Idiosyncrasies of Chiang Rai

[sojourner007]

I'm a newcomer (from Pattaya) in Chiang Rai and have noticed a few things about the city:
- the internet connections, both cable and mobile broadband, are realatively slow and become dramatically slower at night, at least in respect to webpage loading
- sidewalks are in relatively good structural condition in the city centre,
- tiles used to pave those sidewalks in many areas have polished surface and become highly slippery and risky to walk on for pedestrians in rain. I could see that some shopowners deliberately chipped the surface of the tiles in front of their businesses probably because accidental falls happened there in the past
- one cannot avoid seeing huge piles of fresh stinky crap (looks like of human origin but could be dog's) every morning in many places right in the middle of those sidewalks. Protest of some sort by homeless people? I encountered a similar problem in RioDeJaneiro in Brazil when travelling there a few years ago. Favela residents were the culprits there.
- local small GP-type medical clinics are overwhelmed with patients who seem to be waiting in long queues for hours. Is life here so unhealthy or hospitals so expensive?
- nightlife entertainment seems to be rapidly wilting away, with the notorious Jetyod road agogos and the Sperm and other well known nightclubs now shut down. Is this a deliberate cleanup campaign by the city hall, shortage of inexpensive hostesses (reportedly Burmese maidens no longer come to Chiang Rai), rising Thai prosperity, or something else?
- no Russian tourists in sight
- locals do not smile much to foreigners even when you give them business. For a small provincial city this seems unusual (although of course I'm subjective here). Something to do perhaps with the fair skin of the locals (hi so) as most smiles we usually get from 'lo so' brown folk?

- the city has surprising reliable and inexpensive metered taxi service and one can even call a taxi by phone through an English-speaking operator

[toybits]

OMG - What a dreadful place Chiang Rai is!!!

[harrry]

Trip reports are often a reflection of the eyes of the beholder.

[AjarnP]

Damn! And I live here.

Note to self:

Better move away pronto. The city is going to the dogs!

[Paul888]

Thanks for the heads up. We will get it sorted for you asap.

[villagefarang]

Welcome to Chiang Rai. I wouldn’t worry, we will get used to you and you will get used to us.

Once again I find myself odd man out in finding it interesting to see how different people can look at the same thing and get a very different image, not unlike the story of the blind men touching different parts of the elephant.

One can see the colors of Pattaya boldly superimposed upon our rural paradise but despite the fact I may disagree with many of the assessments, I still appreciate the openness.

Most of what was mentioned would not register a blip on my radar but I suppose I would be much more surprised if we were in agreement, considering the different paths we clearly took to reach Chiang Rai.

[onthedarkside]

Trolls are just being removed as soon as I see them.

[pomchop]

Interesting to hear what a newcomer sees/notices in CR.

A few observations:

The sidewalks in CR are in my opinion some of the better ones i have seen in all of thailand...most are in relatively good shape and are kept clean. Seems to me that many of the sidewalks are granite and i am sure that some can be slippery when wet but overall not a major problem that i am aware of. I haven't seen the piles of crap the OP refers to but have no doubt that it is possible that some dogs are responsible....can't recall seeing any "homeless" folks hanging out in downtown CR...in fact i can't recall seeing any "homeless" people anywhere around CR though i suppose it's possible....but certainly nothing compared to the unwashed masses of homeless around bangkok and pattaya.

Overall I have always thought CR is one of the better run towns in all of Thailand. There are lots of pretty artsy type streetlights, nice plants that are maintained in street medians, trash picked up pretty well and the sidewalks are kept relatively clear of vendors etc unlike so many other thai towns.

As for nightlife, i have said for years that if you are coming to CR looking for pattaya style nightlife with "hello handsome man" bars on every corner then you will be sadly disappointed....are there some "naughty areas/ladies" in CR?...you can bet there are but it is not now and never will be a pattaya / farang playground and that in my opinion is a plus.

No russians or arab tourists to amount to much which for me is also a plus as i have had plenty of that in Bangkok and other places in Thailand and just not my cup of tea.

For me I find most CR locals to be exceptionally friendly ....i get a lot of smiles or maybe they are just amused in listeniing to me try to speak thai or my version of charades as i try to "act out" what i am trying to get across. I also suspect that a lot of CR locals are pretty shy especially around farangs as farangs can still be somewhat of a curious bunch that some locals have very little interaction with.

As for transport....in my opinion CR is very good as far as being able to catch buses/songtaeows/vans etc pretty much anywhere and yes the new metered taxi service is something that most thai towns can only dream of having....i would bet a lot of phuket folks would LOVE to move all the CR taxis to their island to replace the tuk tuk mafia that they deal with.

As for the medical clinics...CR has several large hospitals to include some private and public...all of them always seem pretty busy to me and yes the clinics also seem to do a booming business. I don't pretend to understand why some thais choose clinics over public hospitals as most get free or close to free health care of some sort anyway.

Anyway...welcome to CR and I hope that as the OP looks around a bit more he might find that there are a lot more good things out there than bad.

[toybits]

Those polished granite sidewalks are a health hazard put there by a bone-headed city mayor. Some sections of the city sidewalk are now being replaced with rough surfaced concrete blocks which are much easier and safer to walk on. Thanalai Road sidewalks need to be changed - hopefully sooner than later.

[johnmarhall]

i will be coming up with my friend clifford and his wife joyce in January i think chiang rai is better than the op stated

[sojourner007]

Overall CR is a nice place and has many advantages over other Thai cities. I only pointed out some curios about it.

pomchop: "can't recall seeing any "homeless" folks hanging out in downtown CR"

Just come to the Clock Tower circle any night and you will see guys sleeping by the motorcycle store and also across the circle towards the Destiny restaurant.

pomchop: "As for nightlife, i have said for years that if you are coming to CR looking for pattaya style nightlife with "hello handsome man" bars on every corner then you will be sadly disappointed."

My point was not about expectations of great nightlife Pattaya style here but about comparison with the recent past. CR is clearly loosing whatever it used to have of nightlife and I just wondered why.

toybits: "Those polished granite sidewalks are a health hazard put there by a bone-headed city mayor."

Yes, either a lack of forethought or just another case of corruption, both so typical in this country.

[Rotweiler]

Based on your statements in this thread, I would strongly propose you head back to whatever hole (Chonburi) you crawled out of.

I am sure the mods will object : I only suggest they carefully read ALL of the posts made by this individual. Then come to the same conclusion I came to - troll.

Overall CR is a nice place and has many advantages over other Thai cities. I only pointed out some curios about it.

pomchop: "can't recall seeing any "homeless" folks hanging out in downtown CR"

Just come to the Clock Tower circle any night and you will see guys sleeping by the motorcycle store and also across the circle towards the Destiny restaurant.

pomchop: "As for nightlife, i have said for years that if you are coming to CR looking for pattaya style nightlife with "hello handsome man" bars on every corner then you will be sadly disappointed."

My point was not about expectations of great nightlife Pattaya style here but about comparison with the recent past. CR is clearly loosing whatever it used to have of nightlife and I just wondered why.

toybits: "Those polished granite sidewalks are a health hazard put there by a bone-headed city mayor."

Yes, either a lack of forethought or just another case of corruption, both so typical in this country.

[scorpio1945]

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Based on your statements in this thread, I would strongly propose you head back to whatever hole (Chonburi) you crawled out of.

I am sure the mods will object : I only suggest they carefully read ALL of the posts made by this individual. Then come to the same conclusion I came to - troll.

Overall CR is a nice place and has many advantages over other Thai cities. I only pointed out some curios about it.

pomchop: "can't recall seeing any "homeless" folks hanging out in downtown CR"

Just come to the Clock Tower circle any night and you will see guys sleeping by the motorcycle store and also across the circle towards the Destiny restaurant.

pomchop: "As for nightlife, i have said for years that if you are coming to CR looking for pattaya style nightlife with "hello handsome man" bars on every corner then you will be sadly disappointed."

My point was not about expectations of great nightlife Pattaya style here but about comparison with the recent past. CR is clearly loosing whatever it used to have of nightlife and I just wondered why.

toybits: "Those polished granite sidewalks are a health hazard put there by a bone-headed city mayor."

Yes, either a lack of forethought or just another case of corruption, both so typical in this country.

Seemed like relatively balanced observations for a newcomer.

[sojourner007]

Seems like the whole of Chiang Rai province is experiencing a downturn in in tourism. I went to Mae Sai the other day and only saw a few foreigners there during my 4 h walk around the town, most of them just crossing the border. The soi that runs under the bridge along the river, which is supposed to be the area catering for Westerners, was completely dead. Only saw 1(!) backpacker there. The famous Monkey Island bar is shut down as are all massage shops. Seems like the whole town is now geared mainly towards Chinese visitors, as many shop signs are in Mandarin and the trinkets sold in the market seem to appeal to that category of tourists. I however did not see that many Chinese either. I observed on opening of this thread that Chiang Rai locals seemed unfriendly. Well, I can say now that Mae Sai folk are even worse in that regard. I walked into the best hotel in town (described as of a 3 star category). The receptionist completely ignored me while I was standing in front of the counter for something like a full minute. So I turned around and walked out.

[rijb]

Next time, yell ... Nǐ hǎo ... and then spit on the floor.

Edited August 30, 2014 by rijb

[sojourner007]

Next time, yell ... Nǐ hǎo ... and then spit on the floor.

I think that might have worked indeed:). I will try it next time

My Isaan girlfriend explained to me that most of Chiang Rai locals are of Chinese origin and Chinese have a reputation in Thailand of being unfriendly.

I've also noticed a remarkable number of Christian institutions in Chiang Rai, from churches and schools to charities and foundations. And funny enough almost every second local I meet turns out to be a Christian. I wonder if this may also account for the lack of the usual Thai Buddhist cheerful attitude to others and also for the apparent negativity towards Thai-farang relationships, whether short- or long-term, and local adult entertainment industry.

[rijb]

I've wondered why there are so many missionaries up here.

I thought most of the 'professional sinners' were south of here.

Maybe it's a blockade.

[harrry]

I've wondered why there are so many missionaries up here.

I thought most of the 'professional sinners' were south of here.

Maybe it's a blockade.

Rule of thumb Missionaries and Diplomats tend to congregate in the most favourable climates they can.

[sojourner007]

Apparently missionaries have been around these lands for long time. In the passt they targeted the mountain tribes not yet affiliated with a specific religion. By now I believe a great proportion of the province's tribal population are Christians. Missionaries organized regular 'expeditions' on 4WDs to hard-to-reach villages and offered free Christian education and boarding for tribal kids in CR. As the families there are very poor they are often happy to 'get rid' of their surplus young. Some Christian charities in CR concentrate on 'rescuing children from sexual exploitation'. As for the local Chinese they seem to be quite happy to join any religion that gives them some economic or social advantages. I guess some find that CR Christian educational institutions offer higher-than-average standards.

[rijb]

The free blankets from the government can't compete with all the freebies from 'god'.