wanderingstraycat

Second Thepvong Place, stayed there last Dec. Google for their website. It's down a lane off the south side of Charoen Muang Rd (parallel to Charoen Muang Soi 1 & Yantarakit Koson Rd), so you don't get noise from the main road. Has sheltered space for parking bikes. They had rooms cheaper than those mentioned on their website. B350 got me the cheapest - a bright clean double with AC & hot shower (no meals). Cook didn't seem crazy to me but the Thai food was good (didn't try any of the Western food options). Though menu prices didn't seem to be up to date...

Phrae is good for exploring by bicycle, there's some 'free use of pink bicycles for tourists' system & a map of recommended routes around the flat old town area (demarcated by the old city walls), which has relatively little traffic. Best info + maps from the coffee place called Nok Bin located along Wichairacha Rd near Wat Siboonreuang, in the southern part of the old town. Lonely Planet mentions a branch outlet near Pratuu Chai, but it has closed down, although Nok Bin now has a small shop in Phrae bus station.

Temples - i liked Wat Phra Non (something about the overall structure that resembles the temples of northern Laos). There's also Wat Pong Sunan (IIRC) with a large reclining Buddha outside, plus two Burmese-style wooden temples, though not as impressive as the one in Chiang Kham (Wat Nantaram). Many old teak houses, with a few converted into museums. Every evening food stalls pop up at the Pratuu Chai roundabout. Also one small Thai food place at the corner of Charoen Muang & its Soi 1 that seemed quite popular with locals. A few coffee places & other restaurants along Charoen Muang Rd esp closer to Pratuu Chai, & there's supposed to be a walking street along this road on certain days (need to check my notes). Directly facing the southwest entrance of Wat Phra Ruang (in the old town) is the home+studio of an artist who paints reproductions of the temple murals from Wiang Ta (somewhere along Rte 1023, west of Phrae city), quite an interesting character...the original murals are like a less well-known version of the Wat Nong Bua murals of Nan province & have all been removed to Rai Mae Fah Luang in Chiangrai.

ANA also has an advisory:

"[information]

To Departing Passengers from Bangkok Suvarnabumi Airport

Chronic congestion in passport control area of Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport are acknowledged.

Moreover, due to increase of airlines' extra-flights in the period of "Chinese New Year", it is expected extremely long lining up at passport control. Especially, through 1st to 13th February, ANA recommend passengers to show up at our check-in counter 3 hours earlier than the standard departure time."

faced the same problem at Suvarnabhumi outbound immigration on 28 Dec 2010. queued through lunchtime, slightly less than half of the immigration counters were manned. 10 minutes before take-off, still stuck in queue with people whose flights were departing earlier than mine. with 2 minutes to spare, ran to gate F6, only to find that quite a few passengers were still behind me (was seated in row 2, stopped counting after more than 15 walked past).

alphazulu,

have sent you a private message with the contact details of 2 shops in the Sam Peng area.

not sure if am allowed to post their details & websites here...

thank you for the photos. traditional Thai art "doesn't" have perspective i think. stuff in background will be drawn same size as stuff in foreground, that kinda thing. forgot to mention earlier, the roof of that temple is very much like those in the upper north of Laos.

Thanks wonderingstraycat, what about other areas besides Chiang Rai? Like Chiang Khong? Any chinese village there?

sorry i don't know. as i've said, most of the Chiangrai villages i've spent time in are Akha & Lahu.

but this map marks a few Chinese villages in the area just west of Chiangrai town & on the south bank of Mae Kok (the hotsprings marked there is Huay Mak Liam i think):

www.akhahill.com/12publiction.htm

only been on a quick trip to that hotsprings so not familiar with that area.

hope this helps.

Hi wanderingstraycat, I have went into your blog, it is full of pictures, as if I am already there, very good blog, very interesting, for those interested, clink this link

(can't post without deleting the URL you've posted)

You have been to so many places over the years, furthermore I think you are also a chinese, perhaps you can tell me more about other chinese villages beside Mae Salong, that speak the common chinese language.

perhaps you might find it easier to refer to thewanderingstraycat dot blogspot dot com, the travel-related posts are reproduced there. Laos-related ones cross-posted on laomeow dot blogspot dot com. many readers have complained that it's too confusing to hunt for travel info on the main one that you've linked above

can't think of other Chinese villages elsewhere in Chiangrai apart from those already mentioned. most of my time in Chiangrai is spent together with Akha & Lahu. but you could always ask around in Mae Salong.

if you drop by Baan Bua GH in Chiangrai town, ask the lady boss (Tim? not sure how to spell her name) if she knows how to contact a former employee called Jong. you can ask him about Chinese in Phatang.

road signs, bus station signs etc spell it as 'Thoeng'. that's the standard system of romanisation.

Limbo @ #43:

left column, top to bottom: ni hao ma? (standard greeting)

right column: handwriting for middle two characters not too clear, looks like 'ni kuai le ma? (are you happy?)

were you hoping for something more profound or poetic?

For the temple in Ban Pa Kluay, do you have any photos of the murals?

believe davidwright is referring to ดอยผาตั้ง Doi Pha Tang, nearer to Wiang Kaen than Thoeng? most of the KMT troops settled at Mae Salong, but some of them ended up at Doi Pha Tang, you can read about this at the 'wen2 shi2 guan3' (Chinese Martyrs Memorial Museum) in Mae Salong, though most of the info is in Chinese & Thai. supposed to be one of the places in Chiangrai to view sakura....seems like wherever you can find sakura in Chiangrai you will find them KMT descendants...met a guy from Pha Tang who should be in his late 20s or early 30s now, he can speak Mandarin, but that's a sample size of 1...

Phu Chi Fa - didn't encounter any Chinese there, mostly White Hmong.

Mae Salong...all the Chinese (& some of the Akha) there attend the Chinese school, so most of them speak & write Mandarin & watch Chinese channels on cable TV & Chinese karaoke DVDs. many have gone on to work in Taiwan, Malaysia & even for offices of Chinese companies in Vietnam. at home they speak their Yunnan dialect, esp to the older generation.

can't post URLs here, try Google search for thewanderingstraycat + names of places mentioned above - have written about my visits to the museum, Mae Salong, Phu Chi Fa & the Chinese school on my travelog.

can take a look here, though info could be pretty outdated as my trip was in 2005:

http://thewanderingstraycat.blogspot.com/search/label/phayao%202005

went there with zero plans, just hopped on a bus out of Chiangrai bus station that wasn't going to anywhere we'd been before. ended up in Muang Phayao simply cos we decided not to stay in Chiang Kham.

stayed at Phayao Northern Lake Hotel, a bit eerie having the entire place to ourselves, no sign of any other guests.

Phayao's kinda off the foreign tourist track. tour coaches on their way to places further north pull up beside the lake & deposit packs of Thai tourists into the lakefront restaurants, & that's about it...they had a large pamphlet with maps, accom listing & info on attractions for Phayao province, but only in tiny Thai font. but the museum has OK English info accompanying the exhibits.

just outside of Chiang Kham there's a beautiful wooden temple (Wat Nantaram) but i missed it!