Jumping onto the local sorng tao buses yesterday we were dropped off at the impressive South Gate to the city wall of Chiang Mai. It was to be the start of a full on tour of the city centre which which had thus far failed to achieve despite staying nearby for over a week.
We approximated the lonely planet walking tour but focused on some key objectives.
1) a shop selling items made by street children to begin our souvenir hunt.
2) lunch at the blue diamond cafe
3) escaping the heat at the air conditioned cultural museum
4) visiting the Wat for monk chatting
5) finishing souvenir buying in the night market
Ihave to sau that given we have a young family, they have really come along during our trip. If we had asked them to walk this much in one day back in June it would have caused a cacophony of wailing before we were even half way round.
Lunch was delightful, I had a handsome tuna and avocado salad washed down with hill tribe coffee.
Walking to the cultural centre we were acutely aware that Chiang Mai is a traveller haven and on those streets the backpackers are in the majority.
Following a top up on the history of Chiang Mai and the Lanna Kingdom we felt that we were going to expire before the day was done
We therefore made a stop at Central Plaza Mall because we all thought the afternoon/evening activities would go more smoothly with a rest and an ice cream.
Chatting to the monks was neat and we spent nearly an hour discussing the teaching of meditation, objectives and moralities.
By the time we got oto the night market we were hungry and my nemesis awaited. There is a food court procedure here that I will never understand the benefit of. You cannot buy food with cash. You have to convert cash to coupons and then spend the coupons. It is utterly pointless in this age and I spent 30 mins dancing between stalls, cashier booths and the separate place to purchase drinks. I will not miss that element of Asia at all.
The night market was fairly predictable so I will close to say we had a full and fulfilling day.
[geolocation]