After Pai it was a bus back down to Chiang Mai, then another bus to Chiang Rai. Our bus left Pai at 10am and arrived in Chiang Mai at 1pm. We had to wait till 5pm for our next bus so hopped along the cafes stealing wifi and playing cards. The bus to Chiang Rai took longer than expected due to traffic so we got there at around 8.30pm and we went straight to the hostel in a tuktuk for £1.50. Annoyingly the girl in front of me decided to put her seat right back! Her and her boyfriend were the only ones who did...I find it so selfish when people do that, it is one of my pet hates!

We stayed in an 8 bed mixed dorm in Mercy Hostel. The hostel was nice enough, it even had a pool! I took bottom bunk and it was comfy. The only downside was that there were no curtains to pull across the bed, but they were putting these up as we left.

Chiang Rai was a lot quieter than Chiang Mai and Pai and not too much to do there so it was very chilled which I quite liked. It seemed as though people went there as a stopover to cross the border into Laos. The night market I wasn't overly fussed on. My options were spring rolls, fries or a salad.

We rented a moped for the day and went to Khun Korn waterfall, the White Temple (Wat Rong Khun) and the Blue Temple (Rong Suea Ten). It was around a mile walk to the waterfall through the forest. It was very hot but when we arrived the water splashed us and cooled us down which was so good and helped mask my sweatiness. The White Temple was stunning on the outside. The inside was not as good but I enjoyed the walk around. In contrast the inside of the Blue Temple had a huge buddha and it was probably one of my favourite temples for the inside. Due to there not being too much to do the temples were swamped with tourists which made taking pictures a bit tricky.

Two girls we met in Pai (Laura and Addy) arrived in Chiang Rai so we arranged a night out. We met some more people at the hostel (Pat, Loren and Lene) so it ended up being seven of us out all together. We went to the night market for dinner and then to some bars. The nightlife was dying down quick so we went to a bar where it was all old Western men and Thai women. Two played pool and four of us played pop up pirate. I lost the first game to which I was told by a Thai lady I had to strip. I think not. I took my flip flop off to which one of the men said 'thats the wrong kind of thong you took off'. I was almost sick in my mouth. We ignored them and kept playing but one woman was rubbing herself against Addy (which was actually quite funny).

The men said they were all going to 69 Bar and it was a lock in but we were welcome to join. At first we were like yeh yeh see you later with no intention of going, but I think we were all a little curious and slightly drunk, so rocked up banging the door to get in. It was just as seedy as I expected. The men were all over the women, there was a hot tub in the making in the corner and a sex swing in the middle of the room.

The guy serving us was British and his name was Joe, but he lived in Chiang Rai. He came out with the most elaborate stories about how in Laos he had a party and they had weed. One man went outside and the police raided the house. He said that the guy with weed started fighting the police officers who showed Joe their gun so he then tackled the man to the floor. Sure you did Joe, just keep serving drinks please. I couldn't cope with entertaining his made up stories so was glad to leave.

The next day we booked into a hotel for one night just to have a little bit of luxury! It was called Bura Resort, about a 25-30 min drive out of Chiang Rai. It was beautiful. There were eight apartments and we picked the waterfall view which meant we had a private waterfall outside on our terrace and could turn it on and off as we pleased.

The room had a huge bed, corner sofa, flat screen tv, it was amazing!

The bathroom had a massive bath and two showers, one of which was a waterfall shower coming down from the roof. I took it upon myself to have a bath, then a shower, then another shower so I could use all three. It was heaven! We ate dinner at the restuarant on site which was strictly ok. I ordered a mushroom pasta dish from the vegetarian menu but they brought out a meat pasta dish and I accidently ate some bacon before realising. They were very apologetic and changed it straight away.

We pre ordered breakfast to be served to our room and ate it outside on our terrace.
It was delicious and I was so gutted to be leaving that day. I could have spent so much longer there, it really was luxury! The owner kindly gave us a lift to the airport to catch our flight to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam.

Of course we hadn't learnt our lesson at Heathrow and had issues at check in as we didn't have proof of onward travel out of Vietnam after 15 days. 15 days is the maximum you can stay before you require a visa. We had requested a ferry to Cambodia but had to wait up to 48 hours for the confirmation email which we did not yet have. Thankfully we made it on the plane (not really sure how we ended up being allowed on) and we flew to Bangkok and then from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh. I seem to be very unlucky on public transport...the woman in front put her seat back! So selfish...have I mentioned its one of my pet hates?! This time I retaliated and kept pushing her seat, a very mature response from me.

So our time in Chiang Rai was done and I really enjoyed. I am not sure I would return just purely because there was not as much to do and I think we did the main bits we wanted. Although I would have loved more time at our luxury hotel!