Sept 1st, third border run who knows how many more to go....

My roommate, Kelly, and I had to do a border run so we decided to make it worth while. I asked around school to see if any of my co-workers were up for a trip. We rented a van and letf Chiang Mai around 7:15am. It is approximately a 3 to 4 hour drive.



Everytime I do a border run, I am amazed at the scenry around me. It is so beautiful here! I don't think rice paddies will ever lose their charm and beauty.


Our first stop was the white temple. The architecture is amazing, well planned, and has amazing grounds But the reality of it was very sad, see below to what I mean.



To get up to the temple at the front entrance you have to cross over a bridge. On either side of the bridge, there is a pit (hell) , in which tormented hands are reaching up for help. It is creepy, really. I was told by a Thai lady, people will enter the temple and pray for those in hell and then the "boss" will lower a rope and let those people out of hell.







From the white temple, our next stop was to feed the monkeys. I really like this part, Kelly on the other hand was not thrilled at all.






After running out of peanuts to feed the monkeys, we went walking around.



We found these stairs.


None of us wanted to pay to rent for each one of us to have a flash light, so between 5 people we had one flashlight.
So we ventured up and into the cave.....

me and the stalagmite...or is it tite?


It was really dark in there! Even with one light, we couldn't see much. There were puddles all throughout the cave and I didn't come prepared....my shoes had no traction at all, I was slipping and slidding all over the place. Kelly actually got a shot of me almost biting it! If Joe hadn't been there I would probably would have gone down.



I am sorry to say that we don't have a picture of Kelly after she totally bit the ground at the mouth of the cave. She completely wipped out and had mud caked on all over her butt. It was funny!

After lunch, our next stop was for Kelly and I go across into Burma. It was fun to have someone to go with me this time.




After buying Kelly some fishermen pants and flip flops to change into, we then decided to climb the steps.....all 207 of them. (yes I counted)


Apparently, we aren't in as good of shape as what we thought....




Burma in the background....


Back down...who knows how many calories we burned....





We decided to go on the long boats over to Laos. While putting on our life jackets, Kelly asked "why is mine wet?". We soon found out that you actually get wet on this ride....



And there, we found ourselves in Laos....



My hightlight of Laos, were the little kids there. Kelly and I spent some time with them, mostly letting them take pictures with Kelly's camera and then seeing the picture that they took. They loved it. I wanted to take them home with me....



All in all a good day. We were really tired and I think most of us slept on the way home. We got in at 10pm...a long, eventful, memory making day!