By the time we left Chiang Mai and boarded the bus to Chiang Rai which took 3 1/2 hours we arrived after dark and didn’t really know which direction to head. We finally decided where to go and talked the taxi into using his meter to take us there (taxi drivers don’t like to use their meters as its so cheap they prefer to give you one price which is normally twice as much) our taxi driver couldn’t speak English but still communicated well with us pointing things out then giving us his map of Chiang Mai and making sure we got to the right destination, by the meter the taxi cost £1 for the 12-15 kilometre drive so we gave him £2 and he was absolutely delighted.

We soon sorted ourselves out and headed straight for the night market which had a huge selection of food, so we hunter gathered various things and to Matt’s surprise I came back with a huge BBQ fish which was so cheap and tasty. We wandered the market purchasing various little bits and then headed to the nearest bar. We met two other English couples and spent sometime chatting to them.
The next day undecided what to do, whether to look around or just head for the boarder of Laos. Matt finally decided he wanted to rent a motor bike and go in search of a waterfall, both ideas unsettled me a little but went along with his idea. We headed off on the bike taking a few wrong turns, headed twice down one way streets the wrong way! We soon found the highway and continued the search for a pure white wat and a waterfall. We arrive safely first at the white wat, it was beautiful and modern, same style as most other wats but it was white and had modern art drawings on the inside. Feeling more comfortable with Matt’s riding skills we went in search of a water fall, 20 km later we find the beginning of a 1.4km to the waterfall through a jungle! I felt quite apprehensive about the idea of trekking through but as we had made it this far I had to go and see it. It was worth the trek and I wasn’t too freaked about walking through. When we got close the spray soaked us very cooling but it men’t we had to leave our belongings at the top and I felt uneasy as Matts camera was in his bag, so I chose to stay and bag watch and take pictures whilst Matt went back down for a swim, hopefully I’ll get another chance to swim in one.
We headed back stopping for lunch and then the bus terminal to see when the buses leave for Chiang Khong the next stop before crossing the boarder. We got there at 3.45 and the next was at 4, so we dashed back left the bike back got our bags and hot footed it back to the bus station we managed to get there and where soon on our way on the 2 hr trip to Chiang Khong.
Once we arrived it was gone 6 and too late to cross the boarder. A friendly lady approach us offering us a lift to her guest house that was reasonably priced, served food and she gave a free lift in the morning to the boat crossing for Laos, so we were sold and on we hopped to the back of her pick up truck, I loved the relaxed way of getting around in Thailand, you often see people piled on the back of trucks and families of 4/5 on mopeds! We arrived at the guest house, it was fairly average but the food was good and plenty of people to chat to.