Michael Jackson, The Predator & A Border Crossing

The last thing we did in Chiang Rai was visit the White Temple. We asked guest house lady to call us a taxi, but she asked one of her employees to do it instead! Which was fine with us.

The White Temple was … interesting. It is not that old, in fact it is still being built, and has some interesting details. Michael Jackson, Keanu Reeves, Spider-Man, Batman and the Predator all appear next to Buddha on the murals inside the temple. The bathroom is a golden palace. There is a moat of disembodied hands reaching up that you have to cross over going up to the temple.

Next we hopped a bus to Chiang Khan, which was a little more rustic than the last bus we were on. It dropped us off in an alley and roared off. We asked twice before we finally hailed a bicycle tuk-tuk to take us to Thai immigration office, where we got exit stamps on our passports.

Then we boarded a ferry, crossed the river in about five minutes, and arrived in Houayxay, Laos. After immigration, we walked up a hill, hung a right and found a place to stay. We walked around the town (which appeared to be one street), and ate supper next to our hotel. It started raining pretty hard, and it sounded kind of scary in our room in the middle of the night. It turns out that we were just surrounded by some tin roofs, making the rain extra noisome. Besides, I bet they are pretty experienced at boating in the rain around here!