The trip from Mae Hong Son to Chiang Rai was a very long one. We had to retrace our steps through Pai and back to Chiang Mai, then immediately jump on another bus to take us North to Chiang Rai. In the end it took us about 10 or 11 hours and it was just our luck that as we arrived there was a massive downpour. Not good as we hadn't booked a hotel! Luckily the one recommended by the Lonely Planet was just around the corner and had rooms available too!

Once we got settled in we decided to look for food and found that there was a massive night market right next to our hotel. There it had a huge selection of all different types of food stalls. It was mostly interesting looking Thai food but there were also sushi stalls, Mexican, Indian and even a place to buy a kebab! The food was delicious and very cheap, we went there every night we were in Chiang Rai!

Our sightseeing in Chiang Rai consisted of seeing the quite spectacular golden clock tower sat on a roundabout, seeing a dazzling white temple just outside the city and a temple called Wat Phra Kaew. This last temple was famous because it used to hide a very ancient and illustrious emerald Buddha inside the wall of a pagoda. It was only found again in 1434 when lightning struck the temple and cracked part of the wall and revealed the Buddha behind. An interesting story but makes me wish they still had the statue there to see!! 

Also worth noting the very unconventional nature of the white temple. By this I mean the bizarre theme inside. To our surprise the walls were painted with all kinds of movie characters and celebrities like michael jackson, terminator, superman, transformers, pirates of the caribbean and all sorts. Hence the random predator statue on the grass outside the temple! Very odd! The paintings were very well done but certainly not what you expect when going into a Buddhist temple! It didn't seem very tasteful given the fact the temple is beautiful on the outside. It was just very dark and very creepy walking over the bridge with all the hands rising up from hell as you go over the bridge to enter. Weird but good to see something unexpected for a change!

There was lots more to see and do in Chiang Rai but we needed some time to plan and relax after a hectic few weeks.