6) Chiang Rai - chilling northern city and the stunning white temple

At the evening of 28.11. I arrived in Chiang Mai. I enjoyed some shopping at the great nightmarket before I went to sleep.
The next day I visited the city starting at Wat Jet Yot, further to the clock tower and seeing the morning market which was not really worth it. After the morning market I saw a parade on the streets. Looked like Students from University made up a big parade with mixed topics. One was the traditional Lanna culture. Other were worn-out topics like global warming, aids, drugs, etc.
After watching the parade I continued my way to Wat Phar Kaew, which houses some fine Buddhist sayings: "The most miserable act in ones life is jealousy", "One can maintain peace of mind is happy", "The most of suffer will build a stronger you". Unluckily most sayings were not translated... While pondering about the sayings on my way down I was suddenly shocked to the heart as a next to my foot a 1m long green snake rises and goes "ssssss!"... just before my heart stopped beating it turned around and made it way down the stairs where it came from, and I followed it slowly :P
After that shock I made my way to Wat Phra Singh and Wat Klang Wiang.
Then I checked out and caught a bus towards Wat Rong Khun - the white temple. And wow... it is by now the most beautiful and bizarre temple I have seen. In sparkling white it can shock you with some bizarre sculptures of hell. But most stunning were the paintings inside the temple: 11.09.2001 in the fangs of oil industry, more scenes of terrorism, sex trading and that mixed with spiderman, neo, batman, superman, transformers, star wars, saw and many more. Unluckily not allowed to take photos inside :(
After seeing the temple and the nearby galleries I flagged down the next bus and wanted to go to Chiang Mai... but unluckily the first bus just went until Mae Khachan, where I jumped on the real bus towards Chiang Mai^^

Clock tower

Parade

Wat Phra Kaew

Wat Klang Wiang

Wat Rong Khun - the white temple

5) Luang Nam Tha - villages in a nice countryside

After a horrible bus ride (it must have been 5°C in the bus and the road conditions were gruel) I arrived in Luang Nam Tha 4am in the morning (27.11.). I just fall asleep at the bus station... but 1h later I took a tuktuk to Zuela guesthouse and I was lucky that someone opened the door and gave me a room. I was freezing and after some hours of sleep I woke up with fever... lucky me :P
Anyways... 1 pill and a hot soup later I jumped on a bicycle and went for tour around the town. The tour brought me from the museum to That Luang Nam Tha, placed on a hill. And from there through many small ethnic minority villages to That Phoum Pouk, located on another hill^^
I enjoyed the scenery around the villages and rice fields. It was harvesting time, so all the villagers were out to get in the crop and burn the leftovers. Kids playing at the river and farmers trashing the rice... the mountains in the background gave a nice ambience and the tiny villages and dirty road made the old countryside feel perfect :)
About 25km later I was back to Luang Nam Tha and enjoyed dinner at the night market.
The next morning I took a minibus to Huay Xai, which is located at the Mekong and serves as border town to Thailand. First I enjoyed the colourful Wat Chome Khaou Manirat and it's view over the town towards Thailand. After lunch I crossed the border to Chiang Khong, Thailand, from where I took the bus to Chiang Rai.

Luang Nam Tha Museum

That Luang Nam Tha

That Phoum Pouk

Harvesting time :D

Colourful Wat Chome Khaou Manirat, Huay Xai