A rest over in Chiangmai Thialand

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How daft am I I knew I was going to Thailand but in my head thought I was just getting connections to Laos. So a stop over for 3 days came as a bit of a shock so moral of the story read the trip notes before you go mmmmm!
So with a couple of days to spare I booked a days sight seeing and found myself with a great mix of people whisked here there and every where around the outskirts of Chiang rai in the north of Thailand about six hundread miles from Bangkok.
We went to seven Sites on a !o ng old day from 8.30 til 9 pm Jeez was I knackered but we covered lots. Sadly my phone battery died around 3pm so the last few hours are in my memory but in my gallery!!

We went to the most weirdest of places the White Temple was built on an original ancient site with finances from a hugely wealthy private financial artist who wanted to provide a school for novice monks and to illustrate the depths of unrestrained desire and depravity by the hands reaching out. The bridge proclaims the way to happiness forgoing temptation So I hope you got that . The whole site is beautifully weird with gargoyles , heads hanging fro!m trees and much more. Couldn't take too much on a bright sunny day!! The next site was equally strange again an artistic installation this time sponsored by the government and bringing together a modern take on all things foreign blimey pimey I began to wonder what next the day would bring!
We journey to a tea plantation, visited a monkey cave which was not a cave at all but a bleedim theme park with monkeys that stole anything and everything. The Karen long necks a hill tribe both in Myanmar and Thailand was our next whistle stop . I suspect the village was irrected for tourists and most of us felt very uncomfortable taking pictures of people who seemed to be on display.
Our next visit took us to the golden triangle right at t the northern most point of Thailand where Myanmar, Thailand and Loas meet and which is the confluence of the Mekon and Ruak rivers. It is the place where opium is /was grown and near by is a museum Devoted to telling the history and use of opium throughout the ages. Sadly I have no piccies of these two interesting areas as my phone batteries died.!

So that was Chiang Rai and the following day I chilled round the pool. Off to meet the next group before we all set sail down the Mekon x

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