Today went much better than yesterday. Todd and I woke up early to catch a cab from the hotel to the Don Mueang airport for our flight to Chiang Mai, and after a little price negotiation with our cab driver we arrived with plenty of time to spare before our flight. Last night we decided that we wouldn’t have breakfast at the hotel, in order to give ourselves extra time to get to the airport, so upon our successful check-in we decided to grab a bite to eat before our flight. We ended up at a nice restaurant outside the security zone; I had chicken pad Thai while Todd had an American breakfast (eggs, bacon and ham). The flight to Chiang Mai was uneventful, there was a slight bit of turbulence but that was it. I finished ‘Matter’, one of the Culture novels by Ian Banks, on the flight; the ending was one of his more suspenseful ones, with more action than is typically present. I enjoyed it none the less.
After arriving in Chiang Mai we successfully checked into our hotel, the Sira Boutique hotel, located just inside the moat in the old town, near the north gate. It is surprisingly nice inside, the room is neatly appointed and clean. The bed is pretty hard, which has been typical for the hotels we have stayed at during the trip. I guess that hard beds are a thing in Asia. I took a small break to put a cold towel on my still-sunburned shoulders, after which we left the hotel and started out on a walking tour of old Chiang Mai. The city itself is much more picturesque than either Patong or Bangkok, and much cleaner.
We visited about a dozen temples during the course of the afternoon; apparently there are over 300 in Chiang Mai. We certainly won’t be able to visit them all, but we saw some of the major ones. One of the temples we visited was Wat Chiang Man, the oldest temple in Chiang Mai. We also visited Wat Chedi Luang, which is where the Emerald Buddha that we saw in the Royal Palace used to be located. We also visited Wat Phra Sing. We went on a bit south of the old town to find Wat Chai Mongkhon, then had a brief break as we sat on a bench outside the temple, looking out over the Ping river. We walked back to the hotel by way of the Chiang Mai night market, which was just being set up (the sun went down as we arriving at Wat Chai Mongkhon, and our walk back to the hotel took place in the early night). After arriving back at our hotel we played a couple of hands of crib, both of which Todd won, before we set out to find dinner. This turned out to be a bit more challenging than we expected; by 9 PM it seemed that most major restaurants had already closed. After about 20 minutes of walking (and seriously contemplating just getting snacks at 7-Eleven) we returned to the restaurant we had lunch at - the first time we repeated a restaurant during the trip!
We are planning on visiting Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, a temple located at the top of a mountain in the Doi Suthep-Pui National Park, just outside Chiang Mai tomorrow morning, and then spend the afternoon touring the Chiang Mai Zoo and Aquarium. Todd is very much looking forward to the aquarium; this will be the first one he’ll have visited!