Lanna Ethnic Cultural Festival

We had our normal slow morning with breakfast of coffee, tea and fruit.  Pineapple is so much better when it picked fresh vs. picked green and shipped.

Reservations to Visit Chiang Rai

Chiang Rai
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After some searching and review checking we selected a one-day Chiang Rai tour from Bon Voyage.

We selected the "White Temple, Long Neck Karen and Golden Triangle" tour. There were other tours, but a visit to the village with Long Neck Karen women was the deciding factor.

We booked the tour online. It included being picked up and dropped off at our apartment, an air conditioned van, English guide, buffet lunch, and a trip to the northern city of Mae Sai on the Myanmar - Thai border.

We also selected an optional boat ride on the Mekong River to Laos.

The main tour was 2,700 baht ($79.40) for both of us. The optional boat trip was an additional 660 baht ($19.40) for both of us. We paid cash to the tour guide for this optional tour.

A Bit of Chiang Rai History

Chiang Rai was founded in 1262 as the capitol city of the ruling dynasty.  Over the centuries the city changed hands, first going to the Burmese and much later becoming a vassal of Chiang Mai.

The area is also home to various indigenous people or tribes such as Akha, Lisu, Mien, Karen and Hmong.

We have found Thai history in the northern area is filled with dynasties coming and going as well as earthquakes leveling towns.

What differentiates Thailand from the other Asian countries is that Thailand was never occupied by a European power.

With the British pushing eastward from India and Burma (now Myanmar) and the French pushing west from Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia), Thailand was a convenient buffer between the two European powers.

We did a little Google searching to understand that the Lanna Kingdom covered most of northern Thailand as well as neighboring parts of Myanmar, China and Laos in the 13th century. Chiang Mai was the kingdom's capitol city. Chiang Rai was also a capitol city at one time.

Lanna Ethnic Cultural Festival

We had seen an advertisement for the festival while walking about the city and decided that we should add this festival to our cultural immersion experience.

The Festival was held on the large area just outside the eastern gate of the Old City, Tha Phae Gate.  

The festival was a collection of booths of local food and goods, displays (in Thai) explaining local tribal dress and customs, as well as some live entertainment.

At around 4:00pm a local band took the stage and played for more than 75 minutes. 

We wanted to see the dancers because we saw them get out of a van and wander around the stalls, but we were disappointed that they did not perform before we gave up and left.  

We grabbed a songtaew and headed home.

Travel Tip

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