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Published: December 16th 2007
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Day 9 & 10
December 14th, 2007 to December 15th, 2007
After the short flight from Bangkok, we touched down in Chiang Mai and caught a cab to our hotel Yang Come Village. The hotel itself was very beautiful with very lush landscaping and lighting. The other nice thing about this hotel is that it is right around the corner from Chiang Mai’s Night Bazaar. The downside to our particular room was that it was full of mosquitoes. Each night we spend about an hour mosquito hunting before going to bed. We couldn’t figure out how they were getting into the room until we were about to check out when I noticed the bathroom vent did not have a screen on the outside. Anytime the bathroom light was turned on, the fan would also come on and suck mosquitoes into the room.
Fortunately, as a paranoid traveler and a mosquito magnet, I had brought along my handy-dandy mosquito tent and it proved very useful in this situation. As I setup my mosquito proof compound, Steven just stood there with a “are-you-really-going-to-sleep-in-that-thing” look on his face. (No photos please.) Just for the record, I slept inside the tent, Steven
slept outside the tent and neither of us got bit.
After checking in, we decided to visit Chiang Mai’s famous. Night Bazaar. The Night Bazaar is a big maze of vendors with some cultural dancing thrown in for good measure. Unlike what was sold by street vendors in Phuket, it seemed that Chiang Mai’s vendors were really focused on fruit and crafts. The vendors were also much less aggressive than those found in other cities in Thailand. Overall, the place is much more laid back than the other Thailand cities we visited.
Day 10:
We woke up around 6:30 to breakfast and then headed out to our tour once the tour guide arrived. Our first stop was at an Orchid farm. Never knew there were so many varieties of Orchids! Then we were off to an Elephant camp where we fed elephants and watched elephants do various tricks. One even painted a picture although it looked like his trainer was providing a significant amount of artistic input. After that we had a very jarring ride on the back of an elephant and then rode a bamboo raft down a meandering stream. (Our version of white water rafting.)
Next we were off to Chiang Mai’s Doi Suthep temple. The temple sits atop a mountain with amazing views of Chiang Mai below. Definitely worth the trip. Finally, we convinced our tour guide to take us to Chiang Mai’s major market area in Chinatown where we stocked up on fruit and various other foods. Overall, Chiang Mai seems to be a much more livable city than either Bangkok or Phuket. Seems cleaner, better organized, slower paced, and artsy. Very nice.
Tomorrow we are off to Luang Prabang Laos. We visited a few years ago and really look forward to returning to this charming small town.
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