Chiang Rai: bizarre bars, temples and foods

Chiang Rai is a place you should definitely go to, even though it's just for the white temple. At some point you've seen so many temples that you don't really feel like seeing an other one, but this one is very special. It's a completely white temple with amazing art on the inside. I have been wandering there for hours, trying to understand the artist's message. It's not finished yet, but already very beautiful!

I rented a scooter and drove around with an english friend I had met before in Pai. For me it was a good practice, the roads are good and the scenery is beautiful.  Green mountains with white Buddha's decorating the nature, tea plantations and many waterfalls to visit.

The nightlife here is not that vibrant but there are some nice bars around. The happy teepy bar is one of a kind. They play old classic rock songs and the owner is a crazy rock n roll chick whom you can have great laugh with. But what makes the bar even more special is that they have pets walking around. Two bunnies and a rhinobeetle. It's surreal, but true! You could just pick them up and cuddle with them. Offcourse I always did when I was there, and I even cuddled the rhinobeetle. Big accomplishment for me, I mean, it's still a giant black bug! But you could stroke it and let it walk over your hand. It seemed like he liked the attention to. Rhinobeetles are as cute as the bunnies!

Chaing Rai has many markets, the saterday and sundaymarket, which are really good. Every night they have a nightmarket with good and also unusual "bizarre" foods. My english friend eats and tries everything. I love food and I love people who love food so let's go and eat! Everything! We ate some bugs, they taste like peanuts. blue, red and green noodles filled with.. I don't know, but it was good! Something called the thousand year old egg.. wouldn't eat that again. We finished the evening dancing at the market with thai people on thai music.

I'm in Loas now, looking across the Mekong river. On the other side is Thailand. Thinking back how great Thailand has been. The Land of Smiles. Kapkunka Thailand, you have treated me well!

Pai: Music, Motorcycle and Treehouse adventures

Words cannot explain how much I love Pai. It's a small village in the North of Thailand. It has a sort of hippy-vibe. Nice chill-out bars, beautiful green nature, mountains, people playing music everywhere. I get myself into a situation every night that I'm somewhere singing and/or playing the guitar. With or without a band, jamming. People start asking: "are you going to sing tonight? Come over and sing with me at that place." In Holland I tend to forget how much I love singing and making music, people keep reminding me here.

I met three amazing girls from the US at one of the bars. They were travelling together and invited me to go to the waterfalls the next day. Four girls, two bikes, road tripping around Pai.

We got ourselves a nice scrub-mud-bath at the hotsprings and then went for a swim at one of the waterfalls. We were the only four there. It's rare that your the only ones there, such a beautiful place, and nice water swim in under the waterfalls, perfect!

While driving around we saw this amazing place by accident. The Tree Houses. We decided to have some lunch in one of the tree houses and then came up with the great idea to spend the night in one of them. And so we did, the four of us rented a family tree house for the next day. Best idea ever.

We had a little party with the staff from the treehouses. They really wanted us to join them for a drink. The atmosphere was so funny, I mean, we were in a treehouse with these amazingly friendly Thai people. One of the staff, who is our friend now, brought us some great whine. Whine is pretty expensive, I feel so honored that she wanted to share that with us. Oh yeah, don't say "love" or "monkey" because something weird will happen. At some point one of my US friends told to the woman from the staff that she loved her pants. The woman just took her pants of and gave it to her! And don't try giving it back! No, she loved her pants, it's a present right away. No problem.

I had such a good time with these three girls, we laughed, cried, biked around Pai, had a party with the staff from the Tree Houses, slept in one of them, I mean.... Best time ever. Will never forget.

Still stuck in Pai, for almost a week now. Going to take some scooter-lessons today. I've been so lucky I could just get a ride everywhere till now. But I definitely got to need those skills for the rest of my trip. Tomorrow I'm going to take the bus to Chiang Rai. Bye Bye, amazing Pai, when I saw this I was pretty...