Day 91! After two long days of travel, a day in one spot was necessary. Today’s adventure entails a motorbike ride to two of Chiang Rai’s famous temples and a trip to a lively night market. Let’s start the countdown to day 100!

I was exhausted, traveling really took it out of me! So I slept in and woke up to do yesterday’s daily blog post.

By 10am I was showered and ready for breakfast. Our hostel has free breakfast, which I never saw my first time in Thailand. There weren’t any eggs at the time we wanted so Dan and Sam joined me on a walk in search for nearby food.

Unlike when we arrived last night, there were plenty of food options. I was in heaven choosing from my favorite Thai dishes that I was going to start getting to enjoy (at least) three times a day!

I ended up getting a basil, chicken, and rice, one of my favorites, to kick start my day!

After eating, I made a walk, with Sam and Dan, to the grocery store to get a SIM card.

I got 30 gigabytes for 30 days for 199 Baht ($5.43, crazy…).

We then made our way back to the hostel where we met back up with the rest of our crew. Our plan for the day was to go to the Blue and White temples that are on opposite sides of town. So we rented motorbikes to help out with this conundrum!

The blue temple was nearby and after a quick 10 minute drive we had arrived.

And it’s in the name, this temple is VERY blue!

This temple, also known as Wat Rong Suea Ten, was very cool to visit. The ornate structures were mesmerizing and the central building housing the Buddha was decorated with spectacular paintings.

On the opposite side of where we entered, there were more skulls and symbols of death. This is something common at temples, especially the white temple we’d be visiting later that day.

Also on the opposite side of the temple was an arts and culture market!

The day had been great so far… however it was starting to get over 100 degrees Fahrenheit!! The heat was definitely draining us, but we pressed on and went almost 30 minutes south to the beautiful White Temple! This temple unfortunately wasn’t free, but was only 100 Baht (around $3) to enter.

This temple was very eerie, but quite stunning. The temple depicts lots of death and tells a story about not succumbing to unrestrained desire.

The main bridge leads you to a temple that you’re not allowed to take pictures in. I wish I could’ve though because there were the craziest depictions I had ever seen in a Buddhist temple.

The artwork was great, but I mean crazy in the sense of it caught me by surprise! There was a depiction of the downfall of society because of unrestrained desire. And this was depicted through a city collapsing surrounded by different pop culture figures. This included Michael Jackson, Freddy Krueger, Ben 10, Harry Potter, Batman, etc.

It even had a depiction of 9/11 on the wall… it was quite interesting.

The temple was designed by an artist and you can tell the amount of detail that went in to the design!

After wrapping up walking around the temple in the scalding heat, we rode back to our hostel.

It was then time for a late lunch! Sam and I wandered around near our hostel for a bit looking for an open restaurant. It was a weird time, around 3pm, so many places were closed or getting ready for dinner.

We eventually found two spots though. One to get a simple egg noodle soup for 50 Baht and a place close to our hostel selling Pad Thai for 40 Baht… which means I’ve officially had my first Pad Thai in Thailand this trip!

When we got back to the hostel, I saw there was now a guitar in the lobby! I asked if I could use it and they said yes. So I sat outside and strummed away and slowly my friends trickled around to hang out and listen.

It ended up being a lovely time of serenading and then singing songs with my friends. While I was singing, I took a deep breath in and accidentally swallowed a bug, not the most pleasant thing to happen!

I was sweating my butt off after playing for an hour so I finally decided to go take a shower and then take a power nap.

I woke up feeling refreshed and then 15 minutes later grouped up with the crew and we made our way to the, nearby, Chiang Rai night market!

But first, we quickly stopped to see if 7-11 had cheese toasties in stock and they did!

The night market was buzzing with locals and tourists. There were stands and stands of clothes and souvenirs, live music and performances, and a food court with plenty of options!

I ended up getting a cheap 25 Baht smoothie and a large dinner of fried noodles and chicken in black sauce.

After dinner I called it a night. I need some good sleep tonight so I can start recovering from such long days of travel.

Tomorrow… I’m traveling more! I should be heading to Chiang Mai. I don’t have a bus ticket yet, but I’ll figure it out (I’m sure I’ll be okay).

But for now, it’s time to sleep!

– Elie