Thailand Annotated....Stop 3: Chiang Mai Part I

Chaing Mai, as I said before was our favorite place. (Mine for sure, Dinah might be more on the fence.) It was such an exciting city and we were in the perfect part of it for us. We stayed at Baan Orapin, which was just west of the River that is considered the border of the town. That means there aren't a lot of hotels, hostels or places that tourists stay around where we were. But, because of the amazing views of the town from the river, there are a lot of great places to eat right on the river. Every night we were there we got good food (some of it western, as I this is where I started craving french fries and club sandwhiches) and amazing views.

The room we had at our place was a beautiful cabin that shared a wall with another cabin. The walls were thick enough that we didn't here the people next door, which is really nice. And the room (which turned out to be an upgrade from what we asked for!) was great. It was another room (like the one in Sukhothai) where we really had room to move about freely. (The first place (in Bangkok) was great. It was a split level room in which the bed was on the top floor and the rest of the living area was below. From the bed you could see Wat Arun across the river. They lit up the Watt at night and it was a nice view, but the room felt odd to me.)

We were in Chiang Mai the longest. Four nights, if my math is correct. But we had some activities planned for the last two days we were there. I'm gonna post pics/videos of those two trips separately, because I just want to emphasize here how awesome Chiang Mai is.

Now, the city itself is very cosmopolitan. There are places offering pretty much anything a tourist would want in a foreign country. Good food from any number of cuisines and countries, knick-knacks, postcards, sun tan lotion. It's tourist-friendly, but without seeming to be tourist dominated. Most the people on the street were Thai and the city and its sites were not separated, but instead were comingled. The same was true for Bangkok, but Chiang Mia is so much smaller that the chaos of being in foreign country (coupled with the fact that we'd been there for over a week now) less in your face.

Here's a picture of Dinah at the city gates of Chiang Mai.

Unfortunately, this is also where Dinah and I (mostly I, truthfully) became out-Watted. I think it happens anywhere you go that if you see a lot of one kind of building, no matter how interesting and beautiful they may be, you get sick of them. The appeal starts to be lost and you just see another Watt. The lone

exception was the Watt in the mountains that overlooks the city.

I think there was just one other Watt we saw the rest of the time we were there.