We were sad to leave Laos but excited to go to Thailand again for the 3th time this trip. We just can't get enough of this beautiful country.
This time we went to Chiang Mai where we were welcomed after a long journey in (seriously) a very friendly hostel. What we enjoyed so much here? Friendly staff, everything was super clean, nice breakfast, nice beds, spacious room, good warm showers, good location and so on. The reviews on Booking.com ware certainly not lied. But because of this, we are very spoiled now when it comes to hostels. We went to Chiang Mai for a rest, but still made some trips. So we went out for a day, again with a hired scooter, and we visited 2 temples. These were the 2 favorite temples and definitely a must see they said on the internet...... Okay! Lets go! Full of enthusiasm we arrived at temple number 1. We saw several signs; Stupa, cave, Buddha. First, we went to see the stupa...
2 Disappointed faces and hanging shoulders
Nik: "Okay, very beautiful, but we have seen more beautiful stupa's. Shall we go on? "
Car: "No, we have to walk around the stupa for one time for good luck!"
Flipflops off and a clockwise round around the stupa through sand and junk. That happiness is still coming!
Then it was time for the cave. There had to be something beautiful now, it was temple number 4. Claustrophobic with another 200 people through a cave, a few buddhas here and there. Yes, it was fine, but we have seen nicer things. Well, the Buddha images really have to steal the show then! We think the picture below says enough. Images covered with moss and spider webs. Well, once again it was something else.
So we quickly raced to Chiang Mai's most famous temple. This is on top of a mountain, to get there you have to climb up 306 steps first. After all our hikes and climbs we got used to it and got to the top within 2 minutes. Our condition and leg muscles have never been so good !!
Yes... again a beautiful temple, but we were really more interested in the view! We could see all of Chiang Mai from here. Nikki had seen the temple once before, but in spite of that, we were just a little bit done with all the slightly different temples.
One more favorite in the internet was the ladyboy show. Well, of course, we wanted to see that because it could only be sooooo wrong. We walked into a street where we thought it should be... What's this for ghetto? Exactly what you can imagine at a ladyboy show. We bought a ticket, got a beer and a bag of nuts pushed into our hands and took a seet with high expectations. We were not the only ones who had found this show and the hall was full.
The only way we can describe this, is that we opened our mouths and stared at these women... men... things? What? on stage to give a show. We put 20 bath in bra's and we still do not know if there is a sock, jelly cushion or something else in there.
The Sunday Market was also in the top 10. A very long street full of stalls. Normally, the "market merchants" in Thailand are not very original. Everyone sells that same bracelets or elephant pants... But this market was different. Almost every stall sold something else, beautiful handmade products. Great to walk along the stalls, but so busy!
And then suddenly a man begins to talk into a speaker in Thai. We have done our best to understand this... but unfortunately! So it turned out to be a kind of speech in memory of the deceased king. Suddenly everyone is quiet and stood still to show his/her respect. As if the world had a break for a moment. And what does Nikki do? she was sunk, completely sunk in her own world and impressed with all the beauty that was for sale. Until she suddenly saw Carmen's hand waving. Oh Shoot! But we'll just say she was a little bit too late.
We both bought a beautiful bracelet and continued walking and walking into people but it was worth it!
We stayed in Thailand for a few more days but we will share those with you in our next blog!