In the battle of the Chiangs, Chiang Rai wins by a landslide over Chiang Mai.

For one, it's not filled with douchey foreigners. For two, there are taxis everywhere who won't scam you. For three, there's an awesome night market in the center of town with a beer garden. For four, you can actually walk to places.

The first stop was to the only real tourist thing of note, The White Palace. Or at least, the only thing I cared to see. The White Palace is weird in all the good ways. It was started by some artist back in the 90s, and is scheduled to be completed in 2070. That's not an exaggeration. So after arriving in Chiang Rai I immediately went to the platform going there - a blistering hot local bus with no ventilation. After arriving I met two Spanish girls also on holiday, so we explored together.

The White Palace is part art installation, part temple. The temple part was fine, and you'll have to take my word for it, but the walls of the temple were painted with Doreamon, The WTC Twin Towers, Angry Birds, and Star Wars. I say take my word for it cause they were super bitchy about pictures. Anyways, the rest of the temple away from prying guards was easier to snap shots of. It's actually one of the most impressively intricate things I've ever seen, so here are some photos.

 

After, I went back to my hostel which is super, super nice. I don't ask much from a hostel. I want soap in the shower, good WiFi, and electricity. This one passes with flying colors. It's also super clean, has free breakfast, and everything looks brand new. I met two people there, from Poland and Switzerland. We went out for a beer, and everyone was so awesome in fact, we decided to rent motorcycles together and biker gang it up to the Golden Triangle the following day.

The Golden Triangle is where Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand meet on the Meekong. It used to be a huge opium growing area, now its basically a tourist trap. Albeit an interesting one. It was about a 3 hour drive to get there, which is probably double the amount of experience I've ever had on a motorcycle. We stopped at a town first to see this old ruin. Then we had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the river. I asked for Khao Soi - 1 for me, 1 for Sandra. Marek ordered a salad. We got a pot of fish soup with rice.
Oooookay. Just roll with it? It actually was pretty good soup. After that it was onto the Golden Triangle itself. Basically, full of cheesy tourist souvenirs. You could also take a boat to an island with even more souvenirs, because that's fantastic? We declined, and walked around taking photos of this weird place.

On the road again, we passed a giiiiiant museum called the Hall of Opium. Markek heard it was cool. It was cool actually. An incredibly ornate facility designed by the Queen to educate people about the history and dangers of opium and other illegal drugs. Also I got to see real opium. It's a weird looking plant. They said no picture inside again, and there were security people in almost every room to enforce it. Why do you do this, Thailand? Why do you care if people take photos? So I got a selfie with this girl statue near the bathroom.

Anyway, the last stop was Mae Sai. A border town with a lot of character, we parked our bikes under the bridge to Myanmar. So it's for reals the furthest you can go in Thailand. It had a bustling market selling all sorts of trinkets, unusual food, and a steady stream of people coming and going. Myanmar seems interesting. Maybe that's next years destination.

And now after several hours of bike riding, I'm back at the hostel. The final destination is Sukhothai, the original capital of Thailand. Suck it, Ayutthaya.