Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Chiang Rai - Lunch by Riverside

After the White Temple, we were brought to the riverside to have lunch. It was a rustic little place where it was the lone outdoor restaurant in the vicinity. Fried fish and morning glory (aka kangkong?). We were near the river but not by the edge so the view was pretty good. Being outdoors, it had its share of insects. We saw a tiny cockroach on the table and ants too. Definitely not a place for those who are used to modern hygiene.
Our lunch - tom yum soup (not too bad), sweet and sour pork (didn't like it), ngoh hiang (didn't like it either). Basically V & I just focused on the vegs and fish as we were not big fans of pork dishes.
The view of the river. Right across was Laos. So once again, I am always seeing another country from across the border :p
A boat ferrying people over to Laos from Thailand. Because of its proximity to Laos, the wait staff could also speak a smattering of French. There was a table of French speaking tourists and they conversed entirely in French to the wait staff.
Another view of Laos and the river from the restaurant's car park.
The washroom. It was pretty clean, the standards of cleanliness in Chiang Mai/Chiang Rai's public washrooms were actually very good for developing or developed countries. They were much cleaner than certain places in Singapore or Vancouver and definitely way better than in Malaysia. I was just tickled to see the blue container on top to collect the rain water. It reminded me of the outdoor open-air water tank in my dad's village in China.
The restaurant with its thatched roof (not sure which leaves they were from - attap or coconut?) and its scenic view.

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