En route to the Mekong: Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Chiang Khong (Thailand)

21 February 2026

After spending some days amongst the familiar towers of Kuala Lumpur, it was time to hit the road again and begin our journey to the Mekong River, which we planned to use to enter Laos. We flew to Chiang Rai in Northern Thailand, a city which we had already discovered from a previous trip, a few years ago. We even stayed at the same hotel, the DUM, which had lost none if its cool; we wandered around the night markets, sampling the delicious local cuisine and marvelling at the decorations for the Chinese New Year celebrations.

Our next stop was Chiang Rai, a four hour bus ride away. Its chief claim to fame is its two Buddhist temples, the White Temple and the Blue Temple. Both are contemporary adaptations to traditional Thai design and were well worth stopping off to see.

Just under two hours away by bus was Chiang Khong, our final stop in this so-called Golden Triangle region. We booked into the Day Waterfront Hotel overlooking the Mekong River and that evening we wandered into a charming local fete with music and dancing down by the river bank.

The next morning, we were picked up by bus and brought to the nearby Thai/Laos border where we received our Laos visa and boarded our boat for the 2 day trip down the Mekong and to our final destination, Luang Prabang.