The weather app said that by noon it will be 37 but will feel like 41. That is a bit cooler than yesterday…. phew!

20 years ago there were no traffic lights, now 4, nice town large govt buildings and a airport.

The city is called smog capital. Winter smog is caused by fog, rainy season is smog, hot season is from fires. Small airport… 2 flights a week but many times cancelled because of smog.

Chedi are the small structures around edge of temple. Pagoda style… rings on main indicate it is Burmese style, no ring lines are Thai.

I forgot to mention yesterday that the Hmong hill tribe don’t want to keep the tradition of the rings to make necks long because they don’t want the younger generations to be ostracized.

Fish Cave (Tham Pla) the water is said to be holy. The water was used in the coronation of the king (in 2019). The fish are Mahseer, a type of barb or carp. The Thai people have different names that translates to “crazy fish” cuz it causes you to be sick and/or crazy. They are poisonous. The largest ever caught was 1.5 metres long. They are said to be green/brown and black but to us they looked blue…. Depends on surrounding environment apparently. In the rainy season the Pai River becomes very muddy and water from the Fish cave is clear so have a distinct separation of colour.

Tham Lod Cave was spectacular with huge rooms of limestone stalagmites and stalagmites. Went for a ride through part of the cave on bamboo rafts. You sit on a stool that is no more than 4 inches of the deck…. and then had to turn around when we changed direction. I would say most difficult. While in there we could see thousands of bats. One pooped Helen which she didn’t exactly appreciate.

Walked up 304 step up and 304 steps down to see the sunset from Wat Phrat Mae Yen Buddha temple in Pai.

We are in a most gorgeous hotel in Chiang Rai right now called Laguna. I am trying to catch up with my blog from yesterday and today but unfortunately this place only allows one device on wifi at a time. That is difficult to coordinate pictures snd my notes that are on two different devices. So, I will send the pictures from my other device 🤬