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Today was not my finest hour.
We met at 8am to leave for Chiang Mai. it had been raining all night and so the steps from the hotel were slippy so yet again I fell as i was walking down them with my backpack on. No serious damage, just a bruised knee. couldn't believe it had happened again and this time rather than laughing I sobbed for pretty much the first half hour of the journey!
On the way we stopped at the white temple in Chiang Rai. It is very new, only 10 years old and was fantastic. The whole temple is...white! With detailed and unusual carvings and statues. Just by the entrance there was a pit made out of white stone hands which looked to be clawing their way out! Freaky. Bond explained how this temple contains the 'evils' of modern world to remind Buddhists to not be corrupted and lead purer lives. As you walk inside as always you have to take your shoes off. The walls inside the temple were painted with images from modern day life: film characters, phones, gadgets, cartoons...I saw batman and even Kung fu panda! (How is he evil?) It was pretty impressive and still being painted.
Once we had walked around we continued to set off for Chiang mai. Two hours later we had arrived and went straight for lunch near the base of the mountain. After we drove up the winding roads to the top where we were to climb over 300 steps to visit a temple and see the view of Chiang mai.
By this point francessca and myself were not feeling too great so the thought of climbing steps did not appeal. However we persevered and arrived at the top. I had not brought anything to cover my shoulders so had to rent a shawl for 10baht.
The temple was very similar to the one Ian, Marloes and myself saw in Chiang rai. It was pretty busy and the floor soaking wet so I was constantly on edge! We then queued outside and entrance and I wasn't sure what for. Some people came out and the rest of the group went in, myself and a couple of girls got stuck in front of people but eventually made our way in to see the rest of the group knelt down in front of a monk...quickly I got to my knees and then got hit in the face with some water!! At this point I think I shouted eeew before realising this water was actually coming from the fan in the monks hand and was water he was blessing us with!! Oops! After the blessing we had to form two lines of girls and boys. The guys went to the monk who tied a piece of string around their right wrist and gave a blessing and is girls went to his helper who tied it on our left. In Thailand women are not allowed to touch a monk or be too close to them.
We then visited the rest of the temple and looked at the view point before heading to the hotel to check in.
I was really pleased with my room as I had a huge super king size bed!!
We all met for dinner across the road, a restaurant owned by a Dutch guy, and the food was fantastic. After it was then time to head to the night market for some serious shopping!!
We all took one of the van taxis to the market with most of us piled along the benches and a few on the platform outside. Ian leant on something he probably wasn't supposed to and we heard a crack! Oops he'd broken part of the taxi!
The night market in Chiang mai is supposed to be the best for shopping and it certainly seemed pretty good. After some browsing and bargaining I came away with two pairs of havianas for £7 you really couldn't tell they were fake. I helped Hannah get some fake bobby brown make up brushes. The lady wanted 800 but Hannah had 400 they lady refused and then I told her I worked for bobby brown all new they weren't real! Instantly she said ok and sold them for 400!
After a hard nights shopping we headed back to the hotel, had one more drink in the bar where we had eaten and went to bed
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