Wat Tham Pla (Monkey Temple)

Wat Tham Pla is a cave temple in Mae Sai district in the far north of Chiang Rai province, and nearly everyone calls it the Monkey Temple. Every day a troop of macaques comes down from the hill to take the food visitors throw, and the monkeys know exactly what they're doing. They'll grab things out of your hands and go through parked cars and scooters, so keep food out of sight and bags closed.

Past the monkeys, the temple runs into the hill through dim tunnels and musty stairs, with bats, a garden of hell sculptures, the fish cave the temple is named for and a dark Buddha cave. The fish cave itself is a pond of fish and gets lukewarm reviews. The better payoff is the steep staircase out of the dark onto a balcony with a wide view. It sits on the road north to Mae Sai and the Myanmar border, so it fits a day trip that way.