Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai was everything that we hoped it would be. After loud brash Bangkok this had a much calmer feeling to it, more like a small town that a 2nd major city. It had a historical aspect to it that had been in many ways swallowed and lost in Bangkok, with the 5 square mile ‘old town’ area surrounded by a crumbling defensive wall and moats which were apparently built 700 years ago to keep the Burmese out. What was also wonderful about it was it was a little cooler than in Bangkok meaning that the average temperatures were early 30’s rather than late 30’s early 40’s. It felt much more bearable and it made us want to be more active than when we were in Bangkok. We decided to rent bikes for the day and tour the city, exploring the many temples and checking out the town and park. It was lovely to cycle round, peaceful and quite pretty except for the occasional western takeaway place (like Mike’s Burger Bar which proudly claimed to have been converting vegetarians for 28 years!). We went to Wat Phra Singh which had beautiful murals and carvings, and is considered the top temple in the Chiang Mai city. It was built in 1345 and ended up to be a wonderful spot to watch the rain from. It proved in my opinion to be just as special a place in the rain with all the water cascading from the roof tops, the tranquillity of the surroundings accentuated with the sound track of the pouring rain.
In addition to this temple we went to Wat Suan Dok, this again was beautiful and had a 500 year old bronze Buddah, which we marvelled at and then jumped on our bikes and headed back to the hotel. I could go on about these temples for ages – but I’m sure it would bore you all senseless – much better that I bore you with the endless amount of pictures instead! They will do them justice far better than I will with my ramblings! We also cycled to watch the sunset in the park which was a great spot to watch the locals too, and headed home very pleased with our self propelled tour, although it became more stressful on the way home as once it turned dark we soon realised that bicycles don’t come with lights or reflectors here!