DAY 13

It was hard to believe that our week long road trip was coming to an end! We awoke late and set about getting organised to check out, farewelling our hosts for the last few days, Pea and her family, we set off towards Chiang Mai. Just South of Chiang Rai was the only attraction we sought today, Wat Rong Khun otherwise known as The White Wat. One of the youngest temples in Northern Thailand, construction was only started on this one in 1997, what makes this temple stand out is its exterior which is pure white. Clear mirrored chips dot the surface of the outer walls making the whole temple sparkle in the sunlight. Entering the temple across a bridge of outstretched arms which are supposed to symbolise desire you can view the inner sanctum of the temple which is still a work in progress. The architect is also a painter and his murals cover the walls inside the temple, in a kind of strange twist he has done away with the normal murals depicting the story of Buddha and instead you can find planes smashing into the twin towers, rockets being launched into space and if you look very closely characters from movies such as Neo from The Matrix. These are supposed to represent Samsara, the realm of rebirth and delusion.

After the strangeness of the interior of the main temple, which is also quite small, it was nice to escape back into the manicured grounds filled with sparkling white statues and ponds that reflected the light. The day we visited the sky was a brilliant, clear blue which created the perfect backdrop for photos. The buildings reminded me of a castle from a fairytale and it is hard to believe that it is actually a working temple. Monks came through to pray as we snapped off our photos. It was the perfect end to our little adventure but we were looking forward to getting back to Chiang Mai for some 'chill' time and not so much moving around.

Back into the chaos of the road system of Chiang Mai, we got lost, found and then managed to drop the car back to our friend, Rak. We had jumped on line at The Golden Triangle and found a nice place to stay outside the hustle and bustle of the city centre. Rak graciously offered to drive us there and after he got lost and found a few times, he dropped us off. Tadkham Village in a small boutique hotel run by a local family, it is in the back streets amongst the local houses and sometimes even the tuk-tuk drivers didn't know where to find it, which is sometimes a good thing, it was quiet. Our room was large, air conditioned and had a television that broadcast the Australia Network. While that may not mean a lot to most of you, when you have been travelling for almost 2 years and all of a sudden you can watch the news from home, it is a slight thrill!

We had arrived back in Chiang Mai on a Sunday which meant the Sunday Walking Street was happening that night. We ate dinner at a fancy little restaurant called Hot Chilli, I was watching a hill tribe woman heading towards us to hassle us to buy something when all off a sudden she stopped dead still like a statue, looking around I saw that everyone had stopped and it seemed like we had found ourselves in the middle of some B grade zombie flick. Then I heard the music and realised what it was, when they play the Royal Anthem everyone must stop what they are doing, stand still and be quiet until the music stops, I had heard about it but it was the first time we had experienced it. We stood and waited quietly, the music stopped and the hum of the crowd grew again and the hill tribe woman still came towards us to pester us. That's the strange thing about restaurants here, hawkers can just walk in and stand at your table for as long as they like trying to sell you things. We once had a woman hassle us for near on an hour!

Off into the market to see the sights. The buskers are plentiful and varied, tonight I was taken in by a tiny little Thai girl in traditional dress and face full of makeup. She stood on a tiny mat in the middle of the crowd with a CD player spouting traditional music and danced. She had quite a crowd around her and seemed to be making good money, what a different life for these children. It was 8 o'clock at night and she had been going since sunset, she would continue on into the night with small breaks, entertaining the farangs (tourists) to help feed her family.