Thailand - Chiang Mai

We arrived in Chiang Mai around 7am and then waded through the many taxi touts offering to drive us in to town at a mere 500% mark up.

Our destination was the Chiang Mai Plaza hotel, we were staying here as a treat. This was a real hotel! No shared bathroom, box sized room or hard bed. In fact you could have fitted all the guesthouses we had thus far stayed in into its lobby.

Check in was normally 2pm but on an off chance we went straight there to see if we could check in early, and we could which was great. We had a hot shower and a spacious bathroom and room and rested for a while. We couldn't have the complimentary buffet breakfast that day so we went into the old town to this lovely cafe that had a lush garden with tables in it and really good coffee which was roasted on site.

Then back to the hotel and the pool! So nice.

That evening we went to the night bazaar which was very close to the hotel. There were many stalls, but after seeing about 20 we noticed a repeating pattern. There are only a limited amount of products available, distributed over many stalls; dvds, clothes, jewellery, crafts, lamps, cushions were the main options.

Next day we gorged ourselves at breakfast with platefuls of bacon and crossiants, then needed time to re-cuperate in our room. We walked around a bit and then lounged by the pool for the afternoon. That evening we went for a massage at a recommended place. It was fantastic. The service and surroundings really good. Then we went for dinner at a trendy little courtyard restaurant/bar on a little side street of the old town. The atmosphere was amazing with local women coming around to the tables selling roses and everything lit by candles.

The temperature in Chiang Mai was at least 4 degrees below that of Bangkok and no where near as humid. There are a lot of trees around and the moat surrounding the old town is lovely (children swim in it so it can't be too dirty). We went for a nice big walk around the residential areas of the old town, ate mangoes (and saw them growing). On our last night (3 in total) we went to the French consulate where they show french films with english subtitles every friday night. We saw a really good film.

Next morning we had our last breakfast feast and then caught a mini bus to Pai, a town about 3 hours west of Chiang Mai, close to the Myanmar border.