Chiang Mai

Wat Phra Singh- the old city's most famous temple

Monks, monks, monks

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep- Northern Thailand's most sacred temple

Beautiful Temple

A moment of quiet by the jackfruit tree

View of Chiang Mai from Doi Suthep

Me and a dog friend

We're back in Thailand. The north this time. We have gotten a little lazy in this last stage of our adventure. We are hopping on planes instead of braving hours or in some cases days of travel on dusty, winding, potholed roads or rivers. So instead of the two day boat ride and one day bus ride to Chiang Mai from Laos we hopped on a plane and landed comfortably in less than an hour. We breezed through immigration and were at our guesthouse an hour later.

Chiang Mai has been really nice. Great old city with lots of Wats (Temples.) There is a very sacred Wat on Doi Suthep, the mountain overlooking the city. We took a sorngtaaou up there this morning to have a look at it and get great views of the countryside.  Mostly we've been wandering around looking at temples and markets and eating amazing food. We're getting a foot massage now and then (I think I have Mike hooked...)  Every Sunday there is a walking street in the old city so yesterday we checked that out. The main street is open only to pedestrians and vendors set up booths selling all kinds of handicrafts and food. We were able to meet up with a new friend we made back in India- an American who lives here with her German husband. Beccah and her husband, Stefan are expecting in July so the little baby bump we saw in January has grown quite a bit. They are an adorable couple and they've given us a lot of good advice for places to check out here and as we travel north.

Tomorrow we'll head further north to Chiang Dao for a few days. A quiet place on the way to Chiang Rai, we'll do some trekking, mountain biking and look at some caves. After, we'll head up to Chiang Rai where we hope to rent a motorbike and do a quick circle trip up to the Golden Triangle Area where Thailand, Burma and Laos meet. We have to be back in Chiang Rai by the end of the month for a flight to Bangkok, then another flight the next day to Bali. We decided to give Bangkok a pass this time since we were just there a couple of months ago and the political situation is a little iffy.

We booked our flight home today. After Indonesia we'll stop in Hong Kong for a few days before we fly back to Chicago. We leave Hong Kong at 1245 (am) and arrive in Chicago at 1030 (am) the same day after 23 hours of travel. Still having a hard time wrapping my brain around that.