Chaing Mai

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21.3.2012

We arrived in Chaing Mai at 13.00, 3 hours later than we had meant to. We got picked up by our hotel and taken there. We were staying in the old part of the city, which has a very old wall around it. It has narrow streets and lots of temples. The sky wasn't blue, it was hazy and smoggy. Apparently the farmers were burning all the old crops off all across northern Thailand, Laos and China. You couldn't smell smoke but you could sort of see it.

Once we checked in we went for a lunch at an amazing cafe called Blue Diamond. It was very quirky selling all home made cakes, icecream, pastries ect. We had fruit shakes a noodle curry soup and Thai fish cakes. It was delicious. We went for a walkk around the old city, visiting the biggest temple 'Wat Chedi Luang'. We had to wear dressing gowns to cover up as we were too exposed. It was very grand and ornate. Everything was gold coloured with one wall covered in gold Buddha's all different style's and size's. We visited the old temple behind it which was falling down. It was almost in ruin now, it had 4 elephants carved out of rock built into the side of the walls and Buddha's at the top. We walked around a bit more spotting monks in their orange robes annd made our way back to the hotel for an early night. M x

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