Chiang Rai: Colourful temples, friendly locals and saying goodbye to Thailand

Chiang Rai has the exact same friendly, laid-back vibe that I loved in Chiang Mai, so it's not surprising I've also had a really good time here!

As soon as Ben and I got out of our bus near the Golden Clock Tower, we found ourselves in the middle of a colourful Christmas parade, where all the local primary school students were handing out sweets, singing and wishing us a happy Christmas. It probably wasn't the most traditional Thai celebration but it was definitely a great introduction to this small, friendly and easygoing town.

Part of the Christmas parade passing the Golden Clock Tower in Chiang Rai

We got a second warm welcome soon afterwards when we arrived at our hostel, the Winter House Chiang Rai (which actually only cost us a couple of pounds each night!)

The place is run by a lovely lady called Da Da, who chatted with us, offered to teach us how to make her delicious pad thai and basically treated us like family the whole time we were there. When we left this morning, she even gave us little handmade souvenirs to remember her by!

After trying some of the amazing food at Chiang Rai's Night Bazaar and visiting one of the town's trendy coffee shops, we took a tour of the area's most famous landmarks with Da Da's son (who was just as friendly and helpful as his Mum).

Chiang Rai's beautiful modern temples

From Bangkok's glittering Grand Palace to Cambodia's world famous Angkor Wat, we've seen a lot of amazing temples in our travels so far. But the ones in Chiang Rai still felt new and unique because they'd all been built in the last few decades and were basically works of modern art.

The first temple we saw on our tour was the White Temple, which looked like something out of Narnia! Apparently, the artist built it to represent the afterlife and the mix of good and evil in the world.

The White Temple looking pretty magical

The golden building right next to the White Temple was decorated by the same artist who built the town's Golden Clock Tower

Afterwards, we also got to take a look at the colourful Blue Temple, which the artist started building from the remains of an ancient temple in 2005 and only just finished a couple of years ago. From the front, its bright blue spires and sculptures are pretty striking, but (unlike the White Temple) the Blue Temple is even more detailed and beautiful inside.

Inside the Blue Temple

Next, we headed over to the Black Museum; a collection of gothic-looking wooden houses all built by contemporary Thai artists. This place felt a little more dark and surreal, and it was really cool being able to see the contrast between all the town's different modern landmarks in just one day.

Ben at the Black Museum

We finished our tour by visiting Chiang Rai's iconic Big Buddha, which sits super peacefully on a hilltop in Wat Huay Pla Kang - and is even bigger in real life than it looks in pictures!

The Big Buddha

Even though I've found that a lot of the temples in South East Asia can feel a bit samey after a while (if you're a tourist), these more recent, quirky ones in Chiang Rai were actually really cool.

I'd say I preferred Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai - mostly because there was more going on in town there, and more places to see elephants too! But I'd still recommend Chiang Rai as a place to stop by before heading to the airport if you want a little bit more sightseeing or a couple of chilled out, sunny days.

Now, we're heading to Bangkok to catch our flights to Japan, meaning our time in Thailand has come to an end. I've seen and done so many incredible things in this country and despite how much it's suffering from overtourism in some areas, I still think Thailand is a really amazing place.

In the last couple of weeks, we've seen everything from amazing beaches and jungles to glimpses into a totally different culture's history. You just have to make sure you branch out a bit and see more than just Bangkok and the party islands.

I’m really excited to get on a flight to Japan now and see how different life is there!

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Meeting rescued elephants and cooking Thai food

Initially, I wanted to venture up to the north of Thailand because I'd heard that it was the perfect place to meet elephants - and also that it was friendlier, cheaper, less touristy and more laidback than down south. Luckily, in Chiang Mai, all of this has turned out to be true!

Everybody we've met in Chiang Mai has been really friendly and welcoming, the landmarks have been beautiful and I've also been able to tick some really exciting things off of my bucket list while here.

The Elephant Jungle Sanctuary

My favourite thing we've done in Chiang Mai has hands down been meeting the incredible elephants at the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary. I've always wanted to see elephants up close but the day was still even better than I'd thought it would be!

Sadly, there are still quite a lot of places around this area which let tourists ride elephants (which is extremely bad for their backs) and don't have the elephants' health and happiness as their first priority at all. Because of this, Ben and I tried really hard to research and find an ethical (but still affordable) place to meet elephants in Chiang Mai. We ended up going with the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary because they say they provide an 'ethical elephant adventure' for tourists but also aren't as crazily expensive as some of the other rescue sanctuaries we'd seen.

I think we definitely made the right choice because from the moment we arrived, I felt like the owners of the sanctuary really loved and knew all of their elephants - who had all been rescued from backgrounds of abuse or circus training - and wanted to keep them safe and happy.

When we first arrived at the sanctuary, we had to get changed into traditional karen clothing (stripy woven tops) so the elephants wouldn't get confused by any strange sights or scents. Before we met them, we were also given a talk by one of the men who worked there about the elephants' backgrounds, diets, behaviours, personalities and what the sanctuary were trying to do for them.

At first, I was a bit nervous about getting up close to the elephants (especially after one of the teenage ones made a big entrance with a fast, heavy gallop and a huge roar!) But it wasn’t long before I felt really comfortable with the beautiful animals, who all had big personalities and were really friendly, fun and sweet.

After gaining the elephants’ trust by feeding them bananas (which they ate whole out of our hands with the skins on!), we had a chance to stroke and take pictures with them.

Once all the elephants had been fed, we also got to join them in their mud bath and help wash them (and ourselves) off in the river afterwards!

Splashing around with the elephants

We were especially lucky with the camp we went to because there was a baby elephant in the family we met, who was really playful (and really cute!) There was also a grandmother elephant in her seventies, who was much calmer, so we got to see a big range of different personalities in the elephant family.

Up close with the baby of the pack

I would definitely do this experience over again and would recommend it to anyone who fancies spending their morning in the Thai jungle stroking and washing some beautiful elephants.

Sightseeing in Chiang Mai

In terms of sightseeing in Chiang Mai, my favourite landmark was a golden mountain temple called Doi Suthep. We had to climb a lot of steps in the heat to get there, but the temple was really beautiful - and we also got an amazing panoramic view of the whole of Chiang Mai from the balcony outside it.

The view of Chiang Mai from the top of the Doi Suthep temple

That evening, we went and explored the city's colourful Night Market; a busy lantern-lined market full of pretty handmade souvenirs and delicious street food (which we haven't got ill from yet!)

In Chiang Mai's famous Night Market

Learning to cook Thai food

Considering how good the food here's been, we couldn't leave Chiang Mai without going to the Siam Garden Cooking School to learn how to make some delicious Thai meals for ourselves.

With a lot of help from the cooking teachers, Ben and I made spring rolls, chicken salad, pad thai, massamam curry, tom yum soup, fried bananas and mango sticky rice. The best bit was getting to eat everything at the end, because it all tasted amazing (thanks to the teachers' help!) I'd love to make it again but the ingredients might be a bit harder to get hold of in the UK.

After being really impressed by the beautiful places and welcoming people in this part of Thailand, we're now heading to a nearby town called Chiang Rai for a couple of days, where we'll hopefully see some more amazing landmarks and keep enjoying the laid-back, friendly vibe of northern Thailand.

Koh Chang Island, Thailand: A weekend in paradise

After a few days in Thailand's fun but busy capital, we decided to head somewhere more beachy and chilled where we could properly enjoy the sun. When we were looking up where would have the best weather and beaches, Koh Chang seemed like a good place to head to - and I'm really glad that we did!

This island has been nothing but beautiful, affordable and relaxing - and it's also seemed pretty unpolluted compared to some of the other Thai beaches we've seen.

Watching the sunset from a palm tree in Kai Bae beach

I actually don't have too much to write about what I've done here in Koh Chang as we’ve basically just relaxed on Kai Bae beach and enjoyed the sunny weather here.

Kai Bae in the sun

The Habitat hostel we're staying in is really nice, clean and comfortable, and just a few minutes walk from the beach, restaurants and bars. It's one of the best accommodations we’ve had in Asia so far and it's only costing us each about a tenner each night!

The vibe in town here is also very laid-back, and all of the locals selling smoothies, crêpes and mangoes are really friendly.

I've eaten some of the best Thai food I've had so far at Kati Culinary, and the beach next to our place is lined with some cool happy hour spots where you can sit on a beanbag and drink your cocktails while you watch the sunset on the beach.

Another amazing beach sunset in Koh Chang

Kai Bae beach is really quiet, so it's a good place to relax during the day, but in the evening you can also take a tuk tuk to Lonely Beach for a more fun and busy atmosphere. The ironically named Lonely Beach seems to be most backpackers' favourite spot on the island and it really comes to life at night.

I feel like I might be coming across as overly positive about Koh Chang but I don't really have anything negative to say about this island! Spending a couple of days relaxing here has been amazing, and now I'm excited to get to our next destination; a huge and mountainous city called Chiang Mai, right up in the north of Thailand.