Ruby in the Sky

There are two things you should know about me: as a traveller, I prefer to mix in with the locals (for as far as that is possible – I do not look thai at all), and I always try and often succeed to find the positive side of any situation. These two features of mine experienced their glory days in Chiang Rai: the best way to describe this town, other than “Heaven of the North” as some apparently call it, is probably just “a Sleepy Town in the North”. Honestly, while it is a lovely town, there is not much to do here. You can walk around the centre in about half an hour, I’d say.

So what did I do in Chiang Rai? First, I visited the sights worth seeing according to my trusty Lonely Planet (thanks mom and dad!): the clock tower and the night market. Then, I had pizza for dinner – I really needed some western food at this point. I had my second social interaction here as well, and my first non-solo dinner, as the obviously-also-european guy one table across from me came to sit with me. After that I crept back into my pink, fluffy hole at Na-Rak-O resort, and watched some environmental and nutritional docs. You know, your average Thursday night.

The next day, I was out of sights within the city (considering the city was so small). So, it was time to escape the city limits, at as low a cost as possible. While the girl I sat next to on the bus had told me Chiang Rai was the perfect place to learn to ride a motorcycle, I didn’t feel completely comfortable with this option, as I had never been on one ever before. Unfortunately I soon found out that bikes were far less available here than they had been in Chiang Mai, and so I ended up taking a 120B Tuktuk to Mae Fah Luang, the Art and Cultural park of Chiang Rai. After paying an additional 200B (about €5,50, but that didn’t stop me from feeling ripped of for the sheer fact of having to pay for something), I was in. With my wallet slightly emptier and a map with lots of pen lines made by the host at the visitor centre, I was on my way.

Going through most of the actual “sights” in the park didn’t take me long. As I was alone, not knowledgable about Lanna culture at all and without much information on my map, I could look in awe, but mostly because I was actually clueless as to what I was looking at. This was made up however, as far as necessary (it was all still quite beautiful), by the views. Mae Fah Luang park was absolutely stunning, and at every turn there was something new and pretty to see. Places like these have a tendency to make me feel completely at ease, and so I felt here. Surrounded by green and wood (both polished and used in Lanna artefacts as well as in trees), I wandered all over the park before finally settling under a tree with a book, flipflops off, with a view on the lake. You can’t make me much happier than that.

After a while – it could have been hours or just minutes, I don’t even know – it was time to go back. The Tuktuk driver had left me his phone number, but a) I was unwilling to pay again, b) I did not feel like haggling, and c) I had no local sim card, and was not about to try and make contact with the people at the visitor centre. And so, what does one do instead of taking a tuktuk back to civilisation when wearing flipflops? Right, she walks. So I did. It was about 5 km from the hotel, and around an hour (I think?) later, I got back to base.

With Mae Fah Luang out of the way, I’d officially gone through everything in the town that might interest me. I got a delicious Indian dinner on Jetyod Road, and chilled out in my room for the remainder of the night. The next day was check-out time, but my flight was scheduled to leave only late that evening, meaning I had to figure out a way to spend another 6 hours in Chiang Rai. Once again, I’d like to advise you not to book flights (or trains, or any form of transport) for too late in the day: you very well might regret it, as did I. But I got through the day by walking around some more, reading a bit and getting to the airport way earlier than necessary. And then, I was off to the south…

Do you think you would like the North of Thailand?

Love, Ruby