Welcome to episode 2 of Chiang Rai blog! If you miss episode 1 click here. It was the day we had to go back to Bangkok ( ´༎ຶㅂ༎ຶ`) so I made it extra special. Our bus will leave at 6pm thus we had plenty of time to observe around Chiang Rai. As y'all know I can't drive even though I'm 23-year-old (might be whimsical in western country) lead to the only way, tour. I found this tour on Google and it's private tour. Click here if you're interested. Our itinerary was Wat Phra Kaew -> Wat Huai Pla Kung -> Wat Rong Sua Ten -> Long Neck Tribe -> Doi Tung. After we finished our breakfast, the guide named Jack was already ready to pick us up. When we first got in the car, it smell like a wet dog. We didn't complaine about it but we wish it wasn't like that. According from the itinerary, Wat Phra Kaew was our first destination. It is an important temple in Thai history, as it was here where the Emerald Buddha was discovered in the year 1434 after lightning struck the chedi where it was kept. The Emerald Buddha or Phra Kaew Morakot is the most highly revered Buddha image in the country, that is now enshrined in the Wat Phra Kaew temple on the grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok. Just a little step from the Emerald Buddha, I found a building where many beautiful Buddha statues have been kept. The most precious thing that I like was Burmese Buddha statues. Chiang Rai is close to Burma that's why some of the Buddha statues have Burmese art.
We walked a little further to see the temple's newest building. It is 9-floor tall white Quan Yin with the attitude of sitting down blessing. Inside, unfortunately, only ninth floor that finished decorating. It was about biography of Quan Yin. As you can tell by now that this temple is influenced by this Chinese goddess. There was also a tiny look out window in case anybody wanna see the view from above. We were done with this temple with the pouring rain.
Outside, there were two fairlytale creatures that I'm not sure what it called but their job is similar to gargoyles in Christian churches, expelling ghosts and evils from the temple.
Now it's the highlight of this trip! Long neck Karen tribe which is the tribe who are known for boasting spiral brass coils around their necks! We were so excited to see them for the first time. It as so popular among the tourists but that wan't the reason for us to go. Why then? Because it was strange! I'd love to see with my own eyes. I gotta say the entrance fee was expensive like literally gimme wow face. I had to pay 200 baht to get in and don't even expect Sam to pay cheaper than me 'cause he is foreigner. Secondly, we went there on pouring rain day and we didn't know that the route was very muckky. We still went in there man. We didn't want to pay for nothing.
I was very impressed about everything. I saw a few Karen women practicing their impressive craft to sell to the tourists. Did y'all kno that the traditional purpose of the rings was to achieve the ideal beauty, an elongated neck? Though the coils actually don’t make the neck longer, it compresses the shoulder blades, pushing them down which gives the appearance of an elongated neck.
It wasn't only Long neck tribe there, the ‘Big Ear’ tribe is another interesting tribe. They put large silver gauges on their ears instead.
The trip comes down to the last place, Doi Tung. It is the name of the peak but that wasn't our destination. We went to Mae Fah Luang Botanical Gardens located on the summit of Doi Tung. The garden incorporate tropical, temperate and desert plants. My most favourite section was orchid house. A lot of them are Callus Paphiopedilum. It is very rare and local with few known localities and a very restricted distribution with fragmented subpopulations in Viet Nam, Thailand, southern Laos PDR, Malaysia and Cambodia. The area is mostly hilly so please wear comfortable shoes like sneakers or gym shoes. We spent approximately an hour in the garden. Trust me it as very tiring lol. At the entrance, we saw "Walking on the Tree Top" activity. Don't worry if you're afriad that they won't provide any saving gear because they do plus a tiny lesson of how to use it.
How tall of the walk can be? 30- meter above the ground guys. How lucky that I didn't pass out! Along the way I saw many kinds of trees but I barely know the name of them. One thing that I knew for sure was the air upthere was very clean and fresh. I couldn't here human noice but birds. The walk has 295 meters long thereby I had plenty of time to absorb this happiness ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ.
All good things come to an end, we arrived at Chiang Rai bus station an hour before departure. Many people wait there. I wonder where they gonna go. Some were just arrive at Chiang Rai with all that excited feeling. What about us? When our butts touched the seats at the bus station, we knew immidiately we gonna come back. We still have plenty of check lists to do in Chiang Rai. Definitely worth the 2nd visit.
Gallery:
