Back in Thailand

Back in Thailand, for the second time of four visits, I believe? We landed in Bangkok and quickly hightailed it out of the city on the first train north to the cultural hub of Chiang Mai. Surrounded by an old brick wall the city is a lovely place to get lost and eat as much Thai food as humanly possible. While the city is pretty amazing, you would be missing so much if you didn't venture out. One of our days we hopped on our motorbike to explore some caves in Chiang Dao National Park 70km north of the city center. 

The next day we ventured out early in the morning to the Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. Easily the cities most famous temple built in 1383. Some how we woke up early enough to watch the sunrise above the city far below this lovely temple. 

Vroom Vroom

The great thing about renting random bikes from total strangers is that you never know what your gonna get. This bike was pimping with it's leopard patterned seat, worn down leather handlebars and hello kitty stickers on the front. Obviously this bike was a chick magnet as you can see, plus it got us where we needed to go. 

​Venturing out even farther from Hpa-An village took us to a few more caves, overgrown fields filled with buddhas and blue mountains reflecting in rice paddies. Overall our few days in Hpa-An we're jam packed and wonderful.  Much better than the 6+ hour bus ride to our next destination, Bago. 

Millions of Buddhas

The small town of Hpa-An is nothing to write about, but what is worth writing about is the countryside around this village: dotted with temples, caves, rice paddy fields, and ​limestone mountains it is eye candy beyond belief. The first temple we explored on our all day motorbike ride was a temple perched on a limestone rock. The views were breathtaking and a good start to our day. 

Knowing this was only the first stop of many we pushed on to a stunning buddhist cave of an exiled king. I was floored when I saw it, not only was it something we had never seen before it was beautiful. Little intricate carvings 40 - 50 ft up of buddhas. Thousands, no millions of buddhas were on display. It was beautiful in a painstakingly holy crap that king had a lot of time on his hands way; not in a tacky pile as many buddhas as possible kind of way. ​