The North of Thailand - Lampang

With about an hour delay, we arrived in Lampang at 5:30 in the morning, which meant an extra hour of sleep! From the bus terminal, we walked to the train station (about 30 minutes), hoping to leave our backpacks in a locker there. When we found out there were no lockers, we continued to the tourist information center (another 30 minutes), but unfortunately, it was closed at this time (it was already 7 o'clock on a weekend). After the long walk with heavy backpacks and little sleep on the bus, we sat down on a bench, exhausted, sweaty, and sticky. Suddenly, a friendly monk approached us and offered us his newly purchased breakfast, including hot tea, protein drink, and fried pastries. It was truly a great moment and an overwhelming and surprising twist of fate!

With new energy, we continued our search for a hostel for the next night, which we eventually found at a beautiful guesthouse called The Riverside Guesthouse. At this point, it should be mentioned that it's better not to be too spontaneous and at least reserve your hostel online a day in advance...

Without our backpacks, we set out to explore the temples and beautiful wooden houses in the Lanna style (such as Ban Saonak) in the nearby area, and improvised a short breakfast by the riverside.

By the way, Lampang is known for its horse-drawn carriages, which complement the tuk-tuks here.

In the afternoon, we were finally able to check in at the guesthouse and take a much-needed shower. Afterward, there wasn't much else to do but sit on the beautiful terrace by the riverside, relax, and enjoy some cool drinks. And indulge in our first Thai massage (foot massage) of the trip! It cost about 4€ per person for an hour, and we never stop complaining about how little physiotherapists earn...

In the evening, we strolled through the beautiful night market, where children (possibly from the local music school) played together in an uncoordinated manner.

The next day, we rented a scooter to visit the "Unseen Temple" Wat Chaloem Phra Kiat Phrachomklao Rachanusorn, which is about 60 km away. The journey there is worth it, as you won't have seen such a temple complex before. Unfortunately, the main stand of the scooter fell down after a heavy road bump, but we expertly reattached it with Tina's hair ties. Also, the fuel tank was closer to empty than we thought, but we managed to reach the next gas station with the reserve tank. From there, it wasn't far to the base station of the temple, where a jeep took us up the steep roads to a point 1 km away from the temple. The rest of the way was on foot but manageable. The entrance fee to the national park and the transport, as far as we remember, was 10 times higher for tourists than for Thais, but it was still only about 8€, and as mentioned before, it's worth it ;) Once we reached the top, we were greeted with a fantastic view of the white pagodas of the temple complex on the rugged cliffs of the national park's mountains! Moreover, this place exudes a wonderful tranquility, where one can sit and enjoy the shade of the bamboo trees. Since this temple is not mentioned in any travel guide we know of, we finally didn't have hundreds of tourists surrounding us. The tranquility only ends when, like us, you ring each bell and gong found on the temple grounds three times - which is said to bring luck :) and we need that luck since Tina's credit card got hacked... and Tina's sneakers didn't survive the ascent, which Thais typically do with flip-flops.

On the way back, we visited two more temples before returning to Lampang to pick up our luggage from the guesthouse. Once there, we enjoyed a small snack and cool cocktails on the beautiful riverside terrace (yes, there was ice included, Dad, but this bar was really trustworthy ;). Since there were no taxis available in the rush hour, we walked to the train station in a 40-minute forced march, hoping to catch the last train to Chiang Mai. With the arriving train, we purchased our super cheap tickets (1.30€ for a 2-hour ride) for the first class and ran into the surprisingly punctual train.

In Chiang Mai, we were once again greeted by persistent tuk-tuk drivers, but we decided to walk instead (about 30 minutes to our hotel). > We recommend getting a tuk-tuk or taxi, it's really inexpensive in Thailand and saves a lot of nerves...< In the lobby of the very well-maintained hotel, we were greeted by a cockroach and the receptionist tried to overcharge us a bit, but at that point, we didn't care anymore. After a refreshing shower, the world looked different again. Unfortunately, we suddenly remembered that we had left our only warm jeans, which we will still need at times during our trip, under the scooter seat when returning it... Thankfully, after some communication difficulties, the owner of our previous hostel agreed to send us the pants to our next accommodation. Just around the corner, we had a delicious meal and had some nice conversations with locals, which made the evening a nice conclusion.