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Yesterday we had a chilled one with a bit of a lie in and a walk around the town. We wandered in about 11ish and headed to the hill tribe museum. This gives you a good insight to the native tribes that are still living a traditional lifestyle in North Thailand. It was really interesting find out a bit more about these people without using their homes as a tourist attraction. After this we walked down to the clock tower and found a cat cafe! We sat in here for a while having a cold drink and a cuddle with the cats there! After this we grabbed a 7/11 lunch and headed back. We went back into town to have another walk around the market and get some food from the food market there, which was really good!
Today we were up early for a trip we had booked. We thought it was a group tour but actually ended up with a private car tour!
We started by going to the white temple, which we had been told about but was still weird actually seeing it first hand! The temple was rebuilt by an artist using his own money. As the name suggests the temple is white, but it is overwhelmingly so! The white building is highlighted with mirrored tiles creating an amazing effect that you can't really describe! At the entrances and exits there are trees with hanging heads, most of which are popular characters such as batman and golum! To get to the main temple you cross a bridge which has lots of hands and faces seeming tone clawing to get out! Then inside the temple there is the usual Buddhist set up, but a mural in the wall is painted with other popular characters such as a minion and transformers! It was just so strange to see such a clash of cultures! We had a quick look around the artists gallery just outside and then headed to our next stop, the black house.
The black house is again another artists creation. It is a series of traditional style buildings made out of dark wood and glass. Inside were interesting bits of furniture, mostly made out of animal bones and skins. This was also quite a strange but interesting place!
The next place we were due to go to was to visit the Karen tribes. This is a traditional tribe that have moved over from Burma and are now used as a tourist attraction, particularly as the women use gold hoops to stretch their necks. After the museum yesterday we both felt that we had learnt enough about them without having to see them in what was described as a human zoo. Instead we headed straight to the monkey cave. Here we fed some fish in the lake at the bottom before climbing the stairs to a stunning viewpoint and the actual cave. We headed back down just in time to see the money's climbing over the cave face and then jumping down onto the buildings.
From here we went to Mae Sai, which is the Burmese boarder crossing. We found a place where we could officially say we had stood in Burma, had a walk around the massive market and also had our lunch stop. After this we drove to the golden triangle. This is the place where the Thai, Laos and Burmese boarder meet, while on a clear day you can also see the Chinese boarded up river. It is also famous for growing opium, so we went to a museum which gave us the history of the drugs production and usage and this places relevance. A quick walk around the town to see some of the Buddhist statues and we started to make our way back to Chiang Rai. We made one last stop in Chiang Saen to see a temple and then started the hour long drive back to our guesthouse.
After a shower we went into town for food before heading back for an early night. Our driver had stopped off at the bus station so we could book our tickets to Chiang Mai for tomorrow so we will be leaving at 9.15
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