June 10, Transition day

We got around having our Javas and breakfast of Muesli and yogurt. Then we packed up and checked out by 1000. Bye bye to ABIZZ Hotel.

We decided to go to two Wats in town, before leaving, as we had not been been to either yet. The first one- Wat Si Khom Kham, with its big, golden Buddha. According to the placard – ‘the temple houses the largest Chiang Saen style Buddha in Lanna… The image has a lap span of 14 meters and is 18 meters in height.’ We walked about this complex. There is a building set up on stilts and appears to be surrounded by the lake – but we discovered it is not(just a pool). We saw some locals come a deliver some live fish to the lake. It has some significance to Buddhist Thai people. We now left and went to a second temple, Wat Si Chom Rueng. This one we had passed by many times – it has a gold colored Chedi that is so very prominent. The main temple was closed so we meandered about a little and then loaded up to leave. As we were leaving we saw there was some sort of meeting or class going on.

We left the town of Phayao by 1050. Now we puttered up and meandered about towards Chiang Rai. Several times we attempted to stop at sites along the way but the on and off again rain detoured us. So we pretty much just drove up to our destination.

By 1300, we had arrived in Chiang Rai, our destination for the next five nights. Chiang Rai is the northern most province of Thailand. We googled “pizza places” and stopped for lunch at Hungry Wolf’s Restaurant. We had pizza in mind, but we when we saw the menu – we each went for a sandwich! I had a Honey Chicken Crunch, which was a roasted and fried chicken filet with honey, garlic mayo, tomato, Parmesan cheese, basil pesto on a sourdough bread. I also had a mocktail Mojito and we shared French fries. Jeff had a Beef Reuben, which was made with in-house corned beef with Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, thousand island dressing on sourdough bread. He also had a Chang Beer. The bill came to 1000 THB, which was $30.66 and totally not Thai prices! But it was a lot and very good!

We finished by 1330 and now went to check into our accommodation- Nanadoo Homestay. We will be here five nights. The place has Bunny Rabbits, and turtles – it seems we are the only ones here. The lady upgraded our room, she said, since we will be here for five nights. The room is a glorified studio with a loft, that I doubt I will even go up into – as there is no need.

All checked in, we unloaded some and went back out to Wat Rong Suea Ten, meaning “Dancing Tiger Waters” or affectionately known as the Blue Temple, as so many call it. We went inside the main temple. It had a large, very white sitting Buddha – 6.5 meters high with a five meter lap span (over 21 feet high by 16 feet wide). We then walked all about the very blue temple complex and paid 50 THB each ($1.53) to go into a museum about the temple. Information stated… The temple itself was just built in 2005 with a monastery and completed in 2016 (There are still structures being added, though). Also inside the museum, there were statues, carvings, and pottery. We were told our ticket would give us a free postcard. So when we finished the museum we got a postcard each. That was nice – been a long time since we had one. We finished, and left the temple complex.

We went back to our homestay. We checked out the place more and petted some of the bunnies. Sunset did not really pan out. We had pineapple, bread and peanuts for supper, and watched some YouTube. Bed by 2200.