Day 107-108 Mueang Phayao to Chiang Rai
Mueang Phayao to Pran
Was an easy ride, just under 50km. We left late, relaxed, drank too much coffee, ate noodles, stopped at a strange little wood ‘resort’ and decided to stay there. The day was quite uneventful. Trying to get to sleep in a mosquito net was not so easy. The room was cool and the bed was stiff. Also, getting the mosquito net to sit comfortably over the bed and let us sleep was a little difficult. We managed using cushions and panniers to ‘lock’ the net in place at its corners and we ended up having a good sleep.
During the afternoon though we had Francis (his christian name, he was Thai christian) take us around to see the city’s Chinese temple. It is a very interesting place and is also a great scenic lookout point with a Buddha statue overlooking Pran. Francis, a fellow cyclist and retiree, was a very nice chap, donating his afternoon to be our guide. It was nice to meet him and find out a little about Chiang Rai.
We chatted, had a drink and he played the guitar. He was a perfect host, dropping us back at our ‘resort’ after taking us on an adventure for a few hours. Thank you FRANCIS. His family was all in Bangkok now, and his wife was backward and forward between the two locations. Anyway, it was great he had the time, like so many other people who have looked after us around the country.
We’ve been taking it easy and getting ready for the long hill days ahead.
Pran to Muang Chiang Rai
We had a couple of phone calls yesterday, one from James, our new friend in Si Sa Ket, who spent time with us. Evidently James’ brother lives in Chiang Rai and is also a cyclist. So we were very lucky to have him come out and meet us 20 or so kilometres outside of town and give us a tour and invitation to his house for a drink. We met is lovely wife and son and relaxed for an hour or so, chatting about cycle touring, bicycles, Chiang Rai, and our trip. Overall it was great, every place we meet fellow cyclists we have a good time.
He took us to the White Temple (N 19 49.425, E 99 45.832) which was designed by a local artist. Natt knows a lot more about this temple than I do, but more importantly there was a beautiful art gallery of the artist’s works at the temple. There was some very amazing stuff in there. I was impressed a lot and expect that my father, a painter, photographer, and artist would love to spend a good few hours looking at all the works. I enjoyed it, and wish I was not all hot and sweaty and had opportunity to spend more time there. I hope to go back to the White Temple with my parents some day.
We checked into some musty, dank room in the centre of town. It is close to everything in town which is good, but the hotel itself is really nothing special. It was a tight squeeze to get the bicycle in the room. Price was cheap, which is always good.
