Chiang rai

Our arrival finally at Chiang Rai after the ordeal of the last few weeks and its our final stop in Tahiland before we head on over to neighbouring Laos. Part of us is bored with Thailand (you know you've been here too long when a tuk-tuk ride is no longer scary but quite pleasant!) and so we're excited to move on but we're now so used to the laid back Thai lifestyle that having to stay here wouldn't be too big of an ordeal!
So any ways we get there and as usual got bombarded with tuk-tuk drivers offering their services and in true backpacker style we declined and we were going to walk what looked to be the relatively short distance to our chosen digs for the night. However the map's were crap and didn't indicate that there were two exits so we walked in completely the wrong direction for 15 mins before going back on our selves and walking the additional 15 mins from the correct bus station exit to our guest house. We stayed at a place called Orchids guest house which was cheap and a bargain, really clean, free bottled water and internet so we were happy after our first ordeal of the day!
Our first full day we set off with good intentions of seeing a lot of the city but the clock tower was under reconstruction, and we overselpt thus cutting our time short, but we did manage to do the hill tribe museum which was very informative. It told the story of opium production in the area, and all the different minorities in the area and showing their costumes, after this we went for a meal at the attached restuarant called Cabbages and Condoms (a Bangkok company who give all their profits towards to the local Aids/HIV plight, which is becoming a growing problem).
The next day we did a one day tour with Tom our local guide, he collected us in his beat up old car and told us that it was only us going...so we could pick and choose what we wanted to see, hurrah! First port of call was to see the Karen long Neck women. They were lots of different types of hill tribes in the area all kept within a park area that they werent allowed to leave, as they were not Thai citizens and the tourists coming to the park offered them a way to earn money as they have no governement help etc. We had read some horror stories about it being a farce and it was a bit like Disneyland but the people were very friendly, and they sold handicrafts whilst the men worked in the fields growing the food. although there were a lot of mobile phones going off! First we saw the Long neck Karen women (and some of their necks were very long) and we got to feel the weight of one of the coils...heavy! Its the weight and the pressure that causes the collar bones to be supressed rather than elongating the neck, nobody knows why they do it but the old myths are that it was to protect the women from the tiger bite?!?!?! We also saw the Akha people who have gates at the entrance and exits to the village to keep the forest spirits out (in ancient times they lived together in harmony but then the people stole a cucumber from the spirits and the spirits stole a pig from the people, so now one has the jungle and the other has the village!) they also have a ceremony once a year that involves using swings (see the photo's) it looked mental! There were also the Lihu and the Yao people and we saw some dancing and some traditional music wich was good.
After this we went to Chiang Saen which is a lesser know ancient capital but was deemed too close to the borders with China so they moved further south, as we're still a bit "wat"ed out we only visited the most impressive. It was at the top of the hill and Tom dropped us off whilst he went to park the car. We climbed a beatuiful Naga (snake) stairway and got to a peaceful stuppa at the top, seems only right that this should be where we saw our first snake (that wasn't pickled in a jar of wine!) I walked straight past it but Si saw it just as it slithered away, it seemed more scared of us that the other way round but it was scary. Quite a small black snake with a red head, they assured it it wasn't poisonous, luckily but now we pay much more attention to where we are walking! The temple itself was built with a view of the Mekong and was all marble with the obligatory Big gold buddha inside. As we were leaving Tom gave us some local fruit (that he just called Jungle fruit) to try and it was vile a mixture of sour and bitter...not nice, but it gave him a giggle to see our faces!
After this we headed further north to the Golden Triangle, where we had lunch and saw a huge monument to commemorate the King's Mothers birthday, it had huge elephants and a big buddha on a boat shapped monument and there was a weird game where you had to throw a coin into this big bucket and it rolled down a metal runway and into the belly button of a Buddha statue at the bottom, which entertained us no end! Tom then managed to get us a jeep to take us up to the golden triangle viewing point. This is where you can see the meeting of two rivers and you can also see Laos and Burma. The Burma side had a casino and apparently the majority of the locals in the area are illegal immigants from the neighbouring two countries. We also went to the The Hall of Opium, which was set up by the King's mother to help the local people in terms of the Opium problem. This was the area famous years ago where the majority of the Worlds opium was produced, it resulted in lots of poppy fields and many opium addicts. the King's Mother did a lot of campaigning and fundraising to help educate the locals, provide them with a sustainable income outside of drugs and to help drug addicts get clean. Her programme was very successful and only a fraction of what was once produced is still grown here and the number of addicts has dropped dramatically (Although this didn't stop our Tom offering to take us to smoke some!!!). The museum itself was brillaint, with loads of interactive displays and information, if anything too much to take in but we spent over 2 hours in there!
Next port of call was Mai Sai the northern most point in Thailand where it meets the border of Burma, we had the opportunity to cross by bus for the day but as we didnt have our passports and it was very expensive we decided not too as we could only go as far as the market on the other side of the river. As we left driving through a small village we needed some petrol, so we pulled up to this shack with three large barrels inside...the petrol station. A woman came out and pumped some petrol from the drum into a container on top with a tube attached to it, the tube however wasnt long enough to reach the car so she pulled out an extension lead (another length of rubber tubbing) and put it on the end of the original one pulled the plug and it all drained into the tank...hillarious!
Our last place to visit was the monkey cave, named so surprisingly because of the mass of monkeys that live there. Tourist come throughout the day and feed them and they know not to leave the cave area because the locals will shoot them! As we spent so long in the museum it was quite late by this point so the food stalls were closed so we had nothing to give the hungry monkeys, Tom however managed to find some food and there was a frenzy of activity! Most of them were quite small but the ring leader was a massive beast and he was hungry so as they all dashed to the table this king jumped onto the table chasing his rivals off, we were standing right in front of the stall and i screamed as this monkey jumped past me about 2 ft away from my head!
Chiang Rai is a quite small city that doesnt have all that much to do come night time, so having a wander round we spent a lot of time just dossing about eating pizza (mmmmm!) or watching films in our room. We spent quite a bit of time at the night market, shopping and eating the cheap local food, or playing pool in a bar, one night though we wanted to have a massage. We'd picked up a map from our hostel with lots of massage parlours on (which isn't uncommon as most Thai's have them regularly) but one stood out as it had the words "NO HOOKERS" written beneath it, but it looked a bit dodgy when we got there so we had a look round. It was only then that we noticed the number of red lights outside these massage parlours and skimpily clad girls so we ran back to the original one (we also later discovered that Chiang Rai has a patpong area with Go-Go bars...with girls and boys available!) We arrived and had our feet washed and were then taken up two flights of stairs to a landing area that had lots of matresses and curtains, the walls were decorated with plastic blinds depicting palm trees! They gave us some pyjamas to put on and began the massage, as we lay there more and more people came as well so we didnt feel quite so alone and vulnerable including a Thai lady and a fat Thai man, but they were all very friendly even if their english was limited.
The final thing that happened of note that i feel we should mention was a conversation we overheard whilst at breakfast one morning between two old men...easily in their 70's. They were from New Zeland and one was telling the other about how he was on the run! Not from the law but from his psycho ex-Thai girlfriend!! He had been seeing her but popped home for a while thinking he would never see her again, but she'd somehow managed to get his phone number and had called his family home, and his family advised her he'd flown back to Thailand. He then got back to his hotel room one night to have her whole fmaily banging on his door demanding he speak to this girl, so the next morning he did a runner and was hiding in Chiang Rai as he was "avoiding all the old haunts so she can't find me!" He also said that she was "the sort of woman who would just go crazy and stab me with something"...nice. Oh well... Sums up all the seedy side of sex tourists and dirty old men in a paragraph, but the next day we were off and into Laos!