The White Temple, the Blue Temple, the Black House and the Guan Yin statue at Wat Huay Pla Kang, with a stop at the hot springs on the way. A long day, about twelve hours.
Chiang Rai is a long way for one day. It is about three hours each way, and we leave at half past seven in the morning. I still recommend it, because the White Temple and the Blue Temple are unlike anything in Chiang Mai, and most guests say they were glad they went.
I have made this drive hundreds of times. I know where to stop for coffee, which temple to visit first to stay ahead of the tour buses, and how to get you back to your hotel in time for a late dinner.
A typical day. We can move, skip or add stops.
7:30
An early start. Chiang Rai is about 190 kilometres away and the road goes through the mountains. With one stop it takes about three hours.
A stop halfway to stretch, have a coffee and look at the geysers. You can buy quail eggs and boil them in the spring water.
Built by the artist Chalermchai Kositpipat since 1997 and still not finished. Everything is white plaster and mirror glass. You cross a bridge over a pit of reaching hands to get in. Inside, the murals mix Buddhist scenes with superheroes and film characters.
Lunch in Chiang Rai. If you have not tried khao soi yet, this is the place.
About forty dark teak buildings holding the collection of the artist Thawan Duchanee, who died in 2014. Buffalo horns, crocodile skins, snake skeletons, carved thrones. Some guests love it and some find it eerie. Everyone remembers it.
Finished in 2016 and smaller than the White Temple. The inside is painted deep blue with gold, and there is a large white Buddha at the end. Many guests tell me this was their favourite stop.
A coffee break in a garden café built around streams and small waterfalls. The coffee is good and there is shade.
A temple on a hill outside town with a nine-storey pagoda and a white statue of Guan Yin about 79 metres tall. There is a lift inside the statue. From the top you look out through her eyes over Chiang Rai.
19:30
We drive back over the mountains and I drop you at your hotel around half past seven.
This is about six hours in the van in total. The seats recline and most guests sleep on the way back.
If you have two or three days, the overnight version adds the Golden Triangle, the tea plantations and Doi Tung, and you don't drive back the same night.
The Chiang Rai temples, then north to the Mekong at the Golden Triangle, the tea plantations, Doi Tung and the hill villages, with one or two nights in Chiang Rai.
The highest mountain in Thailand, two royal pagodas, a hike through the forest to a Karen village, and the biggest waterfall in the park.
A forest temple on the side of Doi Suthep, the golden temple above the city, the umbrella makers of Bo Sang, and a hot spring to finish.