Exploring Thailand's edgy, artistic northern borderland

Mist and mystique: Sunrise over the Golden Triangle at the spot where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos converge. In the foreground is the Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp and Resort, in the northern Thai province of Chiang Rai. (Courtesy of Anantara Hotels and Resorts).

WILLIAM MELLOR, Contributing Writer

CHIANG RAI, Thailand -- There are two distinct locations where visitors to Thailand can view some of the most cutting-edge Thai contemporary art. One is in conventional five-star tourist territory in Bangkok, where the best examples hang not only in galleries but also amid the sumptuous decor of expensive hotels.

The second lies 850 kilometers away in a different world -- the timeless mountain-framed villages, temples and rice fields of Chiang Rai, Thailand's northernmost province, where artists such as Songdej Thipthong find their inspiration.

Songdej is one of hundreds of cultural creatives -- from acclaimed painters, potters and sculptors to musicians and aspiring Michelin chefs -- who work in the wild frontier region known as the Golden Triangle, where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos converge around the mighty Mekong River.

Many, like the extravagantly bearded 55-year-old Songdej, are locally born, their intricate and highly distinctive work steeped in Buddhism and the traditions of Lanna -- an ancient kingdom that predates the Thai nation-state and stands proudly distinct from mainstream Thai and Western influences.

Others, such as Kongwuth Chaiwongkachon, 37, a Bangkok-born, Canadian-educated chef who holds a cordon bleu diploma in French cuisine, are relative newcomers, seduced by the regional culture -- especially, in his case, a passion to preserve and reinterpret the ambrosial local cuisine.

Top: Artist Songdej Thipthong stands before a site-specific work titled "Sanctuary" that he created for the biennale at a meditation center outside Chiang Rai. (Photo by Wanchai Phutthawarin, courtesy of Thailand Biennale Chiang Rai 2023) Bottom: Songdej’s paintings have been selected to hang in guest suites at Bangkok’s most famous hotel, the Mandarin Oriental. (Courtesy of Mandarin Oriental Hotel)

"Chiang Rai is a city of artists doing work that takes your breath away," Kongwuth told Nikkei Asia as he prepared an elaborate chef's table dinner at his restaurant, Locus Native Food Lab. "It's a place where you can really be yourself."

Part of the province's vibe can easily be absorbed by exploring the temples, markets, museums, galleries, restaurants and cafes in Chiang Rai city, the provincial capital. Founded in 1262 by King Mengrai of Lanna and boasting a temple in which Thailand's most sacred image, the Emerald Buddha, was discovered in 1434, the city of 70,000 people is a dream location for history and art buffs.

But much else lies outside the city, hidden down narrow back roads and jungle-swathed limestone ridges in the surrounding 11,700-sq.-km province -- including Songdej's studio, Kongwuth's restaurant and several exclusive and discreet resorts.

Chiang Rai has always been an outlier within Thailand, which is forecast to attract 36 million tourists this year and boasts internationally famous destinations such as Phuket, Koh Samui, Pattaya and, of course, Bangkok. Even in the far north, the province has been overshadowed by the larger, better-known city of Chiang Mai, 167 km to the south, where the railway line from Bangkok terminates.

Bangkok-born chef Kongwuth Chaiwongkachon, holder of a cordon bleu diploma in French cuisine, moved to the Chiang Rai countryside to open Locus Native Food Lab, an exclusive chef’s table restaurant focused on traditional northern recipes and creative interpretations. (Photo by William Mellor)

But that is beginning to change. Last year, UNESCO recognized Chiang Rai city as a "creative city of design." Then, from December to April, the city played host to the third edition of the Thailand Biennale, a sprawling five-month-long contemporary arts extravaganza that highlighted local talent such as Songdej alongside artists from 20 other countries.

By the time the biennale closed, it had attracted 2.7 million local and international visitors, according to government statistics. Records compiled by a Thai phone company suggest that over the New Year period, the number of foreign visitors to Chiang Rai increased by 400% compared with the same period a year earlier. Throughout the biennale, the dozen or so daily flights from Bangkok were jam packed.

"Biennale has put Chiang Rai on the art map of the world," said Jaffee Yee, a Malaysian-born former U.S. publishing executive who now promotes art-focused tourism and curates exhibitions in Thailand. "But still, very few people know how much it has to offer. There are so many hidden gems."

Hyperbole? Not according to the acclaimed Japanese performance artist Shimabaku, who arrived in Chiang Rai fresh from an exhibition in London and ahead of another in Spain. "Before being invited here, I had never even heard of Chiang Rai," Shimabuku said, pausing from overseeing the painting of life-size portraits of biennale-goers onto kites destined to fly above one of the festival venues. "Now I have discovered it is a very cultural place."

Artist Chalermchai Kositpipat's glittering, controversial masterpiece Wat Rong Khun, a spectacular structure on the city's edge known as the White Temple, has long been a domestic tourism draw card.   © Getty Images

The biennale certainly reinforced Chiang Rai's artistic claims to fame. Two members of the four-person curatorial team, artistic director Gridthiya Gaweewong and curator Angkrit Ajchariyasophon, were born in Chiang Rai province before going on to greater things in Bangkok and beyond.

The city's newly opened four-story Chiang Rai International Art Museum showcased the province's two most famous artists, Chalermchai Kositpipat and the late Thawan Duchanee. Festival venues included the dramatic Baan Dam (Black House) Museum, a dark vision created by Thawan, and its visual opposite, Chalermchai's glittering, controversial masterpiece Wat Rong Khun, a spectacular structure on the city's edge known as the White Temple that has long been a domestic tourism draw card.

The festival also paid tribute to Chiang Rai's role as an ethnic crossroads, home not only to lowland Thais, but also to people from hill tribes such as the Akha, Karen, Lahu, Lisu, Shan and others, as well as Chinese from nearby Yunnan province.

In one of the biennale's most spectacular exhibits, Brussels-based Taiwanese conceptual artist Michael Lin transformed Chiang Rai's old city hall, a colonial-style building constructed in 1897 by a Canadian missionary, by swathing the three-story, 37-meter-long facade with a patchwork sheet combining the patterns and colors of hill tribe textiles.

Chiang Rai is an edgy community in an edgy part of Southeast Asia. Across the border in Myanmar, civil war rages and drug warlords continue to ply their trade unhindered. On the other side of another section of border, where the Mekong divides Chiang Rai province from Laos, a Laotian special economic zone centered on a gaudy Chinese-built casino has been identified by the U.S. Treasury as a hotbed of crime.

Chiang Rai’s old city hall, a Western colonial-style building designed in the 19th century by a Canadian missionary, was transformed for the biennale by Taiwanese artist Michael Lin, who covered the three-story, 37-meter facade with a giant patchwork sheet. (Photo by William Mellor)

By contrast, Chiang Rai is an accessible and law-abiding outpost in the otherwise lawless Triangle. And for many tourists, such proximity to the region's dark side adds an additional frisson of excitement to an already adventurous destination.

"We don't refer to our customers as guests, we call them explorers," said Arnaud Beril, general manager of the Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp and Resort, as we sat down to eat lunch at an outdoor table in a jungle setting with a view of the confluence of the Mekong and its tributary, the Ruak -- the spot where the three countries of the Triangle meet.

Seconds later, our view became even more panoramic as, unnoticed by me, Beril pressed a button and a concealed elevator gently lifted our dining table from the jungle floor to the tree canopy. Myanmar, its land border firmly closed to the Triangle’s nonresidents, was a stone's throw away across the narrow Ruak, while Laos lay a few meters further away on the opposite bank of the much broader Mekong.

Below us, 20 elephants roamed in a sanctuary set up within the hotel's capacious grounds. Soon, two of them, accompanied by their mahouts, would lumber down to the water's edge to greet the next group of guests arriving by boat from Chiang Saen, a few kilometers downstream.

While this northern tip of Thailand, some 70 km from the provincial capital, is a must-see for visitors, it is also the tip of the iceberg as far as the province's attractions are concerned. On the road back to Chiang Rai city, a turnoff leads to Songdej's home-cum-studio in the hamlet of Maekham Sobpern. Songdej speaks only Thai, but he and his wife welcome visitors to his gallery by appointment.

The view from a guest room balcony at the Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp and Resort.   © Getty Images

Opposite his house, the rice fields seem impossibly green, the water buffalo fat and contented, the village temples and forest monasteries soothingly contemplative. Down the road, the Choui Fong tea plantation exudes a charm that one recent European visitor said reminded him of a French vineyard.

Further into the mountains, which in Chiang Rai peak at 2,000 meters, comparisons with Switzerland are not uncommon. In the rarely visited hill tribe villages of Pha Hee and Hua Maekham, to name just two, early morning visitors gaze through gaps in the mountains across a sea of clouds to the plains far below.

Atop another remote peak, visible from Songdej's village and open to the public, stands the royal villa of Doi Tung.

There in 1988, Princess Srinagarindra, the then-88-year-old grandmother of Thailand's present king, went to live to lead a royal initiative that has resulted in thousands of hill tribe farmers abandoning opium poppies to grow coffee, tea, exotic fruits and other licit crops.

"Doi" is the northern Thai word for mountain and Doi Tung is the highest point of the otherworldly Doi Nang Non, or Mountain of the Sleeping Lady. Shaped uncannily like a reclining woman and, according to legend, haunted by the ghost of a princess who killed herself after an ill-fated love affair, it also includes the Tham Luang cave complex, which in 2018 was the scene of perhaps the century's most dramatic and inspiring rescue.

Against all odds, divers saved 12 young footballers and their coach, who had been trapped for 18 days in the flooded caverns.

Tham Luang cave, the scene of the century’s most dramatic rescue, is now open to visitors. (Photo by William Mellor)

Like the royal villa, the cave entrance is now open to the public -- at least for the first few hundred meters. The drama so captured the world's imagination that it has inspired Hollywood films and TV series, including the 2021 National Geographic documentary "The Rescue," which features Songdej's art. Yet so far it has, like so much else in Chiang Rai, been largely bypassed by mainstream tourism.

One of the joys of visiting Chiang Rai is the variety, even by Thailand's high standards, of accommodation and food choices. At the top end, the Anantara Golden Triangle hotel charges around $3,000 per room for a minimum two-night stay. The neighboring Four Seasons Tented Camp, which takes "glamping" to another level, costs more still.

For those seeking the ultimate in privacy, the Pa Sak Tong resort, hidden in jungle about 15 km from Chiang Rai city, is so private that even most locals have never heard of it. Comprising just two villas, the resort usually accommodates only one group of guests at a time. Rates range from about $2,000 to $6,000 per villa per night, depending on group size and season.

In Chiang Rai city, five-star accommodation is much cheaper. Rooms at Le Meridien Chiang Rai Resort, delightfully located on the Kok River, are available on travel websites for around $100 a night in June. Nearby, the four-star The Legend Boutique River Resort and Spa, a locally owned hotel managed by veteran Swedish hotelier Eric Hallin, a longtime Thailand resident, is offering rooms starting at about $55 in June, rising to $200 for a two-bedroom riverside villa with its own pool.

A tiered-roofed wooden Lanna-style orchid and jasmine flower pavilion is a welcoming local feature at The Legend Boutique River Resort and Spa, a Thai-owned resort hidden away beside the Kok River in the city of Chiang Rai. (Courtesy of The Legend Boutique River Resort and Spa)

As for food, the choice is equally diverse. If you are in a hurry, it is hard to beat a $1.50 bowl of fiery local khao soi or nam ngiow noodle soup at one of the myriad small restaurants and stalls. But if you fancy dining out in style and want to know how a master chef turns his hand to such dishes and matches them with wines from his extensive cellar, Kongwuth's Locus Native Food Lab is the place to go.

After years running restaurants in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Kongwuth's fascination for the food of his wife's home province drew him to Chiang Rai. Each night he offers, for a maximum of 12 diners, a fixed 11-course menu that might include his interpretation of khao soi and nam ngiow as well as other local favorites including the popular localgaeng hung lae curry, various nam prik chili dips and lharm bonn (pureed elephant ear leaf). The price: 2,800 baht ($76) a head, rising to 6,000 baht with wines chosen to match each course.

One Chiang Rai product that should not be missed is the world-class coffee -- some of the best is grown in the highland region of Doi Chang. There is no better place to drink it than Chivit Thamma Da (Simple Life), a relaxing riverside retreat on the opposite bank of the Kok River from the city center.

Former Japan Airlines and Thai Airways flight attendant Nattamon Holmberg and her Swedish husband, Joakim, founded and built Chivit Thamma Da, meaning Simple Life, a colonial-style cafe and restaurant. (Courtesy of Chivit Thamma Da)

To call Chivit Thamma Da a cafe is an understatement. As well as coffee and pastries, it offers an eclectic restaurant menu of Thai and Western dishes and a bar with a drinks selection that would put many Western bars to shame.

Its founders, Nattamon and Joakim Holmberg, are out-of-towners. As the daughter of a Thai government official who held postings in several provinces, Nattamon spent her childhood living in various parts of Thailand. Then, as a flight attendant with Japan Airlines and Thai Airways International, she traveled the world before settling with her Swedish husband in Shanghai.

Deciding to return to Thailand to start a hospitality venture, the couple moved to Chiang Rai because they felt its charms exceeded those of anywhere else they had visited. There, they designed and built the eco-friendly two-story wooden colonial-style Chivit Thamma Da, later adding a simple life retreat of their own in Mae Salong, one of Chiang Rai Province's most scenic spots.

Back in his home village, Songdej insists on practicing his own simple life, despite his growing fame in Bangkok, where his paintings have been selected to hang in the well-known Mandarin Oriental and Siam Kempinski hotels and beyond. "I spent several years away studying, but when you're born in Chiang Rai, you always want to come back to live here," he said. It is not hard for the visitor to understand why.

The top 10 things to see, do and remember in Chiang Rai

1. Head 70 km north of the city to the epicenter of the Golden Triangle. . Visit the nearby Hall of Opium museum. Detour to the border towns of Mae Sai and Chaeng Saen -- the latter is a great spot to eat fish barbecued in bamboo bark on the banks of the Mekong.

2. Drive into the hills to visit Doi Tung, tour the royal villa, wander through exquisite flower gardens, and sample the coffee, tea and food produced from crops now grown instead of opium. Visit nearby Tham Luang cave, scene of a dramatic cave rescue, and Choui Fong tea plantation.

3. Visit Mae Salong, former drug trafficking stronghold of Chinese nationalist soldiers driven out of China after Mao Zedong's revolution and now a welcoming tourist destination -- pre-revolutionary China in aspic.

4. Head even further to the cool (in more ways than one) coffee-producing hill tribe villages of Doi Chang and Pha Hee.

5. Visit Singha Park, a vast and beautiful agritourism venue owned by the brewery of the same name. Watch the sun set behind the mountains while dining at the atmospheric Bhu Bhirom Restaurant.

6. Take a color-coded tour of Chiang Rai's "art temples" -- the extraordinary White and Blue Temples -- and Baan Dam, the Black House museum. Then visit the new Chiang Rai International Art Museum and the Mae Fah Luang Art and Cultural Park before heading back downtown to admire the golden clock tower and nearby statue of King Mengrai.

7. Even if you have already seen the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in the Grand Palace, Bangkok, do not miss Chiang Rai's leafy Wat Phra Kaew, where the sacred image was found in 1434. Other ancient temples such as the lovely Wat Ming Muang should also be on your list.

8. Sample the nightlife. Most travel sites say there is not much, but the mainly Thai patrons of the vast Tawan Daeng nightclub would disagree. Jetyod Road, favored by some Westerners, is a strip of bars and restaurants. The area around Thanalai Road, which on Saturdays becomes a walking street and night market where Chiang Rai people come to spontaneously folk dance, is good. My preference: Head across town to Le Petit, a tiny wine and jazz bar open only on Fridays and Saturdays. Co-owner Nuttaporn “Noy” Wangwinyoo doubles as the lead singer, backed by other talented local musicians.

9. Grab a coffee, lunch, dinner or drink at Chivit Thamma Da. Then the next day, do the same at Akha Cottage, which offers Akha food and spectacular views towards the giant white statue of Guanyin, the Chinese goddess of mercy, a striking Chiang Rai landmark.

10. Choose the right time to visit. While Chiang Rai is an excellent destination most of the year, even during the rainy season and particularly the cool winter months, consider avoiding late March and April when agricultural burning can at times envelop the province in an unhealthy haze.