Trip to Chiang Rai

My trip to Chiang Rai was so much fun, until about three steps out of the car when me finally reached our first stop chiang Khong after 8 hours driving...I fell down a mini hill right in front of our hotel and badly sprained my ankle, which promptly began to swell to the size of a softball. It looked pretty gross, but I was able to limp around ok after a few hours rest and some ice. Then our trip began, our first hotel overlooked the Mae Khong River, and across the river was Laos. We walked around the city, but our next day was even more fun. We got to go into Laos for an hour (there is a little island where you don't need a visa and are allowed to spend some time in) where I got some souvieners and took some pictures. We got to take a boat ride on the Mae Khong at the Golden Triangle area (where Laos, Thailand, and Burma meet). We then went to a small border town with Burma, Mae Saay where our Thai friends got to go across and buy lots of cheap clothes and dvds from the Chinese black market. That was the northern most area of Thailand, and I got to see the main border crossing between Thailand and Burma (we even saw a truck filled in the back with Burmise migrants carrying AK 47s which was alittle creppy). We got to go to the Opium Museum, go to a museum filled with ancient artifiacts, and see a very old temple from thousands of years ago when that part of the country was its own kingdom. We also got to see this new temple almost finished being built that is being built by this famous Northern Thai painter. The temple is completely white and sparkles in the sun...it is made to look like heaven. On the inside, the murals, which are still being completed, are painted by the famous painter, and in the demon part, it shows the world being overtaken by spaceships, and even includes a mini Keanu Reeves from the Matrix. On our last stop we stopped at this temple in the woods that was surrounded by a wooded mountain that caused the temple to be populated by not only monks, but also monkeys.

Pictures...follow the link...

http://wisc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2299962&l=9e4f1&id=8633037