Today we went on our Chiang Rai tour. It’s a
I’m glad we did the tour but I would NOT do it again. Most of the time was spent in the tour van and it wasn’t comfortable. We had 10 people total on a 12 person van so it was crowded. Also, I wasn’t much in a talking mode so having such an intimate group for so long felt suffocating. I like people but the introverted side of me wanted my space.
Don’t get me wrong, the White Temple’s architecture was impressive. It is the most impressive architecturally we’ve seen in all of Thailand. Obviously, it’s a Thai temple and it’s going to have Buddha statues and their god’s but this place seemed eerily demonic both inside the temples and outside. You can’t take pictures once you’re inside some of the temples but you’d know what I’m talking about if you saw it for yourself.
The White Temples seem beautiful, and dare I say heavenly when you stare from afar but as you look closer it’s disturbing and dark. It reminds me of when Jesus talked about whitewashed tombs and how Satan was an angel but turned to darkness. Jason and I both felt weird at this place and we both started getting a headache. I’m not going to conjecture about why but I can say we didn’t feel comfortable there.
One of the ladies on our tour claimed to be a Christian. We know this because the conversation came up in the van ride when the tour guide starting teaching us about the Buddhist culture in Thailand. She said that it’s possible to be Christian and believe in Buddha. That already threw up a red flag. To her credit, she said that Buddha isn’t a god and the Buddhist teachings can be seen more as a philosophy. I refrained from judging her and what she said. However, when we got to the Buddha statue at another location, she followed the tour guide and learned how to bow down to the Buddha statue. At this point, both Jason and I were dumbfounded watching her purposefully bowing down to the giant Buddha statue. It saddened me to see that either she doesn’t truly know Jesus or she clearly doesn’t follow scripture.
We live in a predominantly nominal Christian culture. It’s a cultural belief rather than a personal and intimate relationship with Christ. It was also unfortunate to hear that so many people think that all religions are similar and all roads lead to the same place, but just with different routes to get there.
Anyways, enough of the rant. Our first stop was a hot spring and then we went to the White Temple.
Our tour guide, M. 
A hot spring in Chiang Rai was our first stop. 
Our tour van. 
The spring was so hot you can boil an egg in 3 minutes 
You could buy and write on one of these ornaments and then they hung it up making a pagoda looking thing. 
Disturbing looking hands looking like they are stuck in hell trying to get out. 
White coy. 
More scary hands. 
After the White Temple, we went to get lunch at a Thai restaurant. The food was familiar. The benefit of living in LA is that you get access to cuisines from all around the world so when you try food in other countries it’s not much of a shocker. The food was good but the portions were small. It’s probably a good thing.
Tiny bananas 
We finished lunch quickly and then went over to the Golden Triangle. They call it the Triangle because it’s where Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar meet. The Golden part comes from the fact that to buy opium, which is what this area is known for, you bought it with only gold. We checked out the opium museum and then took a boat on the Mekong river for a short cruise to see where Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar connected. Down the river, we could see Laos on the opposite of Thailand and Myanmar further down. It was pretty cool.
We were on a tight schedule so we didn’t stay long. We visited another temple area for a quick visit. This is where the “Christian” lady did the whole bowing down thing.
That was the end of the tour section. It was around 4 pm and it was time to head back. It took us about 4.5 hours of driving to get back including a coffee, snacks, and bathroom break.
We got back to the hotel at 8:30 pm. It should have taken us longer but our driver was driving like he was on the Nurburgring. Before heading back into the hotel, we checked out some of the shopping stands around the hotel. The streets were filled with vendors and tourists. This section of Chiang Mai is a lot livelier and more tourist friendly. We’re on the east side of the Old City whereas I stayed on the west side of Old City so this is a different experience.
We have another free day to explore tomorrow so we didn’t check everything out. There were a ton of stalls and the amount of stuff you could buy was impressive. We did a quick look around and then headed back to the hotel.
We’ve been killing some time by watching this Korean show I mentioned before called “Gentlemen’s dignity.” We watched a couple episodes and ordered room service since we were too tired to go out and get food. Food was pretty good. The skewers were a bit dry but everything else was satisfying.
Jason knocked out around 12:00 am and I decided to hit the gym for a quick shoulder, trap, and abs work out. I was cooped in the car so long so it was nice to get activity in. For a short workout, it felt great. I think getting in some calories significantly increased my workout effectiveness.
We have a free day tomorrow so we’re thinking of visiting an elephant sanctuary, walking around the stalls around the hotel, and then checking out the area I was in during part 1 of my Chiang Mai experience.
It’s now 2:34 am and way past my time to sleep. The free day will help. Until tomorrow!