No rest for the wicked

After we got back from the trek, there was no time to rest as we'd booked to go on a day trip to Chiang Rai early the next morning. 

We set off in a mini bus with three girls from New York (who sounded like J-Lo) and about 4 Chinese people. 

Little did we know we were in for a lot of driving... 

First stop was a hot spring in Chiang Rai. Kate's face represents the heat...

There was also a foot spa (basically just hot water). I thought it was best not to share my infected foot with the rest of Chiang Rai so have it a miss. 

Next stop was the White Temple, our main reason for the trip. It was built in white to represent purity - I expected it to be similar to the white temples in Sri Lanka but it was far more spectacular! 

Everything was outlined with little silver mirrors to make it glitter in the light. 

Inside there was a Buddha that we took a large amount of time working out whether it was a real person. I had to restrain myself from dancing in front of him to catch his eye. Probably frowned upon....probably. 

There was also artwork covering the walls inside which were so strange!...

Cartoony images of character like batman and The Matrix, but also images of world events such as the twin towers. We believe it was meant to represent everything polluting the world. 

Afterwards we made wishes in the wishing well and wrote on a heart that then gets hung up on a tree like structure. 

'cos we're the 3 best friends that anyone could have... 

Afterwards we journeyed further to the long neck Karen tribe. As the name of the tribe describes... They have long necks. 

Every 5 years from aged five they had gold rings to their neck until their fifty something. It's seen by them to be very beautiful. This woman had the highest number of rings she would wear and will never remove them, ultimately be buried still wearing the neck rings. I don't know how they do it, I wore a half neck for a couple of minutes and found it so uncomfortable! 

This little girl was even younger than five but has begun wearing the necks already so that she is 'beautiful'. She also had a lot of makeup on and pencilled on eyebrows! Her mum doesn't wear the neck rings, as instead she has humongous flesh holes on her ears with silver rings. This is apparently another option. 

They also wear rings just below their knees. 

Despite travelling for about 8 out of the 12 hours, it was a really interesting trip and we spent our time travelling charting to the American girls and planning out next trip! (Road trip in the US fingers crossed...). 

Bye x