We did it!! Day two in Thailand and we already got our Visas extended. If you’re asking yourself why on earth we needed to, read the previous blog.

So we found ourselves this morning making a trip to the embassy to get another pretty stamp allowing for 30 additional days in this gorgeous country. Photocopies were made, photos were taken under hideous lighting, everything was stapled together, including your 2000 Baht note, and off you go. “Miss Muriteh Mer – eh – Netherland?”. Yes, that would be me. Two hours, 4000 Baht, and we’re out the door. Easy peasy. If only China would have been this effortless.

Having only wasted half a day, we decide to do the most original thing we could think of; visit some temples. Because you know, only about half the city consists of them. Despite their common presence, they’re not quite as common in the way they look. Glistering golden details and Buddhas the size of a ten story building surround us as we walk bare foot on the red carpet that stretches across Wat Chedi Luang temple. Monks in orange dress walk by, smartphones in hand, while visitors take time for an elaborate selfie-stick photoshoot in front of every Buddha statue cross. I feel for them, it must be a time-consuming activity in this country.

In line with our stereotypical tourist day, we decide to get a Thai massage. Relax, get rid of those tense muscles from all that traveling, the backpacks… just lovely. Quite the opposite turned out to be the case. We suffered. Potentially among the most painful things I’ve endured let me tell you. Our masseuses really went for it. Backs cracking, muscles twitching, faces hardly able to hide the pain we’re in. Our torturers worked in silence so all we could hear was the soft cracking of other peoples’ joints and one lonely woman sounding like she was in some kind of alternate erotic universe.

In the back of my mind I can hear myself say ‘it’s alright this is good for you, they know what they’re doing’, yet my body tells me otherwise. I guess we can only really tell tomorrow…

Until then, here’s some pretty pictures of temples.