Spretnak The Blog: Two Museums on One Final Half-Day in the North

The King Mangrai Monument in downtown Chiang Rai.
Is he the king who put the "Rai" in Chiang Rai?

My final few hours before I jet down to the final destination of this vacation. I saw some interesting sights on the east side of downtown. And I wanted to visit the Hilltribe Museum to learn something about the Hill Tribes of Northern Thailand. So let's walk.

To walk anywhere, it seems, given the location of my luxury resort hotel, The Imperial River House, I go through the grounds of the Blue Temple.

It was early enough that the day-tripper tourist hordes had not yet arrived. It was beautiful in the morning sun and nearly empty, making it even more beautiful. Beautifuller, so to speak.

There were a few people, but the massive bus loads? Still en route.

And once again I exit through the front gate.

On to downtown:

I cross the mighty Kok River. Contrary to what I would have guessed, the Kok River does not put the "kok" in Bangkok.

At first I thought this was a gate:

It was pedestrian overhead walkway. Well done, walkway.

Then I hit elephant topiary:

I feared I had seen the last of the elephant topiary I would see this trip, but I found some more. At the King Mangrai Monument:

Not all of the elephants are topiary.

Some are statuary.

As is this:

A nice little monument tucked away east of downtown Chiang Rai.

Then it was on to the Hilltribe Museum. Right beside a restaurant called, I kid you not, Cabbages and Condoms. Not something I would want paired on my plate.

The museum is about the various hill tribes that live in Northern Thailand. Most migrated here from Southern China, although some came from Burma.

Meet the Hmong, probably the best known of the hill tribes in the United States.

The museum mostly is about the clothing/costumes of the various tribes, replicas of their traditional housing, and some tools.

One of the tribes, seriously, is the Karen. Yes, as in "I want to speak to your manager" Karen. But without the sensible haircuts of the American Karen.

Also there was a fascinating display on the history of opium cultivation by the hill tribes. I thought the British were the bad guys in the opium trade, but the Arabs were the ones who first introduced the opium poppy to China. The Brits are still, very much, the bad guys in the opium trade, getting the Chinese addicted to opium smoking like the Pablo Escobar or the Sinaloa cartel in their prime. But the Brits get to share villain status with the Arab traders.

Meet the Yao tribe:

This is a replica of a traditional house of one of the tribes.

Here is the traditional house of the Yao:

And here is a tool used to get the kernels off the corn cobs.

Don't know if the hill tribes make a mean creamed corn once they use this, but I hope so.

Time to head back to the luxury resort hotel. But there is always time for one more museum. The Blue Temple has a museum that is all about: the Blue Temple.

You got to walk up a steep staircase to get the museum, but it's a good spot for one last photo of the Blue Temple itself.

You know the best thing about this museum? The entrance fee was 50 baht. Fifty! Well, that's not much. Only about $1.75. But, since I was over 60, the senior discount was 100%. In other words: free! What's not to love about that.