Getting back to Thailand was easier than it sounds. A 4 hour bus, 5 minute boat across the border and another bus for about 2 hours to Chiang Rai.
Chiang Rai itself hasn't really impressed me. We're staying in a pretty horrible place which is quite a walk out of town. The night market is impressive though and we may have bought a few things! I am carrying so much stuff round at the moment, it's definitely time to post more things home!!
Yesterday we visited yet another temple and a Hill Tribe Museum. It was really interesting and I love some of the traditional dress that some tribes wear. Some of their beliefs are questionable though! The Akha tribe believe that twins are evil and if a woman gives birth to twins then she has to kill them both or be banished from the village-lovely stuff!!! I am fascinated by the Karen long-necked women. The ones which put lots of rings around their necks to lengthen them to look like a swans. If they remove the rings then their necks will collapse and they will die. There are some long necked women around the north but apparently they're involved in trafficking from Burma just to make money from tourists and you would not see them in Thailand otherwise so you're not supposed to encourage it.
Today we visited Chiang Saen to see the Golden Triangle, where Burma, Laos and Thailand meet, separated by rivers and where lots of opium used to be grown. It was very pretty but a few poppies would have made it more exciting! We also walked for miles to the Museum Hall of Opium. I was thinking, '2 museums in 2 days is a bit much for me' but it was possibly the best museum I've ever been to. It must have cost a fortune but it was developed by the Thai royal family. The set up was a mixture of video's and walking through different scenes to follow the story of opium, like walking through a ship, an scene in India, China etc. It was really impressive and held your attention well which it needed to as there was a lot of info. We spent a good couple of hours in there, even though we were very conscience of the time to not miss the last bus back to Chiang Rai! It was a close one!
Tonight we ate at a food section of the night market. I had pork with garlic and pepper with rice for 70p and it was fit!!!
Tomorrow we are doing a sneaky trip over to Burma! You can't go into real Burma unless you fly into it but if you cross over from Mae Sai just north of us then you can visit a market and the main point is when you get back to Thailand you get a new 15 day visa. I know we've only been in Thailand for a few days but you only get 15 days here if you cross the border overland compared to 30 days if you fly into Thailand. Another 15 days will give us time to do everything we want to before we reach Cambodia. It is exciting to visit such a different country too, even if it's not the real thing. It'll be another stamp on my passport and they'll have a new beer to try! We'll be up early as it's an hour and a half to the border and we'll want to be back in Thailand not long after lunch as we'll need to get the bus back to pick up our rucksacks, then take a 4 hour bus to Chiang Mai. I'm really looking forward to Chiang Mai, I hope it lives up to the praise that it gets.