Well it finally happened…we had to wear helmets. I’m surprised we made it this long without doing something that required them! Our first morning in Chiang Rai we Deeter surprised me with a motorcycle ride to the Golden Triangle! Hmmm…good surprise or bad surprise??? Well it turned out to be really fun once I calmed down a little:) We drove along highway 1 to Mae Sai which is a border town between Myanmar and Thailand. We made the trip across the border to eat some delicious lunch…we don’t know what it was…the best communication at the restaurant entailed pointing, smiling, shaking our heads yes/no and thumbs up. So we ate some meat thing, with veggies, rice and a fried egg and some other delicious things they put in front of us and then walked around the border town and were sorely disappointed. Not sure what we expected of a border town, but we were hoping for something more exciting! We did eat some fresh roasted chestnuts that were delicious and I made a cute little friend to share them with!
Then it was back on the scooter to head back to Chiang Rai. We passed a place on the way called Cabbages and Condoms…which we thought was either a Thai fettish or surely a mistaken interpretation of something. Turns out it’s neither. It’s a family planning and HIV/AIDS awareness/fundraising spa/restaurant/hotel. But it did make us wonder.
We spent that night and the one prior at the night bazaar. We fell in love with these hot pots you can order there. It’s basically a clay pot on top of another pot that has coals in it and it boils this delicious broth and you drop in the meat of your choice, tons of vegetables and an egg. It was fricking delicious. Then I would follow it up nightly with my favorite lemon shake! Getting to do that nightly with my Deeter…doesn’t get much better!
Unfortunately, our plans were a little derailed the next day by some food poisoning from a kebab! So it was a low key day of recovery and healing.
The next morning brought with it a cautious outing. We started at the Choui Fong tea plantation, then onto this place called the Black House. This place I think was the home of a national revered Thai artist. But it had all these little Thai style houses with carvings, paintings, chairs, tables, swords, boats. Really impressive.
We met a guy there who learned from the guru himself and he shared some of his music and paintings with us and let me tell you…he is PASSIONATE about his work! Very nice guy!
Then we were off to the white temple, Wat Rong Khun. This was, to me, the prettiest temple we have seen since leaving Cambodia…I mean Angkor Wat is kinda hard to compete with let’s be serious. It was really pretty, but very interesting in the things depicted inside the temple…like Neo, Avatar, Freddy Krueger, Michael Jackson, Kung-fu panda and some other modern pop culture icons. We couldn’t quite figure it out, but it was distinctly unique that’s for sure.
Then is was another quick night at the market…had to get me one more lemon shake! But I do HAVE to mention that our cab driver to the market this night thought I spoke Thai…I mean it is coming along rather nicely with the two words I know…Hello and Thank you:) I must look local with this glorious tan I have acquired over the past couple of weeks, maybe a little taller than their typical local, but local none the less. This morning we are headed to Phuket for one night and then onto a catamaran for three nights of sailing in the Andaman sea!
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