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Following a busy day travelling on Friday, 20th our tour group arrived at a local homestay guesthouse near Chiang Rai, one of the northern most towns in Thailand. To get there we used a local loop bus (3hrs) & then went to a small town known for its long boat dock. We travelled 2.5hrs up the Mae Kho river on a traditional longboat. At the homestay 8 of us shared a small house with individual thin mattresses and 2 wooly blankets to get us through the night. The temperatures dipped significantly at night and we were glad to be woken up by the local roosters (hint of sarcasm). The stay at the guesthouse included a welcoming ceremony the night we got there by the town 'chief' or elder. He passed around a cotton string in a circle while we sat on the floor and each one of us held it together while holding our hands together in the traditional Thai manner. The elder concluded the ceremony each giving us a snippet of 'good luck' string to go around one of our wrists. Following this we had a nice mixture of local and northern dishes of different curries while seated on the floor watching a school musical band from a local school play some northern instruments. On the Saturday morning we headed for the Golden Triangle. This is where Thailand meets Myanmar (formerly Burma) & Laos. We kicked off the day with a trip to the view where we could see Laos and Burma followed by the Opium Hall museum, a incredibly informative array of information and stories of the wars and history involved in opium trading etc. Mae Sai, the northern most town of Thailand was our next destination. Here we had lunch and went near to the border customs gate. A 2hr45 Songthaew trip concluded our day where we checked in at our guesthouse villa at Chiang Rai before wondering around the local night bazaar to get some much needed tucker.
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Pip Hi Craig your trip looks awesome....we have a home stay in Peru hope there isn't any guinea pigs running around my bedroom!!!Have a merry Christmas love from Pippy & Al xxx
Craig Thanks, Pip. I'm sure they will be guineas running around both long and short haired ones! lol Merry Christmas to you and Al.