Lofalitsidwa: 02.09.2017
Today will be the last day in Thailand. Our plan is to drive to the Thai-Laotian border today and cross it tomorrow.
But on the way to the border, we want to stop in Chiang Rai to visit the White Temple. Our research has shown that there is a tour that includes everything we want (White Temple in Chiang Rai, border crossing to Laos, river cruise in Laos, all for 50 dollars).
So we booked this offer and were picked up by a driver in our hostel this morning. After a few stops in the city, where new passengers joined, we left Chiang Mai. The driver was driving as if he was in a race. It was better not to look out the window, otherwise we would see what was coming towards us while we were overtaking at least 3 cars at the same time on the wrong lane. Everyone seemed to be Sunday drivers, according to our driver's opinion. But somehow we survived the drive and arrived in Chiang Rai shortly after noon. We had 30 minutes to admire the 'White Temple'. Due to the tight time and the horrendous entrance fee, we decided to only visit the temple from the outside.
After another 4 hours of driving, we were all glad to have arrived at our destination and to still be alive. We checked into our hostel and spent a cozy evening with the rest of the small group. Since it was low season, the landlord told us that he only had 10 bottles of beer in the bar. These were quickly gone with 6 people.
When we wanted to take a shower before going to sleep, a sign warned us that the hot water was really hot.
Well, in reality there was no hot water, only cold. Well, we laughed.