Rural Chiang Rai

We arrived in Chiang Rai on the 23rd.  We spent the first night at a posh hotel with brilliant white sheets and down comforters.  Our guest house in Chiang Mai was across the street from several bars and music venues, so we heard Chili Peppers covers til 2 a.m. every morning.  Then from 2:15 - 4:00 we got to listen to backpacker guys try to coerce Scandinavian women into joining them in their $5 hotel room.  So the hotel was worth the splurge ($17) and we slept like champs.

01 Rural Chiang Rai

The next day we contacted this guy who had posted a house for rent on Craig's List.  He was looking for long-term tenants, but I asked him if we could stay there for a couple of days.  He accepted and picked us up in town since the place was in the hills outside of the city.  It was more remote than I had anticipated, but since we had already checked out of our hotel, we took it.  It was simple but nice and had a great view.  We had to have him take us back to town to rent a motorbike so we wouldn't be stuck out in the sticks.  The bike was more expensive than we had anticipated.  Prices were low in Chiang Mai because of competition and market saturation.  Chiang Rai doesn't have these problems and prices reflected that.

02 Rural Chiang Rai

So we decided just to spend a couple of days in the country house.  It would be nice to spend Christmas somewhere interesting and less sterile than a hotel.  But the city was also enjoying a cold front and it was freezing out there.  We used every blanket he gave us and all our towels.  It was one of those magical buildings where it's colder inside than it is outside.  It was one of my friend Omar's "little refrigerators."  But it was a nice couple of days.

The first day we took our bike out and explored the countryside.  We saw a sign for cave Buddha images not mentioned in our guide book.  So we headed over there, which was at least more interesting than more wats.  And the area was beautiful.  We headed aimlessly down country roads, found a soccer game in a village, and saw monks sweeping the dirt road to their monastery.  It was a very pleasant Christmas Eve.

03 Entrance to Cave with Buddha Images

04 Stairs and Flowers

05 Cave Buddha

06 Buddha Inner Cave

07 View from Cave Entrance

08 Monks Sweeping Dirt Road

09 River Near Chang Rai

10 River and Mountains

11 Boat and River

12 Boat and River

13 Too Cool

14 Fields and Mountains

15 Near Chiang Rai