Last Few Weeks: Chiang Rai, Muay Thai & Last Day of School

So my last couple weeks in Thailand are coming to an end. Today was the last day of teaching. Not that any teaching really happened; pizza party and movies instead. It was a great day, but an emotional one. Many of my female students were in tears, as they know I am soon to be heading back home to Canada. I got the most amazing compliments from them and had a lot of them sign my yearbook. It was lovely. Made me tear up.

But before this, a couple weekends ago, Ryan and I went out one night with my friends  Anna, Lynn, Leah and Megan. We had a blast. We hit up the night bazaar for some cheap foods, and then headed to the lady boy cabaret. It was a lot of fun. And I will definitely miss nights like that when I go home.

I had taken the Monday off of work, so Ryan and I went up to Chiang Rai on Sunday afternoon. I really wanted to show him the White Temple, one of my favourite things I have seen in this country. We took a 3 hour bus ride from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai. The bus ride was not too bad, but we decided to have a nap when we got to our hotel. All of the sudden, mid-nap, Ryan woke up and opened his camera bag. He had forgotten his camera battery in the charger, at our apartment in Chiang Mai. The whole reason we came to Chiang Rai was for him to get some pictures of it. We quickly hopped into a tuk tuk and headed to the mall to see if we could find a battery for his camera. Unfortunately not one of the camera stores or department stores carried the right battery for the model he owned. But Ryan realized that he could buy a battery grip (which he wanted anyways) and use AA batteries in it. So we searched and found one, for cheaper than he would get at home as well. We hopped in another tuk tuk to take us back to the hotel to pick up Ryan's camera gear, and then he took us to the White Temple. Apparently I put one of the batteries in the wrong way to the battery grip, which Ryan figured out and eventually got to take some really good pictures. Meanwhile I took my usual iPhone pictures, but it was amazing to see it again. We wandered the night bazaar in Chiang Rai that night and headed back to the White Temple again in the morning, as we were not able to actually enter it the night before. After an hour or so at the temple, we caught the bus back to Chiang Mai.

Pylon at White Temple

On the gate at the White Temple

White Temple

White Temple: Wat Rong Khun

Pylons at White Temple

Painted on the inside of the White Temple

Painted on inside of White Temple

White Temple

Ryan at White Temple

Last weekend, we went out to a rooftop bar in Chiang Mai on the Friday a met a lovely couple from the Netherlands. We ended up staying out for awhile chatting with them and waiting out the rain. We met up with the couple the next day, and we were all going to ride up to Tiger Kingdom. A lovely man with a 'minibus' gave us a good offer ($6 CAD) for all of us, to take us there, and anywhere else we wanted along the way. So we hit up a crocodile show. It was pretty cool, as the people put their head in crocodile's mouths and such. They asked for volunteers to come in and get their pictures taken with the crocodiles. So I went in and got some pictures posing with one. Then we headed to Tiger Kingdom. Ryan and I picked the package where we got to go in with three different sized tigers. He got a lot of pictures of me, him, and both of us, with the tigers. It was amazing. So cool. Then that night I finally got to see a real Muay Thai fight at the Thapae Boxing Stadium. Bridget and Leah met up with us, and after we hit up the bars for some live music and dancing. My favourite little boy selling flowers was there, as he usually is. We gave him a few hundred baht, cause he is so adorable. It was a great last Saturday out.

Sitting on the crocodile

Tigers fighting over the water hole 

Tiger sticking its tongue at me

So excited about tiger cubs

Petting the tiger

Ryan and I with the baby tigers

My favourite kid, Jack, with ridiculous bracelets

Muay Thai fight

Ryan arm wrestling Thai kids

Last night Ryan and I went on a shopping spree for everything we wanted from the night bazaar, as well as souvenirs for people we hadn't bought anything for yet. We scored some sweet deals and got some pretty awesome things. Saturday morning we leave for Singapore and I am super excited!