Day 115 - Chiang Mai/Chiang Rai/Golden Triangle/Laos/Mae Sai

Up ridiculously early this morning and cant even have breakfast as the kitchen isn't open until after we leave :(

We get picked up from the hostel about 7:20am, continue picking people up and then change into a slightly bigger mini bus for our trip.

First we set off for Chiang Rai which is about an hour and a half drive north from Chiang Mai with lots of hilly scenery to look at along the way. Our first stop is at a hot spring in Chiang Rai and we stop for about half an hour to have a look around and we take this opportunity to grab some breakfast from one of the little thai stalls next to the spring. We are warned before we get off the bus that the spring is too hot to put your hands in and when we see it there is some water shooting up in the air and turning into steam. We continue our walk around and come across 2 little pools with a few local women stood around them and when we take a closer look we realise that they are actually boiling eggs in the hot spring water and then walking around and selling the eggs.

Our next destination is Wat Rong Khun which is also known as the white temple as unlike all the other temples that we have been to that are all red and gold this one is completely white which is supposed to signify the purity of buddha. I must admit when we first heard that we were going to a white temple it didnt sound that interesting (we have been to a lot of temples throughout the trip) but when you actually see it, its amazing to look at! Everything is so bright and the attention to detail is so good. We were allowed to take pictures of the outside of the building but no photo's are allowed in the main temple. In the main temple there was an old monk sat under a buddha statue in the meditation position perfectly still and everyone was waiting to get to the front to pray in front of him. The walls of the inside of the temple are very different to any of the others, they have dragons and demons painted on them but for some bizarre reason also have batman, superman, spiderman and even neo from the matrix! We asked our tour guide about this and he said it was to make it more modern.

Back on the road and we are now being taken to the Golden Triangle where Thailand, Burma and Laos all meet by the Mekong River. We arrive and are taken on a boat around some of the river showing us where one country ends and the other begins. First we are shown Myanmar/Burma and as the boat is turning to show us Laos on the other side we are directed to look slightly further up the river which is China. Both Laos and Myanmar have huge casinos right on the border, casinos are not allowed in Thailand so all the Thai's get boats over to these ones to gamble away to their hearts content!

The boat stops at Don Sao which is Laos and we all pay 20baht to enter the country. Basically you are allowed to enter here without going through immigration so would not be allowed any further into Laos without your passport. We are shown the local whiskey which seems to be a local spirit with a dead animal inside it ... not very nice. They have all sorts in the whiskey such as snakes, scorpions, geckos, tiger penis and even an armadillo, they gave everyone the opportunity to try it but I'm pretty sure everyone decided against it.

We were given 30 mins to walk around before we had to be back on the boat, the knock off bags here are much cheaper than the ones in bangkok and chiang mai but they are rubbish quality compared to the ones we've been seeing. There were lots of chickens and ducks waddling around, one chicken appeared to be following us and one of the ducks kept walking past Si ruffling its feathers .. dont think it liked him :)

After looking at lots of tat and seeing lots of animals in alcohol it was time to get back on the boat and we were all given our entry ticket to confirm we have been to Laos so me and Si are going to stick them in our passports :)

Off the boat and back on the bus and we're heading to Mae Sai for some dinner, we were taken to a nice little restaurant for a buffet. The tour guide re-assured us that the food was not spicy but they did have a spicy option, Si went to try and get some of the spicy food but none of it was written in english so he decided to give it a miss. The restaurant also owned the shop next to it that sold all sorts of expensive stones and when we went for a look around the owner followed us pointing at every stone to tell us it was real.

Next stop is Mae Sai where we are taken to the border with Myanmar which is the most northern point in Thailand and were then given some time to look around the shopping stalls. Back on the mini bus and we are taken to our last stop which is to see the Karen (Long Neck) tribe in their village, they all had little stalls set up selling stuff with beads all over them. They all wear a beaded head dress which I got to put on and pose for a piccy.

It was then time to set off back to Chiang Mai. We were dropped back off at the hostel at about 9pm, grabbed some tea and a much deserved drink and then went up to bed. We have another early start tomorrow as we are going to try a spot of Thai cooking.