King Shirts and Bracelets: On a hunt

Upon arrival at the Chiang Rai boat dock (please look at the picture…priceless) we took a tuktuk to our guesthouse (a much nicer accommodation than we’ve been used to as a result of Erin’s mother’s generosity), took hot showers and eventually went out for dinner at the night market.


Chiang Rai’s night market is nowhere near as expansive as chiang Mai’s, but definitely had its own flare. There was live music in the square where all the food was sold, which was fabulous, and many of the local hilltribes wares were there for sale.

A little elderly woman who had been handstitching bedspreads and tablecloths at the Karen village/elephant camp we stopped at was actually at the Chiang Rai night market. Heather and I had absolutely fallen in love with some of her things and walked over saying this woman’s work looked remarkably similar…much to our surprise, the little elderly lady pointed to us and laughed, almost as if she was saying, “ha! You were looking earlier! Now you will definitely buy!”

I got an amazing bedspread for about $50USD…I was seriously debating but thanks to my lovely travel companions, I’m pretty sure it’ll be one of those ‘treasures’ I keep forever.

Additionally, and I haven’t yet really touched upon this which is surprising, we were on the hunt in Chiang Rai for two things: King shirts and bracelets. If you’ve every spoken with anyone who’s traveled through Thailand you’re probably aware of at least one thing: Thais are OBSESSED with their King. He’s the longest reigning monarch of the contemporary era who is still living (going on 60 years), and his face is plastered EVERYWHERE (see example below)

Additionally, a huge item for people to own are polos with the king’s symbol on it, AND just recently we’ve found the equivalent of livestrong
bracelets that say “long live the king” (orange color, btw) --- those are the two things that we felt we should leave Thailand with.

Apparently, the king bracelets were sold at 7-11’s throughout the country for a limited time only, so we were out of luck (ps 7-11’s are on every corner, open 24hours. Obviously), but Erin was able to pick up a King shirt. Therefore, Sarah’s the only one of the 5 of us that needs to find one before leaving Bangkok for her flight out to NZ.
(heather, flynn and i sporting our King polos)

Signing off for now – we’re heading to Laos tomorrow – blog updates will be few and far between, and probably multiple at once, while we’re in Laos and Cambodia – but please continue to leave comments and email us. We love hearing from y’all!