Chiang Mai, Thailand

The last few days in Bangkok were spent shopping and visiting the famous Wat Pho, which is the "Temple of the Reclining Bud-dha" as well as the Grand Palace. The reclining Bud-dha is magnificent it is housed in a huge temple building, the actualy Bud-dha is about 200 ft long, and it is painted gold. We were not allowed into the Grand Palace because there are hours when the locals are permitted, and then hours when tourists are permitted. We unfortunately landed up when it was only local people hours, so we walked around the Palace walls and took in the surrounding. We took a river boat up the Chao Phrao river, which winds through downtown Bangkok. The waters are brown, and very choppy, but you get to see some really great sites, like Wat Arun, which is the "Temple of Dawn". It is a beautiful structure with one large spire that is heavily adorned. It was on the opposite side of the river to the other popular temples and the Grand Palace, so we didn't make a stop. But we got some really good pictures of it!

This morning, we arrived in Chiang Mai and met our Tour Guide "Billy". He picked us up from the airport, he was waving one of those giant signs with my name on it. I've always wanted someone to do that! The hotel is really quaint, with all Lanna style designs. It will be our home for the next 5 days as the tour continues. Tomorrow we go to a visit a Thai Hilltribe in the local mountains and then to Home Industries to see how they make all the local Thai handicrafts.

We had lunch at this cute outdoor cafe next to the hotel. We feasted on Tom Yum Goong soup, Thai yellow curry, Thai red curry and pad thai. We have decided to order Tom Yum Soup everywhere we go, because it is honestly the most amazing soup. Yes Paul, even better than Young Thailand! The yellow curry was also crazy good, though it reminded me sort of South Indian Coconut curries, but more about that in the food blog!

The cost of renting a scooter for a day is 150 Baht, which is about 5 Canadian dollars. So Ray has decided he is going to rent one tomorrow, at least he has travel insurance!