Huay Xai to Chiang Rai

By bus the journey from Huay Xai to Chiang Rai is scheduled to take from 2 hours 00 minutes to 3 hours 10 minutes depending upon which bus you take.

Bus Times from Huay Xai to Chiang Rai

There are currently 9 services a day from Huay Xai to Chiang Rai available to book online.

Buy Tickets from Huay Xai to Chiang Rai

Use the Search Box below to buy your tickets from Huay Xai to Chiang Rai.

Huay Xai Bus Stop

K Buddy services from Huay Xai to Chiang Rai depart from Huay Xai Bus Station.

Chiang Rai Bus Station

Passengers on K Buddy services from Huay Xai to Chiang Rai can select any hotel in Chiang Rai as their final destination.

About Travel to Chiang Rai

Chiang Rai is a small city, with around 70,000 permanent residents, located in the far north of Thailand, about 3 hours drive from the much larger city of Chiang Mai. As well as being a transport hub for travel between north east Laos and Thailand, Chiang Rai is a popular tourist destination in its own right. This popularity is largely based on the wide range of fantastic temples to visit in Chiang Rai.

White Temple

The White Temple is Chiang Rai’s most popular tourist attraction. The White Temple, which is 13.4 km by road to the south west of Chiang Rai, is a unique architectural project by Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat. The buildings in the main part of the temple have been finished using plaster mixed with fine grains of glass to create ornate reliefs and other decorative features.

This central part of the temple has been designed to convey the Buddhist theology of the passage of birth, death and reincarnation. As visitors walk through the temple there are sculptures and other artwork representing each of these three stages of existence, including a magnificent shrine hall with a large white marble statue of the Lord Buddha.

Wat Huay Pla Kang

Wat Huay Pla Kang is a newer tourist attraction in Chiang Rai, with the most recent of the three main structures in the temple having been completed in 2016. Since then this temple has become very popular, almost as popular as the White Temple. Wat Huay Pla Kang is only 8 km from Chiang Rai, so it’s also a little closer than the White Temple.

Wat Huay Pla Kang is a very large temple reminiscent of some of the large temples in Vietnam, which are also dedicated to the same branch of Buddhism as widely practiced in China. The most striking feature of the temple is its 26 storey tall statue of Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy. Also impressive are the large ornate prayer hall and the 9 storey Chinese style pagoda. The ground floor of the pagoda features a series of large and skillful carved wooden statues.

Blue Temple

Fairly close to Wat Huay Pla Kang, and 4 km from Chiang Rai, the Blue Temple bears some similarities in style to the White Temple, except the colour scheme is blue rather than white. The ordination hall at the Blue Temple is its main attraction. The inside of the hall is covered in mostly blue coloured wall paintings which are large and intricate and cover the walls as well as the supporting beams.

There is no entrance fee charged at the Blue Temple and a visit to the temple is included on many tour itineraries partly as a consequence of this. This is an attraction which gets busy at times, and one to which we encourage you to make a donation to as this pays for the upkeep of the temple.

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