Yesterday was the day we said good bye to Chiang mai and our beloved P-Place hotel, boarded our VIP bus and headed to Chiang rai.

imageThe main reason for our stop to Chiang rai was to visit the White Temple (Wat Rong Khun). Having seen the photos of this place I wasn’t sure it could live up to my expectations! But it was incredible and unlike anything else I’d come across elsewhere in Thailand.

We jumped on the public bus from Chiang rai for 20THB ($1AUD) and got dropped off round the corner from the White Temple.

imageIt completely blew us away! What an amazing place… So beautiful!

imageAnd so creepy!!

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imageProbably one of my favourite sights from Thailand so far!

After this we caught a blue share taxi back to the city to do a bit of exploring. To be honest we didn’t really like Chiang rai very much… it was just a bit meh. I was still so glad we stopped to see the White Temple, but not sure I’d want to spend any more time here.

The only other thing here we really enjoyed was the Night Bazaar, more specifically the food at the Night Bazaar… Hot pots everywhere! There were so many stalls selling hot pots. We sat and watched to see where the locals got theres from and then headed over. It was a good choice too, absolutely amazing!

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imageToday was the day to head across the river to Laos! We jumped on the public bus this morning and after 2.5hrs we arrived at the Chiang Khong/Huay Xai boarder. We paid our $30 USD for a visa of unknown duration (totally doesn’t have a period of stay on it) and arrived at the small boarder side town of Huay Xai. We are pretty much already in love with Laos, its so chilled here! We are sitting drinking a coconut (me) and a BeerLao (Mitch) watching the sunset over Thailand. We may never leave Laos…image