Khao soi with northern-style egg noodles in coconut-curry broth, jungle market vegetables from Akha hill tribe vendors, and the White Temple's mirror-glass tiles catching the morning sun
Chiang Rai is the northernmost large city in Thailand — 180km north of Chiang Mai, bordered by Myanmar to the west and Laos to the east, at the tip of the triangle formed by the three countries. The food is Northern Thai (Lanna cuisine): khao soi (egg noodles in a coconut-cream yellow curry broth, topped with crispy fried noodles, shallots, lime, and pickled cabbage — this is the khao soi form from Chiang Rai's Shan and Yunnanese Muslim trading communities rather than the creamier Chiang Mai version), nam ngiao (a dry, fermented soybean and pork rib red broth unique to the far north), and the…
Chiang Rai was founded on January 26, 1262 by King Mengrai of the Ngoen Yang Kingdom — the formal date is preserved in chronicles and commemorated annually. Mengrai later founded Chiang Mai (1296) and united the Lanna Kingdom, making Chiang Rai the original capital. The city passed through Burmese control for most of the 18th century (the entire Lanna region was under the Burmese Konbaung dynasty 1763–1774), then back to Thai sovereignty under the Chakri Kings. The 1763 Burmese sack left almost no pre-18th-century religious architecture in the city proper — Wat Phra Kaew (the original home of…