21 Best Sights in Chiang Rai and The Golden Triangle, Northern Thailand

The magnificent Hall of Opium is a white stucco, glass, marble, and aluminum building nestled in a valley above the Mekong. The site is so close to former poppy fields that a plan is still being considered to extend the complex to encompass an "open-air" exhibit of a functioning opium plantation. The museum traces the history of the entire drug trade, including a look at how mild stimulants like coffee and tea took hold in the West. It even attempts to give visitors a taste of the "opium experience" by leading them through a long tunnel where atmospheric music wafts between walls bearing phantasmagoric bas-relief scenes. The synthetic smell of opium was originally pumped into the tunnel but the innovation was dropped after official complaints.

It's an arresting introduction to an imaginatively designed and assembled exhibition, which reaches back into the murky history of the opium trade and takes a long look into a potentially darker future.

One of Thailand's most astonishing buildings, Wat Rong Khun stands like a glistening, sugar-coated wedding cake beside the A-1 Chiang Rai–Bangkok motorway south of Chiang Rai. Popularly called the White Temple because of its lustrous exterior, the extraordinary structure was built by internationally renowned Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat, assisted by a team of more than 40 young artists, craftsmen, and construction workers, as a Buddhist act of winning merit. The glistening effect comes from thousands of reflective glass mosaics set into the white stucco. In addition to the Buddhas, there are images from contemporary culture, including spaceships and Superman. A songthaew ride to the temple from Chiang Rai costs about B50.

This outfit headquartered in Vietnam conducts multiday tours in northeastern Thailand. Ann Tours also offers custom itineraries in other parts of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

One of Thailand's most unusual architectural and artistic displays, the Baan Dam Museum, also known as the Black House, is essentially a vast outdoor art gallery, dominated by macabre and rather sinister imagery. It was conceived of by celebrated national artist Thawan Duchanee over the course of 36 years, and includes the work of a number of other artists. The sprawling compound has multiple buildings and artworks spread over the grounds, including monumental wood carvings, black thrones made of buffalo horns, and the artists’ likeness transformed into Buddhist imagery. It's creepy and fascinating and is a stark contrast to the nearby White Temple.

Caves have a mystic hold over Buddhist Thais, so foreign visitors to Chiang Dao's famous caverns find themselves vastly outnumbered by the locals. The caves are thought to penetrate more than 10 km (6 miles) into the small town's guardian mountain, Doi Luang, but the sights in the lighted portion, which is only a few hundred yards, include spectacular stalagmites and stalactites, along with hundreds of Buddha statues and other votive items placed there by devout Buddhists. If you want to explore past the lighted areas, you can hire a local guide with a lantern for about B100. The mountain itself can be scaled in a day, but even just an hour or two of tough walking can bring you to viewpoints with amazing panoramas.

The cultures, ways of life, and crafts of the many hill tribe people that populate the Chiang Rai region are explained with extensive displays at this exemplary museum in the city center. The museum also supports its own travel service, PDA Tour, which organizes visits to hill tribe villages under the motto "We don't support human zoos!"

Opium is so linked to the history of Ban Sop Ruak that the small town now has two museums devoted to the subject. This smaller one is in the center of town. A commentary in English details the growing, harvesting, and smoking of opium. Many of the exhibits, such as carved teak opium boxes and jade and silver pipes, are fascinating.

Even if you don't stay overnight, pay a visit to this sumptuous resort that has the best views over the confluence of the Mae Sai, Ruak, and Mekong rivers.

For $30 (B984) you can get a three-night visa that lets you travel 63 km (39 miles) north to Kengtung, a quaint Burmese town with colonial-era structures built by the British alongside old Buddhist temples.

Visit this remote mountain village northwest of Chiang Rai, and you could be excused for believing you'd strayed over a couple of borders and into China. The one-street hamlet—the mountainside leaves no room for further expansion—is the home of the descendants of Chinese Nationalist troops who arrived here in the 1960s after spending a dozen or so years in Burma following the Communists' ascension to power in China. The settlers established orchards and tea and coffee plantations that now drape the mountainsides; in December and January, visitors crowd the slopes to admire the cherry blossoms and swaths of sunflowers. Call at any of the numerous tea shops for a pot of refreshing oolong. A local bus service runs from Chiang Rai to Mae Salong (the village's official, Thai, name is Santikhiri), and most Chiang Rai travel agents offer day tours for about B3,000.

Next door to Wat Phra That Luang, the National Museum exhibits artifacts from the Lanna period, as well as some Neolithic discoveries. The museum also has a good collection of carvings and traditional handicrafts from the hill tribes.

Lanna history and culture are vividly chronicled at this jewel of a facility on the outskirts of Chiang Rai. The museum, in an attractive complex of historic buildings, displays several centuries' worth of local artifacts, including the throne and coronation robes of a 16th-century Lanna ruler.

A project of the royal family, this mountainside facility at 1,400 m (4,593 ft) elevation has both agricultural and political objectives. Developing new and more efficient farming practices is one goal; fruit, tea, and coffee research is another; and a third is to wean northern farmers off opium production. Remote and fascinating, the station is beloved by bird-watchers for its numerous rare species, and there are many flower gardens. The orchards, gardens, and hothouses are open to the public, and at various times of the year you can buy pears, apples, plums, and peaches harvested on-site.

Foreigners may cross the river to visit Tachileik on a one-day visa ($10, B328) obtainable at the Burmese immigration office at the bridge. The town is a smaller version of Mae Sai, but with a vast tax-free emporium, a busy market, and three casinos packed with Thai gamblers.

The name of this wat, Chiang Saen's oldest chedi, refers to the 300 ton sak (teak trees) planted in the surrounding area. The stepped temple, which narrows to a spire, is said to enshrine holy relics brought here in the 1320s, when the city was founded by King Saen Phu. The chedi itself predates that, however; it was built by Phu in 1295, right around the arrival of Lanna's first ruler—and Phu's grandfather—King Mangrai.

The Emerald Buddha, which now sits in Thailand's holiest temple, Wat Phra Keo in Bangkok, is said to have been discovered when lightning split the chedi housing it at this similarly named temple at the foot of the Doi Tong in Chiang Rai. A Chinese millionaire financed a jade replica in 1991, and though it's not the real thing, the statuette is still strikingly beautiful.

This 14th-century temple is worth visiting for its viharn, distinguished by some remarkably delicate wood carving and for colorful frescoes depicting the life of Lord Buddha. A sacred Indian Bhodhi tree stands in the peaceful temple grounds.

For the best view across the river into Myanmar, climb up to Wat Phra That Doi Wao—the 207-step staircase starts behind the Top North Hotel.

Some scholars attribute this imposing octagonal wat inside Chiang Saen's city walls to its founder and namesake, King Saen Phu (1325–34), though others speculate that it predates him. Regardless of where its roots lie, Wat Phra That Luang is the tallest religious building in the Chiang Rai region, reaching towards the heavens at 88 meters high right next to the National Museum.

Near the summit of Doi Tong, this temple overlooks the Mae Kok River. The ancient pillar that stands here once symbolized the center of the universe for devout Buddhists. The sunset view is worth the trip.