drive through northern thailand

Dear travel journal,
Today we spent a chunk of time in a minivan. We got up early and all headed down to the cute little cafe and had breaky before jumping in the van to head off to Chiang khong (about 5hrs drive). On the way we stopped at a cashew but factory where they sell heaps of different Dried fruits, packet snacks and loads of cashew nuts with different seasonings - chocolate, sesame, spicy etc. You could have taste testers of pretty much everything , it was kind cool. I of course brought almonds cause I had to be different. Our second stop for the day was Chiang rai where we had lunch and explored wat rong khun - the white temple. Wow. We have seen loads of temples so far but this I one of a kind. Its so fancy and has so much detail on everything. The artists who designed it raised funds by selling his art and with the proceeds built the temple and keeps t maintained. Inside is an illustration hall (ladies allowed -pictures not). The walls were awesome. The pictures show a passage of time, from your traditional Thai paintings, through to the newest section with Yoda, minions, Micheal Jackson, a watch with laser beams directed at it and so much more. It was all blended in, like one continuous painting that ran the entire span of the room. Its was pretty cool. Even the toilet block was gold and glamified. In one section they had a beautiful wishing well and bronze trees where you could buy hanging lucky disks, write on them and place them on the tree. The entire walk ways and trees are made of these lucky disks. Its pretty cool. Then after we finished lunch, we jumped back in the van and headed of the Chiang kong. Tonight I'm sharing with danna. We lay around chatting for a while and then headed off into town and walked around exploring for a couple of hours. The markets in town were pretty much just food but danna did by a new top at one stalls which is very cute. The town is quite old and not very big. There isnt a huge amount of things to do in town but for the most part people just use it as a quick stop over before crossing the boarder. And then we headed back to the hotel, which is quite cute we have a little table and chairs out the front of our rooms and everything, and I think we are the only people here.. and we got sorted for the evening meeting. At the meeting we organised our passports, visas, departure and arrival cards for our boarder crossing in the morning, followed by dinner at a local restraunt. It was quite busy a Chinese tour bus full of people got off and filled all the tables just as we got there, so we sat up in a different section they don't usually use for dinner. After dinner half the group went into town to go the 7/11 and shops and the other half of us went back to the hotel. I am so tired today for some reason. Absolutely ready to crash. Night.Read more