Chiang Rai

I arrived in Chiang Rai feeling on top of the world, this being the first day of true recovery! I ate acidic fruit again, I consumed dairy products again, hell -- I even ate spicy food and I added additional peppers! Horrible idea. I was sick again for 3 days after that, but without blood filling my toilets, I didn't much care. Mostly I was disappointed in spending 4 days eating nothing but bananas, peanuts, and steamed rice.

Finally, having mostly re-recovered, I rented a motorbike and drove about 130 km around Chiang Rai province and it was exhilarating. The first three photos you see were at the end of my day driving up and down the Mae Kok River, as well as several dirt roads branching off from the "main" road.

Next you will see three images taken in the middle of my motorcycle ride. Here I visited the White Temple. As in many temples, photography within the temple itself was strictly forbidden and I was therefor unable to post images of the vast mural of demons and vices on the back wall. In this mural the main demons eyes enshrine the images of George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden for their disregard for innocent life. This is still a work in progress, but you can see that the side walls will contain images of Buddhist devotees and kind souls praying and being wafted on wisps of wind towards the great Buddha that sits at the front of all Wats. Sitting in front of the Buddha image you will often see followers of Buddha in meditation. And in this case there was also an actual elderly monk in meditation in front of this.

Three photos that follow the temple are of Khun Korn National Park and the waterfall with its namesake... or perhaps it is the park with the namesake of the falls. It was pretty 1400 m walk to the falls. The waterfall was not as thunderous as some, but the force of the water as it hit the shallow pond below was enough to send tornadoes of mist shooting off here and there. The mist encompassed and drenched everything within perhaps 100 meters. I attempted to approach the the base but found myself unable to see of breath due to its intensity. I walked back to my motorcycle positively drenched from the attempt.

Lastly you will see me eating some sort of insect in the Chiang Rai Night Bizarre, a leaf that caught my eye while walking up to the falls, and an alley within the Wat Phra Kaew complex. This temple had more strays than perhaps any other Wat I had been to thus far. Generally you will see 3 or 4 dogs in a given temple complex that roam around most of the day. Here there were closer to 20.