Chiang Rai (เมืองเชียงราย) is a city in northern Thailand that I’ve always wanted to visit, and finally I had a chance to go. Keep watching this video for all the details.
From Bangkok, I first bought a plane ticket with Bangkok Airways - it was also my first time to fly with Bangkok Airways, though I had heard good things about them before. Our flight was in the morning so we took a taxi in Bangkok to Suvarnabhumi International Airport to catch our flight. After we checked it, we headed to our gate, and were greeted by a nice little display of snacks and coffee and tea - not bad for just a one hour flight that cost less than $50! After eating some banana chips and a few cheese sandwiches, our flight to Chiang Rai was ready to board. On the flight Bangkok Airways served us even more food. It was a nice flight, and it took just one hour to fly from Bangkok to Chiang Rai.
After landing in Chiang Rai, we got our bag, and then took a taxi into town. Ying and had booked a hotel called Amarin Resort, as I needed a nice place to get some work done, and we were looking for a place to get some nice relaxation as well. I immediately loved the resort we were staying at - it was nice and extremely quiet, the grounds were nice and green, and our room was quite big in size and very comfortable. After checking into our hotel and relaxing for a bit, we then headed out to eat lunch at a famous northern Thai restaurant, which was actually located just a 5 minute walk from our hotel, known as Lu Lam. We ordered a number of different Thai dishes, including one of my favorite northern Thai foods, lab khua, minced pork with lots of spices. The entire meal was quite wonderful, and it was a delicious first meal in Chiang Rai. I also loved that the restaurant was located right along the river, offering a lovely and peaceful atmosphere.
During the summer, the sun in Chiang Rai is intensely hot, especially in the middle of the day. So after lunch, we decided to head back to the hotel and I needed to get some work done. I wrote some blogs before we headed out again in the afternoon at about 4 pm when the sun was toned down quite a bit. We headed into Chiang Rai town, and our first stop was to walk around the Chiang Rai clock tower, an incredibly intricate and ornate golden clock tower, sort of the landmark of downtown Chiang Rai city. We then continued walking, and soon found ourselves in the evening central market, a vibrant display of all things northern Thai food. I wanted to actually eat everything I saw, but I was actually still quite full from the delicious lunch we had eaten not too long before. I ended up buying some avocados and some passion fruit, two of my favorite natural things.
After walking around the local food market, we then headed over to check out the Chiang Rai night bazaar. It turned out to be a little on the touristy side, not so much my style, but it could be a good place to go if you travel to Chiang Rai and are looking to buy some souvenir. There’s a food court at the Chiang Rai night bazaar, so we stopped there for a quick and light bite to eat. I ordered a dish called jim jum, which is basically the Thai street food version of a hot pot. We got a pot of soup boiling in a clay pot, accompanied by a basket of vegetables, an egg, and some chicken, and then we just boiled everything together. It wasn’t the best meal of my life, it was alright, but I just wanted to eat something for dinner that wasn’t too heavy or meaty - as I had eaten quite a huge lunch!
My first day traveling from Bangkok to Chiang Rai was a wonderful day. I immediately fell in love with Chiang Rai, how peaceful it is, and I really love the northern Thai culture and the food.
Thank you for watching this travel vlog, hope you enjoyed it!
Music in this video is courtesy of: www.audionetwork.com/
This video is a production of Mark Wiens and his wife Ying Wiens: migrationology.com/blog & www.eatingthaifood.com/blog/
If you enjoy Thai food, check out my “Eating Thai Food Guide”: www.eatingthaifood.com/eating-thai-food-guide/
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