Fantastic day tour through Northern Thailand

Today we had a super nice 😊 day. We wanted to visit some highlights in the North 😬. Since all the tours included other spots, we wanted to do our tour with a private driver or with a moped. Since I absolutely can't get used to driving on the left side 🙈, I definitely didn't want to ride the moped. We decided to take a taxi 😊. It was also more relaxing with a private taxi, as the distances to the individual places were quite far apart😀.

We were very lucky😀 with our taxi driver. He gave us a fair price and also spoke great 👍 English.

The first destination was the White Temple, which was still relatively close. When we arrived, thanks to our driver we were already well informed about the history, etc. 😊. The temple was impressive and the exterior was beautifully designed. The White Temple is a very special temple. It was built by an artist and is supposed to embody heaven 😇 and hell 👹. So it's very different from the temples we have seen so far! The many Chinese tourists are annoying, they take photos and don't stop anymore🙈. And when it's your turn, they walk through your shot! Well, they don't know us yet, we can do that too 😇. Especially since we are at least 1 meter taller than them 🤣!

The taxi driver took us to the next destination. To a tea plantation, and I have to say, it was so beautiful there 🤗, I would have loved to stay there. The view and the surroundings were simply fantastic 😊. The tea plantations are located in the mountains. On the way there, the driver showed us various fruit plantations, such as small and large pineapples, strawberries, and passion fruit. We also learned everything about rice cultivation. That was really great😊👍!

Then we finally drove to the tea plantations, they were laid out like rice terraces in front of the mountains. Fantastic!!!! He showed us great viewpoints where we could take beautiful pictures 🤓😊. Then we walked up a small hill and were able to watch the workers picking tea. That was also a unique experience☺️! The only scary thing was that a supervisor was watching them 🙁!

The journey continued up a mountain🙃. We had to tackle countless hairpin bends in first gear 🤢! Once we arrived at the top, there was the villa of the Queen Mother and a beautifully landscaped flower garden. First of all, we looked at the villa. To our surprise, we had to stow everything in our bags🙁, including drinks and food. The phones had to stay in our bags, no photos were allowed in the villa. I found that quite drastic, especially since you can take pictures in every temple but not there. Well, the villa was definitely beautifully laid out. After the tour of the villa, we went to the garden. You could have spent hours there 🤗, it was so beautifully planted and designed. An oasis of peace. Our driver told us that 30 years ago, this region had opium fields and the king made sure that changed. Now there are coffee, tea plantations, clothing industries, etc. Many people have had jobs because of that!

After that, we went to my personal 🤗👍🐒highlight. To a cave, and if you're lucky, there are wild 🐒 monkeys there. Our guide told us to be careful because the monkeys could also be mean 🙃. Our guide probably thought, I better accompany the two girls and watch out for them. Luckily, because at the entrance, he took a bamboo stick and gave us one too. You should use it to scare away the intrusive monkeys 🙉. Then we already saw some monkeys climbing in the trees. Some were sitting on the rocks 🐒in front of their caves. I thought that was awesome. The guide said, you can buy peanuts here, then some will come, but BE CAREFUL! Said and done! Anke had a little bucket full of peanuts and lots of monkeys 🐒 came. First I threw the nuts in front of them, but I also let them take them from my hand 🤗. Oooooh, that was 👍😁cool. Then an alpha male came, he grabbed my bucket and tried to snatch it away from me 😂. A local woman chased him away with a stick. Then another monkey came, he held onto my shorts with both hands 🙉(short shorts). Hmmmm, that was okay, but when you hear beforehand that they can bite too, I got a little uneasy. When I offered him the next nut, he let go of my shorts 😬and ran away. I'm smiling right now because that was the best experience for me so far.

At the end of our tour, the Golden Triangle was on our plan. Here, 3 countries meet. Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand. It was another 65 km to get there and the drive was worth seeing 🤓. Our driver kept stopping so we could take pictures. The landscapes were fantastic.

The Golden Triangle was also very beautiful, but a real tourist magnet 😜! If it hadn't been so late, we would have taken a boat trip on the Mekong! It was time to go home! The trip took almost 2 hours due to traffic. It was a great birthday 😊 with impressive experiences 👍!

Many greetings from us 🤓😁

PS: Thanks a lot for all the lovely birthday wishes and greetings 🤗