Chiang Rai! (by Josh)

After Chiang Mai ended up being a little more touristy than we could handle Chaing Rai was an absolute gem of northern Thailand.
We took a short 3 hour bus ride to this little northern paradise and stayed in an unbelievably cute hotel called Kong Garden view. It was a little upscale (not reflected in the price though $20 per night including a fantastic breakfast!) so we felt a little bit like grubby backpackers amongst a local wedding that was going on but it was fun to be amongst mostly locals. Their restaurant was located almost floating on a pond in front of the hotel so it was a nice place to relax anytime of the day.
That night we headed to the Lonely Planet recommendation for a night life street which was a big fat thumbs down, mostly just white haired foreigners with rent-a-wives. But still not near as bad as Chiang Mai.
We walked around the center a bit and ended up finding a cool little pub with live music. They had a Thai band doing some pretty impressive covers of GnR, Green Day and some old school CCR.

The next day we rented a motorbike and set off on a cruise that started out in search of an Elephant Sanctuary but in the end it was super expensive unless you were a guest and having already done the elephant thing in India we reveled in spontaneity and decided to head to the Golden Triangle which we realized was in our path. The Golden Triangle in SE Asia refers to the point at the Northern Thailand border where it borders both Laos and Myanmar. It is a sparkling vista as the natural dividers are the Mekong and Ruak Rivers that converge at this stellar point. It's a pleasant view and you can hire a boat and travel down the Mekong and visit Laos,so we did!! It was relaxing and the Lao Island we stopped at, though a bit touristy was quite the market! It had some bizarre and quite cheap array of articles including Snake Whisky which I couldn't help but purchase. It comes with the full snake embedded in the bottle. I feel a sense of guilt for supporting this type of thing (I am an animal lover!) but I was caught up in the moment culturally and apparently the locals told me if you haven't tried Snake Whisky you haven't tried Whisky!
Niki bought some knock off purses and we hopped back on our boat to enjoy the rest of the cruise.
We then had an incredible Thai meal at a great restaurant overlooking the Mekong and sailed home on our motorbike loving the jungle scenery. We have realized there is no better way to see the countryside anywhere than by motorbike, it was beautiful.

We had been doing some research on Chiang Rai and come across a quirky find. A local but famous artist named Thawan Duchanee who was from the area and has built what was originally a sanctuary to paint and became basically a giant park with the motif of death as its theme. The Black Temple which is the main structure on the grounds looks like something out of a horror flick. It actually gives you the shivers walking around it as it has animal bones and skins everywhere and just a very Dracula- esque feel. There are 40 other structures most not available to the public where he would paint but the grounds were littered with bizarre structures that made you feel like you were in a Tim Burton movie. We would peer in the windows and their were bathrooms with animal carcass's hanging everywhere and horned chairs. The beds had skulls on every corner and everything was painted black. Indescribable,it was so imposing it was a highlight. A very eerie and fascinating place that made you wonder what made this guy tick.
We then made our way to another temple,the White Temple. This was also a highlight. The White Temple is a proper Buddhist temple but you wouldn't necessarily know it. You can check out the photos but the architecture this time all in white was just as scary as the previous temple. It was full of haunting skulls with snakes coming out of their mouths and gargoyles everywhere. There was a garden of hands reaching up from underground. Just a freaky place!
Both temples are a must see if you are in Chiang Rai.

We also set out to find some kind of adventure park we had found on Trip Advisor. No one in town had heard of it and after asking for directions a few times we finally found it. I'm pretty sure it was shut down, we walked the grounds for about 30 minutes yelling hello and playing with some of the gear( they had a huge tire swing hanging from a massive tree overhanging a large cliff! It was fun!) But the place was abandoned. It was sort of creepy but fun at the same time!
I think the adventure of getting there( and beauty, the drive through the jungle was exceptional) was the best part!
That night we decided to hit the local theatre and see a movie and it was relaxing and a piece of normal that we enjoyed. Especially after our visits to Creepyville and Wierdtown. :)
As a whole, Chiang Rai was great, it was laid back,authentic and fun. It's smaller size set in a beautiful mountain jungle setting gave it a rustic and charming feel. And you could still find a good cappachino and a movie if you were inclined.
If you go, definitely rent a motorbike and see the countryside, it just captivated us by the minute!
Peace:)