The northernmost province of Thailand, it shares a border with Myanmar and Laos in a strategic zone of commerce known as the Golden Triangle.
Tourists nowadays will check out the diverse markets in this area and will buy some locally grown coffee and tea.
Chiang Rai is also the hometown of the renowned Thai contemporary visionaries, Ajahn Thawan and Chalermchai, who have left behind their artistic legacies in the form of the Black House Museum and the White Temple.
I haven’t been able to spend too much time in Chiang Rai, but recently, Thailand has been promoting Chiang Rai as a tourist destination. The world learned about Chiang Rai in 2018 when the Wild Boar youth soccer team was stranded in Tham Luang (cave) for over two weeks. Nine days of which they had no food, drinking water, or contact with the outside world.
Since their dramatic and inspiring cave rescue, there has been a greater interest among foreigners and Thais alike in traveling to Chiang Rai.