Chiang Rai: White Temples and Night Bazaars

Chiang Rai, as Leon rightly put it, is a sleepy town (a bit like the area around TMC in Bangsar) but still with it's fair share of young backpackers and older tourists... lots of Thai women trying to entice poor Leon into their Lair to get a backrub, whilst throwing some evils over to me because they thought I was his Thai girlfriend (a theme that I think I'm going to have to get used to for the next 3 months!) Highlights of our time exploring this town have been the night bazaar which sells the usual trinkets and woolly hats, but also a place where everyone seems to go to for their evening meal. We had a really tasty hotpot with veg and seafood (100 Baht, so under 2 quid) and some tempura which was the best that I've ever had! We did a day of site seeing as well which included the White temple, which is a modern buddhist temple that has murals of the twin towers (NY), keanu reeves and star trek as opposed to your usual olden day murals... Then up to the Monkey caves (which was literally a cave with lots of monkeys around it). We made it to the Golden Triangle which was where the main trading between Burma, Laos and Thailand took place, and apparently a lot of opium being produced still across the waters in Burma. Then off to the Opium Museum to brush up on our history, then down to another temple before we drove back to our guesthouse for more night bazaar fun! That evening we played our first gig in the Cat bar, where Sam (the husband of Cat, who owns the bar) invites people to Jam With Sam (or for Sam, as we soon discovered) and sing your heart out. This was a dream come true, and whilst Leon strummed away on the guitar with one-toothed Sam, I belted out a few numbers including Hotel California, Yellow and Under The Bridge. I knew I'd manage to get my karaoke fix, one way or another!After stumbling back home to bed at 2 am, we were ready for our next part of the trip... Naga Hill Retreat...