Friends for a meal are easy to find, friends until the end of life are difficult to find ~ Thai Proverb
We were awake at 5:30am. We had an early start to Chiang Khong, and we had to organise our packs and pick up some breakfast beforehand. I headed out to a nearby store to pick up some banana muffins and Thai milk tea, as it was too early to settle at a caf. It was enough to get us started for the day. We checked out of the People Place Hotel (our for the past two nights in Chiang Mai), jumped into a minibus and sped off towards Chiang Rai at 8am sharp.
It didnt take long to clear the suburban outskirts of Chiang Mai. We were soon travelling through rural Thailand, with thick forest vegetation scarred by the countrys ubiquitous roadworks. It was sad to see small villages disrupted by the unavoidable upheaval that always progress. I know transport infrastructure is necessary, but it must be hard when a highway cuts close to your home. When you suddenly find your front door opens onto bitumen and traffic. When only a few weeks earlier you lived in a quiet
Id feel an immense sense of loss if excavators started carving the earth into smooth road surfaces around our house, and I couldnt help but wonder if a foreign power was funding the roadworks we were travelling through. However, I knew in the back of my mind that this highway will benefit tourists wanting to travel from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai in so they could type their travel notes in peace without too many bumps. People like me!
We passed small villages with basic wooden huts and tiered agricultural fields, where water buffalo stood silently and stared at the passing traffic, with small birds perched on their backs. Im pretty sure they too lamented the roadworks. At one stage I saw an old lady from one of the villages trying to cross the freshly carved earthen road with the aid of a walking stick, and an excavator didnt even bother to slow as it churned past her – the huge blade only missing her ankles by a few metres.
bumpy) bitumen roads. The roadside villages had adapted to the new normal, having set up trinket shops and cafes to service the tourist hordes seeking adventure in Northern Thailand. Large rural centres (old and new) popped up every now and again, and mountains and hills were barely visible on the distant hazy horizon.
Carved wooden furniture shops bordered rice fields, and motor cycle repair shops were everywhere. After a quick toilet stop at an upmarket cashew franchise on the roadside, we continued our journey towards Chiang Rai. The roads narrowed, the forests thickened and our minibus struggled up mountainous arteries crowded with cars, buses, trucks and motorbikes.
If there was one constant on this trip, it was the changing landscape. Soon we were travelling on wide dual lane roads through flat agricultural fields, where rice fields predominated and villages were well established.
We pulled into Wat Rong Khon (the White Temple) on our way through Chiang Rai just before midday. From the moment I stepped out of the minibus I disliked the gaudiness and tackiness of the place, but we to this detour, so there was no turning back. I struggled with the pointlessness
of this temple, and I was surprised to see monks in the grounds. There were Disney and Marvel elements scattered everywhere, and the person responsible for this privately owned monstrosity is referred to (and revered) as an artist. I couldnt help but wonder if the temple was consecrated, and if the Buddha himself would have bothered visiting?
After 30 minutes wed seen enough, so it was time to escape the crowds and head for the food court. Luckily for us, there was a positive note to our brief stopover in Chiang Rai – the food court food was fabulous. We shared a bowl of khao soi (chicken and yellow egg noodles in a spicy coconut soup, served with crispy fried noodles, pickled greens and fresh lime), and it was good.
