My oh my... Chiang Mai

Heading north, we spent 3 days toiling in Chiang Mai. We were rather worried upon departure due to lack of accommodation, despite contacting several guest houses. Upon arrival we had to laugh, every building is either a guest house, white man bar or travel agency selling overpriced treks into the wilderness. Blue House for 300 baht a night was our place of rest. As it's title- it was a big blue house recently bought for 54,000 US and updated with a little garden and of course a travel agency!

Rented bikes ( yes with baskets on the front!)to visit the numerous Wats and the moat that surrounds the old city. As there are no stop lights- nor traffic laws- and the tires were not exactly straight- riding the bikes was even more of an adventure- at times I felt like I was the frog in frogger. Simon and I found tranquility in amidst a Buddhist garden in the center of town. Each tree amongst the grove had a Buddhist saying in English and Thai. Such a lovely place to sit and reflect with the rays of sunshine filtering in.

Simon and I both wanted to experience a thai boxing fight during our travels. Having breakfast one morning- a small truck with a rigged up sound system was patrolling the streets blasting an advertisement for the boxing fights held every Wednesday and Friday. Our Guest house provided us deal tickets- saving us 50 baht. Having had enough of street meat and markets- we decided to treat ourselves to some fine dining- Italian! Well known in Chiang Mai for the best Italian food, Giorgio's tasted heavenly. Giorigo himself from Italy was there to oversee it all- including the wine.

The big Thai match turned out to be a round eye fest-everyone in the stands was from the west and the "big international" match was on Friday. This did not take way from the rawness of the matches. With concentration and determination in their eyes- the fighters pummeled and kicked their way to a defeat. Simon took some fantastic video which will be posted for your enjoyment.

Visted the night markets to puruse through all the glourious junk found everywhere in Asia. We mangaed to find a handmade textile sotre of the beaten path. There we purchased a gorgeous antique hand made tapestry and green shawl.