Chillin in Chiang Mai

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Everyone said "You'll never want to leave Chiang Mai" and they were right! I'm tearing myself away to visit Pai for a few days before flying to Vietnam though. There are a lot of similarities between CM and Edinburgh believe it or not, and I think that's one of the reasons I feel very at home here.

I've been keeping very busy with temple-visiting, yoga, cycling, swimming, monk chat & meditation, thai cookery, movie-going, markets, trips to the Golden triangle (where Thailand, Myanmar & Laos meet) and of course, the odd thai massage! The live music scene here is great and I've been to see my yoga teacher's funk band a couple of times. I could go into the usual amount of detail, but it would make for a very long and rambling blog entry. So here's a wee bit of it anyway...

I picked Naomi (Edinburgh friend) up from the airport on Thursday after I'd put on my best dress and gone to the immigration office for a visa extension. I realised that I won't have time to visit Laos on this trip but I didn't want to risk any hassle over overstaying my visa.

Yesterday (20th) we hired bikes and cycled 5 kms out of town to the ancient city. After getting slightly lost and having to cycle down the highway for a bit (eek!) we found the "information centre" where we were met by a very enthusiastic girl who played us a 10 minute video about the founding of Chiang Mai, and showed us around a lovely wee museum. We ate some yummy chicken fried rice (the ordering of which required nearly all the Thai I know!) and cycled around some lush countryside to visit the excavated temples. The weather was very mild - perfect for some leisurely cycling. After some much needed chilling out, we hit the Sunday night market, which is HUGE! Lots of yummy street food and cool stuff to buy. We met up with a few of the people Naomi's going on a trek with for drinks - they all seemed lovely!

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