We got to our hostel, the Baan Khun Hostel that night (we liked this place a lot better than our previous hostel in Chiang Mai),
checked in, and then Lindsie, Megan, and Abby booked to go bungee jumping the
next day. Me, Karly, and Rachel had no desire to go bungee jumping, so we
decided to go to a Thai cooking class and make some food while they were gone. I made pad thai, yellow curry, sweet and sour vegetables, and the most
delicious mango sticky rice I've ever had...literally, it was the best. We did some vegetable carving as
well, and all of ours paled in comparison to our instructor’s carved carrot.
My carving is the one on top...obviously.
We
had supper at the Salsa Kitchen again that night, because it’s delicious, and
finally got to meet Tanner, Lindsey’s husband, who had finally finalized the sale of their house and had
flown to Thailand while we were in Cambodia, we also brought our new friend Anjali who we met on our flight to Chiang Mai. We headed over to the Night Bazaar
afterwards and did some more shopping as well. The next day we had a tour
booked to see the White Temple in Chiang Rai, the Golden Triangle, and the
Karen Long Neck Village. Our first stop was actually some hot spring…the
highest one in Thailand, or something like that. We weren't there for long, but
we soaked our feet a bit.
The White Temple was interesting for sure. It’s an
absolutely gorgeous building. The detail is amazing, but…the place is weird.
The idea is that you pass through “hell” before going over the bridge and into “heaven”
or something, and let me tell you…hell is creepy. Also, inside the temple, on
the wall with the doors closest to “hell” the wall is painted with things like
Superman, Batman, Terminator, Michael Jackson, Elvis, Harry Potter, and a
minion from Despicable Me, and lots more weird things. They don’t allow
pictures to be taken inside or else I would for sure have taken some. There was
also a monk praying inside…and I had to stare at it for a while before
concluding that it was actually made out of wax. So yah…strange, but really
really pretty. The building that the bathrooms were in was also gorgeous. It
was like a gold version of the temple almost.
Our next stop was the Golden
Triangle, where Thailand, Myanmar/Burma, and Laos all meet. So with our tour, we had been given the option to take a boat ride to Laos for an extra like $10, but we had heard that it's basically just a stop at a casino there. We didn't feel the need, and wanted to save money, so while the rest of the group headed off on a boat, we explored the area a bit. Their boat tour ended up being a lot longer than we had been told, so we ended up waiting for about an hour and a half. It wasn't the most exciting place either. There was a Buddha, and a Golden Triangle monument thing, but not much else.
Lunch wasn't bad, but nothing exceptional. And then the Long Neck
village was kind of strange. It’s basically a few souvenir shops. The little
girls were cute, but honestly the whole tour that day was kind of a let-down.
We were happy to get back to Chiang Mai. We met up with Lindsey and Tanner for
supper again, this time to a little Italian restaurant. It was delicious. By
this time we were all pretty tired of the food at the school. I mean, I
expected there to be lots of rice. There was lots of rice in China, and so I
was used to being fed lots of rice. But it seemed like the cooks fed us the same
thing every single day, because I’m pretty sure they use the same seasonings
for everything. So it didn't matter if it was chicken or pork, or green beans,
or cauliflower or peas…it all tasted the same. It gets tiring after 3 months.
So it was always nice while on vacation to eat something that not only wasn't
rice, but didn't taste like the same thing I’d eaten yesterday and the day
before and the day before… We also had planned on going out and doing a bit
more shopping that night, but it started pouring rain on our way there and so
we decided to just call it a night instead.
This is us with our favourite hostel worker, Mon, on our last night in Chiang Mai after walking in the rain and getting soaked.
We left the next morning, had
McDonald’s for breakfast as our last taste of western food, then got on our bus home.
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