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Today we travelled from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai which takes about 3 hours.
So early start for us, we got up about 8 and then had to return our love machine to our little moped man and claim back our 3000 baht deposit. Luckily (unlike Thai reputation) he returned it no problem - YAY.
We then had to hop on a little tuk tuk and make our way to the bus station, We got there really early as it wasn't due to leave until 10.15 and we got there @ 9.15 but James ran off and came back will a whole bag full of pork/fish/chicken/dog? balls covered in sweet chilli sauce, at this time of the morning I didn't really fancy this so I passed on this and let him wolf them down.
Our bus arrived and it was awesome, big reclining seats, Air-con, free food, water and music! (compared to the bus we're currently sat on whilst writing this…but we'll tell you about that tomorrow)
So I basically just slept for the whole time and I don't have a clue what James did. I think he may have napped for a couple of minutes! Before we knew it we were in
Chiang Rai, now there is absolutely nothing to do here apart from see the White temple and that was really the soul purpose on our trip to Chiang Rai.
So the taxi man who took us from the bus station to our hotel kindly waited outside for us whilst we went for wee's and dropped our bags off and then we were straight out again to the White Temple - He charged 300 baht for the return journey which was good seeing as we were at the temple for over an hour.
Now we have seen our fair share of temples now so much so I think we could write a whole travel book on them but this one really was unreal. The White temple is a very fitting name seeings as it is just completely white and so clean! They definitely use Daz to keep it so sparkly! Outside the door just before the walkway to the temple there were loads off arms coming out of the ground (refer to pictures as its not actually that easy to describe) it was a massive place. Inside were some artists repainting the walls as the year before it was destroyed by an earthquake!
The paintings on the inside we so weird and i still want to know why they exist… There were Minions, Hello Kitty, Batman, Pepsi trucks, Spartans, Jack sparrow and the list goes on, Just painted all over the wall in like a little movie scene. ODD, especially for a temple?!
After we had a look around there was a place where you could buy a silver leaf, write on it and then hang it on a tree (dont know what for but me and James did the standard 'James & Kara Chiang Mai 2014' I think you are supposed to write about dead relatives but that all seemed abit morbid for my liking.
After I replenished myself with my new love of a mango smoothie (the best thing ever!!) we hopped back into our taxi, after having to wake our driver up, who had fallen asleep.
We asked him to drop us into the centre so we could have a look around, James had it in his head he wanted to go and see the clock tower he had read so much about so we found it on a map and set off.
We reached it…. it was rubbish. Just a clock on a stand in the middle of a road, painted gold. Defo not worth the walk.
After this disappointment I lead us down a random street and had a beer and some lunch at a nice little bar and it cost about 150 baht (£3), winner!
We walked back to our hotel because we are proper explorers and the room now ready for us and it looked amazing, we had only paid £11 for the night but it was a brand new hotel and definitely one of the nicest ones we have stayed in, happy days.
We didn't stay long then headed back out for tea later on, we stopped at one place but the food was rubbish so we had a beer and listened to the live music for abit. after having a little look I found a place called Hungry Wolfs on trip advisor. At first google maps lied to us and said it was 4 hours away, What?! But actually it was only 2 minutes down the road.
So we thought… we walked around the road following our little map and kept our eyes out. We couldn't see it anywhere. The street names were all correct but not restaurant. Basically we thought we were lost and had to holler a taxi to come and save us. After a 2 minute drive we were there… oops! We were close it was just tucked away down a little side street. We paid 50 baht (£1) for this privilege but it was definitely worth it.
They were about to close but luckily we got there just in time because it was the best food we've had since we've been here, and possibly the best burger James has ever eaten! It was run by 2 guys from america, so the one who was working recommend us 2 american pale ales to drink. Kara's one was awesome and tasted like Mangos (absolute winner) and James was a bit harsher… more of a mans drink! lol James then put the chef under pressure by asking him to make any burger he wanted and to 'surprise' him haha so ended up with the classic bacon and cheese burger with some special sauce but my god it was so tasty!! Kara had a pizza which was also delicious but the burger stole the show. If your ever in Chiang Rai head to this little beauty and you wont be disappointed. The whole meal came to 900 baht with drinks (£18) expensive for Thailand but worth every penny.
High on food we headed to the little night market which was just closing up, Kara got a little excited around a bag stand and treated herself to a new elephant purse and bag. Its hilarious but so cute :-) we then headed back for a Skype session with the famalam, ready for more travelling to Chiang Khong tomorrow!
J&K over and out!
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