I must say after walking and surveying for the best prices in town, Khom's tour agency was definitely not the cheapest nor was it the most expensive. Yes, there are some agencies that offered us much cheaper tour packages, but there was always something that was caveated, so we were very skeptical on signing up for tour packages as such. However, when we passed by Khom's shop (which was very near our hotel), we made a stop to just "enquire" about it. True enough, after listening to his detailed explanation we signed up for a 2 days 1 night tour to Chiang Rai. Leaving at 7am sharp on the very next day, we headed up north with our first stop at the orchid farm. Following that was the elephant ride/ bullock cart ride and bamboo rafting at the elephant sanctuary. Although I have sat on an elephant before, this ride was by far the longest ever! After that, we stopped to see the chiang dao caves. Interesting cave formations but I have to say, it was a bit eerie in there. We then headed further north to Thaton, to see the pagoda. It was definitely worth the trip to see such a serene temple atop a hil. As we drove further, we stopped for many coffee breaks and then went to see the long neck hill tribes. We stayed a night at the Rimkok Resort Hotel in ChiangRai. As we arrived pretty late, Khom then drove us out to yet another night market in ChiangRai for some scrumptous street food for dinner. The next day, we drove to see the White Temple of ChiangRai, another spectacular sight! The drive back to ChiangMai was long...on our way back, we made another pit stop - this time was the hot springs! Nothing fancy, but quite relaxing for the travel back through the winding roads. We made it safely back the next night. All in all, this was definitely worth the money and the time. We were advices by Khom that the 2 days 1 night tour was better than the 1 day tour to ChiangRai as we had our own time and itinerary to follow. He was correct
Henrik from Sweden
