Daytrip to Chiang Rai, The Golden Triangle & Karen Longneck Tribe

6 o’clock in the morning and the alarm went off, 6.15 and it went off again. Ok, it was time to get up for a nice daytrip I had booked with Travelhub. Chiang Mai offers a lot of tourist offices where you can plan trips to wherever you want. I did not choose Travelhub for any specific reason, the office and their website just looked trustworthy. At 7 o’clock I was picked up and we took off together with 3 British, 2 Italians, 1 Spanish girl and a French family. Our first stop would be the natural hot springs, the site was quite small but it was a good stop to get dome snacks or just a morning coffee. For only 20baht you can buy an egg and boil it in the hot springs.

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After a 15mins break we continued our drive towards the White Temple in Chiang Rai. This was one heck of temple; first off all it’s white, it has incredible detailed pieces and the inside has amazing artwork on the walls. The temple has three parts; first you enter hell where you can see hands that are crying for help. If you look closely you can see one hand with a red fingernail. The idea for this was that more men end up in hell than women, therefore one red fingernail representing the women in hell.

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After hell you will cross the bridge of rebirth before entering heaven and its nirvana. As I said before there is an amazing piece of artwork painted on the walls inside the temple. It has superheroes like Batman and Superman, but also a few celebrities as Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson.

From The White Temple we drove to the Golden Triangle. The Golden Triangle is the area where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar come together at the Mekong River. I didn’t even know that I could get here untill I read about it on the Travelhub website, so I was super stoked to see this! The Mekong River looks amazingly impressive, it is wide and on that day it was even a little bit wild.

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As soon as everything was set with immigration we boarded the boat to cruise the river a little bit and cross to Laos. When we entered Laos we had some time to walk around the area, try some dauntingly looking local drinks or do some shopping.

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Being in an area like this tickles my wanderlust even more. I mean, I could see Myanmar and smell Laos. That makes me wanna travel and explore those countries as well. It’s like you can see something but not touch it!

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After we got back on Thai ground it was time for lunch and taking some amazing shots at the viewpoint. From here you could really see the three countries on each side of the river. This was so amazing, definitely a highlight for me!

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Our last stop was going to be at the Karen Longneck Tribe. These people are known for the rings they wear around their neck wich makes it look longer. I was very curious to see these people and learn more about their culture and habits. When we got to the site, it immediately felt a little bit awkward. What you see is a few bamboo huts placed together where the people of the tribe sit together and weave beautiful products that they will try to sell. Yes it is interesting to see someone of this tribe in real life, but this has become an entire tourist attraction without any authenticity to it.

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So this was the last stop of the trip. Next up was a 3,5hours drive back to Chiang Mai. I will be honest, we have spend a lot of time in the car and on the road but those are the moments that you also see a lot of the countryside and I enjoy just looking out of the window to soak up the scenery.