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Published: March 7th 2011
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Despite my late night, I managed to get up early and enjoy breakfast at our guesthouse before heading out to finally see the city. It's my third and final day here and it's about time I did that!
A friend recommended a restaurant to me, which I was delighted to discover was one I'd been walking past each day thinking, "Wow, I should eat there!" So lunchtime it was. It was a vegetarian place called Taste of Heaven--and the name fits. I had a dish called Kao Soy, a curry soup with tofu, mushrooms, other veggies, and then topped with crunchy fried onions. I had a papaya shake to go with it. At one point, a gust of wind blew over my umbrella on me and my shake; I was fine, but I can't say the same for it. The restaurant kindly made me a new one and helped me move to a different table. I lounged for way too long, just relaxing and taking the garden in. A leisurely meal in a beautiful setting is one of the joys of vacation!
I finally set out to see the city, feeling very full. The plan was to see the
wats and wander around the city. Chiang Mai is small enough that you can walk anywhere but large enough that there's no way you can see all of it. I had a map in hand and behind the city walls I went. Chiang Mai has the remains of a wall around the central part of the city and a moat around that.
I found and visited quite a few wats, some on my map, many not. Because of the heat, I'd stupidly worn a tank top, thus meaning I couldn't go into any of the wats without buying a scarf to cover my shoulders. Fortunately, I remembered that shoes need to come off and I was prepared for that. (Though, I only brought one pair of shoes on my trip, ones that are easy to slip on and off.) Most of the wats were just neighborhood temples with locals coming by for prayers, but a few were more touristy and had signage in English.
I managed to go from knowing exactly where I was to successfully lost in about two minutes due to the windy roads and apparently incomplete map. Trying to find my way back to an
Bit of Heaven
The garden in back was bliss. area that looked familiar, I discovered something interesting. There are jokes that in Thailand about the number of 7-11s per city block, it's only true in the areas tourists might happen to be; areas with no tourists have no 7-11s. I knew my time being lost had come to an end when I saw a 7-11 and made a run for it. (I was really hot and thirsty.) I had walked further than I meant to, ending up by a market along the eastern river.
I went back to the guesthouse and met everyone for dinner around 7pm. We accidentally found another LP recommended restaurant and it was amazing. I had spring rolls and a pumpkin curry with shrimp that was to die for. I washed it down with a honey milkshake.
Colin, Sally, and I walked to the north gate of the city, enjoying the cool night air. A friend of our from Peizheng had recommended a jazz club and we thought it would be a nice end to our city visit. We made the happy hour cut-off by five minutes and the jazzy rock started about thirty minutes later. The place was packed by the time
we left.
We walked home via the night market in the middle of the city and then stopped for banana pancakes at a tiny stand outside a wat near our guesthouse. I was surprised by the crowd the tiny cart had attracted on an otherwise seemingly empty street. The banana pancakes were as good as I remembered from last year and were the perfect note to end the evening on.
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