He goes into Chiang Rai about 6.30am every day except Sunday. He will pick you up from your guesthouse in Chiang Rai on his return trip sometime between 11am and 1pm if you ring and arrange with Anan a day in advance. Depending on occupancy this will either cost the regular fare or be courtesy of My Dream. The journey takes about half an hour. You can also hitch pretty easily from the village down towards Chiang Rai so it is possible to make the return trip for free.

Garden-facing rooms and bungalows currently cost 300 baht per night, riverside bungalows 500 baht. Most meals cost between 40 and 50B. Meals on rice are 50B or 40B if you're vegetarian. There are two small shops in the village selling snacks, drinks and some fruit and veg. One pounds up a wicked som tam (papaya salad) for 15B.

The White Temple

There is a new Buddhist temple being built outside Chiang Rai, if merely built is the right word. Imagined into existence is possibly a better description for this phantasmagoric brainchild of Thai artist Chaloemchai Khositphiphat and his overworking imagination.

It is close to the city of historical temples yet so far removed from them as to almost deserve a different classification. For one there is not the quiet reverent space of many temples, but a bustling tourist attraction complete with shopping and dining area, camera-snapping Thais and guardians keeping the masses in line. Welcome to Wat Rong Khun, the White Temple, the

Attention to detail is incredible with the outside of the building and other structures decorated lavishly with ornate swirling designs. The exterior is white with silver mirrors and changes colour with cloud and sun. Under cloud it has a deathly pale yellow palor, which when set behind leafless trees, is reminiscent of a Tim Burton film set. When the sun shines the mirrors twinkle and the white takes on the hues of its surroundings - grass green, sky blue and clothings reds, yellows and oranges.

The art inside the hall does strike me as being the product of a talented fantasy-loving teenager or 70s heavy metal album cover artist. That, however is not a surprise or such criticism as it may sound. Where, after all, did the artists of psychedelic album covers or fantasy novel covers get some of their inspiration? Hindu and Buddhist religious art. The wat's art brings these influences together.

It is a lot of fun with hints at attempts to make statements. Superman, Spiderman and the Matrix sit alongside Buddhist apsaras, garudas and demons. The World Trade Centre is shown during its destruction by Al Qaida with a demon-headed serpentine petrol pump pipe snaking around one of the towers. Yet how much do intended meanings resonate after a single visit? That probably depends on your attitudes to politics, fantasy and Buddhist religious art.

The dream is still being built and all power to him for making something so bold that it generates reactions from visitors. You will either love or hate it but you're unlikely to feel indifferent towards it.

As you enter you come face-to-face with a gold structure bearing a white Buddha in its ornate folds and twists.



After passing the first structure between ponds with white fish you are next greeted at the approach to the central hall by concrete hands reaching out to the air and your sense of fun. Some hold skulls up next to others proffering alms bowls.



Apsaras or bodhisatvas float in the air either side of the approach to the central hall. Every inch of the white building is adorned with white mirrors.





To either side of the hall are matching pairs of Buddhas facing each other.



The purity of white certainly makes a statement that cannot fail to influence you in some way, even if only while there. It is perhaps part Barcelona's Sagrada Familia, part Taj Maha, part Southfork.

The temple is very easy to reach from Chiang Rai. A sangthaew from the produce market station near Wat Phra Singh costs 20 baht and they leave regularly through the day. You should not have to wait more than 20 minutes. Tell the drivers you want a minibus not taxi to catch one of the regular departures rather than charter a whole vehicle for yourself at maybe 500-700 baht. You can also catch a local bus to Phayao from the old bus station in the city centre or a Chiang Mai bus from the new station on the city's edge. The journey takes less than 30 minutes. To return to Chiang Rai go up to the main road and flag down a passing sangthaew or bus. A sangthaew driver spotted us walking towards the road and waited for us to get to him.

Loi Krathong, Thailand

Krathongs made from coloured ice cream cornets


Loi Krathong, Chiang Mai 2009

Loi Krathong is one of Thailand's major annual festivals and a must do for anyone visiting the country in the autumn. The festival is a celebration of water through light, thanking water for the fertility it provides and apologising for pollution we cause by sending small floats of plants and flowers with incense and candles into rivers and other waterways. The Thai for the floats is krathong and to loi is to float them on their way. Millions of Thais throughout the country make or buy krathongs then gather at specific locations in each city, town or village that have traditionally been used for centuries to loi their krathongs. The candles seem to go out quite quickly and darkened krathongs tend to gather along the water's edge, so anyone expecting to see rivers sparkling with lights may be disappointed unless the weather is totally calm. Think giant vegetable soup with too many cooks. Households light candles at their boundaries and entrances, in many ways similar to Hindu diwali.


Kom Loi about to be released

Where the festival is so enjoyable is because it s an almighty excuse for Thais to do what they love best - eating, shopping, having fun and listening to loud music. Food and gift stalls line the streets, performances are held and processions of motorised krathongs head down streets. It is as much a celebration of modern Thai life as it is one of tradition. The best way to experience it is to throw yourself right in, while keeping out of the water. You might also need to keep your head down from the odd stray firework or quickly descending kom loi, a miniature candle-powered hot air balloon that are set floating in the sky in droves. Many have wishes attached to them. Not all manage to ascend to the heavens before they reach a tree or power cables or simply lose their upward momentum above a crowd.



The festival is not the same date every year according to the Gregorian calender because it is fixed to the 13 month lunar calendar, falling on the full moon of the 12th month. Wherever you are in Thailand at the time of Loi Krathong you will undoubtedly enjoy. I have met farang women staying in villages who have been dressed as Thai women and put on the top of krathongs in processions. Three of my favourite places to loi a krathong are Chiang Mai, Sukhothai and Ayutthaya.


Tha Phrae gate, Chiang Mai

People in Chiang Mai know how to enjoy life and bring this zest for fun to Loi Krathong over 4 days or so. Each night activity is focused around the Tha Phrae Gate and Narawat Bridge on the Ping River. Where Tha Phae gate is a laidback market full of teanagers comically posing for photos below lanterns, the River is a cacophony of noise and sound resounding to fireworks carronading from the bridge. Call into a wat on the route to the river to sign a kom loi with a wish and float it away with the help of young monks. A procession that begins at the gate converges on the river on the night of Loi Krathong itself.


Buddhist Loi Krathong ceremony, Chiang Rai


Sukhothai Historical Park

Where Loi Krathong in Chiang Mai is one great street party, in Sukhothai it is the creation of a magical, twinkling world of light and dark over four evenings. The World Heritage Historical Park is taken over with thousands of candles and lanterns on the chedis and in the ponds. A sound and light show animates Wat Mahathat with colourful lights and loud noises culminating in a firework display. The road to the park and the lanes in the park are lined with food and gift stalls.

Picnics below the lights in Sukhothai


Buddhas for sale in a Loi Krathong market

Ayutthaya may be a World Heritage Historical Park similar to Sukhothai but Loi Krathong is totally different. Here it is a brash six-day fairground and festival featuring lots of loud dance music, dodgems, shows and sound stages of boy bands. This action is concentrated in one corner near Wat Mahathat but the main loi locations are on the Chao Praya river near Wat Yai Chai Mongkol. Plenty of people loi on the ponds of the historical park too and boys tread water to either help the krathongs away from the banks or to salvage and resell them later.


Kom Loi gang

Sukhothai

Ancient capital of Siam

We pedalled past the white seated Buddha statues, each a moment of stationary meditation glimpsed amongst the trees. We had hired the bikes the previous evening from one of the many hire shops lining the approach road to the ancient city of Sukhothai. Paolo, our guest house owner, recommended the place. Visitors on old single-gear sit-up-and-beg bicycles cruise the roads that run through and around the ruins. Sukhothai is a delightful place for a bicycle ride, whether or not you're greatly interested in archaeology. The roads are predominantly level, the Historical Park is mostly woodland with large ponds that reflect the towering chedis or Buddha statues. Thai drivers are, on the whole, slow and courteous, though they have a tendency unusual to Sukhothai for announcing their approach behind you with a blast on the horn. Well-intended I'm sure but annoying after a short while. The site is spread out over a large area so bicycles really are the way to go. They make visiting all the main temples in the Historical Park easy to do in a day. There are also numerous temples beyond the original city walls, which form a rectangle 2km across, that require some form of transport to reach. Mopeds and mini-vans are other options but if you have the energy and fitness, bicycles allow you to take in the surrounding landscape and say hello to many people in passing.

We visited the Historical Park over five days, catching it in early morning and late afternoon light. The core of the Park are the temples and ponds that formed the very centre of ancient Sukhothai. Here are the remains of at least eleven of the grandest temples, many still hosting graceful Buddha statues, separated by tranquil ponds. The best-preserved is Wat Mahathat, a sprawling range of brick walls, columns, chedis and platforms set in a garden of trees and lawns. Mahathat was the spiritual heart of the city and would have held important relics of the Buddha under its spire-like chedi. Today, a large Buddha statue serenely sits in mediation at the front of the ruined temple hall and is still an important pilgrimage site. There are always offerings of candles, incense and flowers laid in front of his feet and, if you're lucky, you may see orange-robed and chanting monks leading a ceremony.



Two giant standing Buddhas flank either side of the chedi, their arms held out in supplication. Their robes are so finely made from limestone stucco that they seem to sway. Bridges and pathways radiate out from Matathat for you to explore the surrounding temples, each with its own character and distinctive Buddha image. One chedi is supported on a base of very patient elephants. There is enough to explore for at least a morning and if the heat becomes too much by mid-day there are plenty of fruit sellers under shady trees while the modern town with its cafes and restaurants is only a short distance away. It is worth hanging out in the Historical Park until sunset when you will find the Buddha images and temples are silhouetted against the rich oranges and blues of the sky. We had cloudless skies during our visit and while we missed out on the textured multi-hued skies that sun-lit clouds bring, even the gentle transition of a sky darkening from blue to black via bands of orange and red is a spectacle worth seeing.

One morning as I wandered to the west of Matathat, before the sun had risen above the trees, I stood entranced as clouds of white mist drifted languidly above the ponds. The whole world was white, pierced only by the vibrant purple of floating lotus blossoms. As the sun broke over the tree tops, the towering chedi of a temple beyond the pond glowed orange against a backdrop of still-dark woodland. The orange light seemed to slide down the chedi to engulf it and a white-stuccoed Buddha image until he shone bright amongst the pale land.  


Sunrise is a magical time of day elsewhere in Sukhothai. The following morning I cycled, shivering in the pre-dawn cold, to  Wat Saphan Hin set on a hilltop to the west of the city. The sun rises directly above the city and over a flat plain extending from the bottom of the hill to beyond the horizon. The morning I was there the sun rose as a solid orange globe in a cloudless sky. Here, the statue is of Buddha standing with his right arm extended and his hand facing out to greet the new day across the ancient city.

I was only able to cycle out so early and to see so much because I chose to stay in Old Sukhothai. There are, confusingly, two towns by that name. New Sukhothai is a typical noisy, polluted Thai town 15km east of the old city and the main tourist centre for visitors to the ruins. Getting from New to Old Sukhothai involves negotiation a taxi ride or taking one of the infrequent buses. Either way, the journey is about 30 minutes. You do benefit from easier connections to the rail and bus stations if you're on a flying visit as well as a larger selection of guesthouses and restaurants to choose from. If you really want to immerse yourself in the ruins and have time to explore the different places without trying to fit them all into one day, then I'd recommend Old Sukhothai as the place to stay. The town lines two sides of the main road after it enters the original eastern gate of the city and has a choice of cafes and restaurants as well as a 7-Eleven and two budget backpacker guesthouses where you can find a room for as little as 150 baht. There is also a decent day market if you want to buy fresh fruit and veg, and a small night market with hot and cold food stalls. One new discovery we made was a little stall selling mugs of hot ginger tea over tofu. The road that heads north along the outside of the eastern  city wall has mid-range and up market guesthouses. We chose the Orchid Hibiscus because of the promise of bungalows set in a flower garden and an outdoor swimming pool. We weren't disappointed as you can read here.

One of my favourite morning rides was to Wat Phra Achana, where the box-like brick and mortared Mandapa hall still shelters one of the most famous Buddha statues in Thailand. Here Buddha is shown in a popular pose, sitting in the half-lotus position with the fingers of his right hand extended to the ground in the act of subduing Mara. This notable scene from the life of Buddha represents the tim when Mara, a mythical being, tried to tempt Buddha with demons, monsters and storms out of his meditation. By touching the ground, the Buddha called up the Earth Goddess who drowned Mara and his demons. His right hand is covered in tiny squares of gold leaf placed there by worshippers honouring Buddha in hope of merit. I went so early that I had the temple to my self until the ground staff and security arrived. It wasn't until almost 10 O'Clock before the first major tour parties arrived to break the spell of tranquility. That was when I chose to leave, only to be swamped by hundreds of cycling Thai teenagers who peddled brightly coloured pink and yellow bicycles passed the ice cream seller without a pause, screeched to a halt at the end of the parking lot and proceeded to charge towards the Mandapa in a hail of shouts and laughter. At least one Sukhothai bicycle hire shop was clearly doing good business today. 

Orchid Hibiscus, Sukhothai

Orchid Hibiscus Gardens

We have spent our six nights visiting Sukhothai Historical Park at the aptly named Orchid Hibiscus Guesthouse. Orchids and other flowers brighten the beautifully landscaped gardens within which the rooms and bungalows are set.

In front of one of the rooms

Oval Orchid swimming pool

The OH is a bit of a price step-up for us at 800 baht for a double room, which is way more than our usual 200-300 baht on this trip. But is is worth it. The only guesthouse in Old Sukhothai below 1200 baht that has a pool. A decent-sized oval pool with lots of space for yoga at that. Most guesthouses are at New Sukhothai 15km away which is useless when you are getting up for the dawn light. By staying in Old Sukhothai we can both easily cycle to the ruins when we like. The gardens and pool are an ideal place to relax during the heat and flat light of the middle of the day. There are a couple of budget guesthouses in Old Sukhothai too, so if you want to see the ruins it is much more convenient to take a tuk-tuk from the bus station in New Sukhothai straight to the Old and find a place next to the Historical Park.


Paolo & Pinthong

We certainly recommend OH to anyone on a mid-range budget. As well as the 800 baht doubles there are 1200 baht family bungalows. All are around and in a beautiful garden, the rooms are nicely decorated and the owners – Paolo and Pinthong – are incredibly friendly without being in your face. They lay on an expansive breakfast of eggs, toast, jam and marmalade and wild honey still in its comb and served on a bamboo stick. Breakfast can easily continue for an hour and is best eaten after an early visit to the ruins. You will need to cycle plenty to work it off. The service is impeccable – any question or problem immediately rectified without fuss. All the staff are friendly and efficient, even to the point of moving your drying washing into the sun if you forget. The garden is maintained every day and the whole place is immaculately clean. There are an outdoor jacuzzi for use at 300 baht a person, and a couple of chilling areas with bamboo hammocks and wooden benches. They also have mopeds to hire and recommend a bicycle hire place that will come and collect your bike the morning after you’ve finished with it so that you don’t have to think about returning it yourself.

Part of the Orchid breakfast


Outdoor jacuzzi

Go on, treat yourself if you plan to visit Sukhothai.

Teak Town

Say a little Phrae for you


One of many Buddha images in a Phrae wat

We moved on south from Chiang Rai and the tranquillity of the Akha Hill House on Wednesday 7th January. Our next major destination was Sukhothai with the ruins of the 12th-15th century Thai capital. We decided not to bash on down the road in one 7 – 8 hour bus journey but to stopover midway at the small town of Phrae, pronounced Prayer. We were attracted to the guidebook description of a walled town comprising mostly traditional Thai teak houses, a scattering of historical wats and a place rarely visited by tourists. Phrae sounded like a town away from the main tourist hotspots that might give us an insight into normal Thai life. Another attraction was the promise of a vegetarian restaurant, which we decided we would head for as soon as we checked-in to our hotel. This was something of a departure for us because we rarely head for any guidebook listed restaurants, usually just wandering out to find a night market or street food stalls.

Another thing about the non-tourist towns is that they tend not to have backpacker or other visitor guesthouses which means the chance to stay in a normal hotel. We checked into the Paradorn, a typical Thai business hotel with dozens of rooms on three soulless corridors, because an ensuite room was going to be about 300 baht and they advertised free wifi. This is where I am now, having just skyped friends in UK over the din of the late night karaoke from the adjacent Japanese Steak House. The over-ampilifed hits of yesteryear and flat crooning of a group of Thais is a bit of s shock after the total nighttime peace and quiet of the Akha Hill House.

We have just reeled back to the hotel totally stuffed after going crazy in Yota Vegetarian Restaurant - complete vegetarian heaven – for the second night in a row. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we walked in to the restaurant on our the first to find a buffet of dishes that were all veggie versions of the many Thai dishes we have so often seen but not been able to eat in the night markets we’ve visited. They may still be talking about the greedy farangs who had two rice plates each piled with three dishes each, four big, fat spring rolls, and a serving of mock duck with hoisan sauce. I’ve only seen mock duck and mock chicken sliced and in tins but here it was displayed as large wads of the stuff, next to the mock beef, mock fish and mock hotdogs. Every dish we tried was absolutely delicious, and we must have got through 75% of what was on offer. We baulked at the latter and the mock tripe with boiled eggs in oily gravy. We left with full bellies and plans, happily fulfilled, for our return visit the next night.

In between stuffing ourselves at Yota’s we walked around compact Phrae for a day, calling in to all the old wats and a birthday-cake pink historical wooden house called Vongburi.


A gable end glitters in the morning sun

The wats in Phrae are worth a day to visit. They are all traditional wooden temples with dark red painted columns, tiled roofs, beautiful glittering gold and coloured glass gable ends and golden Buddhas. Architecturally, they are northern Thai Lanna and Nan styles as well as Burmese and Lao. Northern Thai wats tend to go in for very elaborate yet graceful entrances. Like the old wats of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, each temple has its own personality. One very dark wat becomes brightly illuminated like a fairground organ in the late afternoon when the monk arrives to receive and bless evening observants. Another is a monk university and cagey groups of 20-something orange-robed monks can be found after classes hanging around the gates in groups and clouds of cigarette smoke or poring over manga comics.


MangaMonk

Akha Hill House

A village guesthouse in the tribal mountains of north-east Thailand


Akha Hill House

The view from grew increasingly wild as Tao our driver wound the pick-up truck out of Chiang Rai, first skirting along the side of the surging Mae Kok River then climbing up a steep dirt road deep into the hills. Our destination was a tiny Akha hill village perched on the side of a hill 25km west of Chiang Rai. Here one of the villagers has managed a small guesthouse for 18 years. The Akha Hill House was the brainchild of Mr Apae; a way of bringing some much-needed income to an area that had traditionally earned a living growing opium poppies. The guesthouse was founded as a homestay at the same time that the Thai government was creating projects to substitute opium with other crops, such as tea and lychees. The business has flourished ever since, attracting backpackers, families and more affluent tourists from Thailand as well as abroad. It really is a guesthouse these days. If you arrive expecting to live and stay with a family, learning about their daily lives, then you will be disappointed. On the other hand, if you are looking for a peaceful mountain retreat that is the sole business of one Akha family and helps to cascade income to neighbouring families then the Hill House is unlikely to let you down.


A very happy Mr Apae

The road culminates in a series of tight bends through bamboo forests before threading its way past an oolong tea plantation where rows of dark-green low bushes march uphill in regular file. Delicate flowers the colour of fried eggs brighten the dark lustre of the leaves which are destined to be dried and exported to the tea-drinking markets of the world. A bamboo sign across the road proclaims our arrival at the Akha Hill House. To either side are slopes that descend down to narrow, forested gullies cut by mountain streams, the rush of water over boulders creating a musical score to the view back down the road we have come along. Bamboo, bananas, lychee bushes and natural forest shroud hills crowding in to either side of a long valley. A range of mountains forms the distant backdrop.


The view from our room with a view

Elevated bamboo and mud-brick bungalows, each with a terrace out front, are carefully placed to make the most of this tropical mountain view. You could picture the pandas chewing on young bamboo shoots, except this isn’t China and at only 1,500 metres above sea level it is probably too low for China’s iconic animal to bother itself with. As we discovered the next morning, the bungalows are also perfectly located to allow each guest to catch sunrise right from their bed if they are prepared to open the door. The more enthusiastic early risers can turn the mountain valley into the ideal foreground for stunning sunrise photographs.


Johun, an apprentice at Akha Hill House concentrates on his English

The guesthouse offers a free pick-up ride from Chiang Rai which arrives at about 5.30pm, so before the delights of sunrise there is the evening fire to enjoy. Guests and staff, foreign, Thai and Akha, gather around the fire to warm themselves against the freshening night chill and swap stories. Mr Apae employs a number of apprentices who are setting up their own homestays in other Akha villages and he encourages them to both improve their own English and teach some Thai with the foreign guests. We were soon learning about Akha culture and the attractions of the surrounding region as well as the Thai words for fire and wood. The apprentices also learn about community tourism through practical experience that includes leading tours and managing the restaurant. Johun is an enthusiastic 24 year-old plant sciences graduate who leads all-day walks where he describes agricultural and jungle plants. Later in 2009 he plans to open a small homestay in his village close to the Myanmar border and is currently working out how to create a website. It looks like he is keen to model himself on Mr Apae’s success.

The guesthouse offers a menu of typical Thai dishes sprinkled with a few Akha specialities such as banana tree soup and chilli paste in which to dip boiled vegetables. Staff and most guests make their way to bed by 10.00pm and then you are left to enjoy the chorus of the night sung by crickets, cicadas and frogs under the stars and moon.


A banana flower creates its fruit

Mr Apae provides a range of treks and activities, none of which are pushed or promoted to you while staying at the guesthouse. Should you wish to find out more, all you need to do is ask Mr Apae who will sit with you and go through what he has on offer. Most guests do one of two treks. One is a walk into the jungle to learn about jungle and local crops, try your hand at fishing in a stream, cook lunch in bamboo and visit a nearby waterfall that contains an impressive force of water even in the dry season. Another trip to an elephant camp, oolong tea plantation and hot springs can be done by a combination of foot, car and long-tail boat.


Strolling to the waterfall, just a 15 minute walk from the guesthouse


The way to the waterfall



Some guests do what we did, hang out on their terrace and wander around the local area. Over three days we slowly made our own way to the waterfall, tea plantation and hot springs, none of which were more than 5km away and all were accessible along well-maintained paths. We walked through forests of tall trees, stands of bamboo as well as plantations of bananas and lychee trees. On the way we wandered through the village, browsing handicraft shops set up by enterprising families and encouraged by Mr Apae, and a nearby Chinese village populated by descendents of the remnants of Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalists who fled China when the Communists took control in 1949. Here we found a small roadside vegetarian café selling som tam, the ubiquitous Thai green papaya salad, and noodles with mushrooms and tofu. The owner was keen to teach us the Thai words for ingredients and different varieties of chilli condiments but I’m afraid we seem to have ultimately failed to pass our exams.


Making som tam


Oolong tea plantation

We bumped into one group retuning from a tour and were invited to share oolong tea and cherry wine with them. Another day, a Sunday, while looking for the village shop, which was closed, we were invited to sample the local vodka by a friend of the shop owner as they drank away the afternoon. I also spent a relaxing hour or so in the guesthouse sauna during our last evening, warming myself to steam infused with blood vine, a very medicinal smelling local herb, which is pumped into a small bamboo and mud-brick hot room. Afterwards I enjoyed the subtle flavour of banana tree and coconut soup while frogs proclaimed their territories or sexual prowess in the gully below.


Pouring the local oolong

We spent three days, four nights at the Akha Hill House in a 350 baht bungalow with en-suite hot water shower and toilet. Rooms with shared bathrooms in the main building are available for 200 baht but you don’t get the stunning views. Bungalows go progressively upmarket to 1,500 baht VIP set-ups which come with TV, a strange necessity in such a tranquil setting. The free pick-up leaves Chiang Rai bus station at 4.30pm each day and can collect you from your hotel. It returns to Chiang Rai at 9.30am where Tao spends the day meeting foreigners arriving in the city by bus. A more delightful tout you couldn’t hope to meet. You can also get to the guest house along the river from either Chiang Rai or Chiang Mai. The boat pier is 5km from the guesthouse at the bottom of the steep dirt road but if you ring ahead they will collect you.


And the local puppies didn't wake up for much