White Temple, Chiang Rai, Mekong River Day trip
The easiest way to see the sights in and around Chiang Rai is to take a day trip organized by a tour operator. For about $30 your day is full and you see quite a bit. On this day trip, AlteCocker went to the White Temple (aka "Spiderman Temple") and Chiang Rai, and took a short cruise on the Mekong over to Laos shopping (where AlteCocker stupidly bought a new suitcase which turned out to be broken). Lunch was included and AlteCocker and her van compadres had to fight large buses of Chinese tourists to get lunch. The Chinese do not know how to queue and they are very aggressive when it comes to food.