Just exploring this fabulous city

Day 5

Decided to explore over the other side of the river and check out the Fair Trade Handcrafts shop while we were there. 

 Got a tuk tuk to the iron Bridge and wandrered along the riverfront.  Lots of old timber (?teak) shophouses – some in good condition and used as galleries, shops etc and other is a pretty sad state of repair.  Loved the place making colourful elephants – very cool.

 

 

Next stop was Wat Kate – not as its name might suggest but a temple dedicated to the dog.  Hundreds of little doggie statues and many many very friendly and well-fed dogs lived there.  Stunning timber buildings too.

 

 

 

The Fair Trade shop was amazing and I managed to get little pieces (purses, etc) made by women from 7 different hilltribes – will make great teaching resources for senior textiles.  And it I’d had a lazy $450 I’d have bought this… stunning isn’t it!

 

Next stop was the Chiang Mai museum – sadly they were renovating the entire second floor but to compensate, entry was free.  And it was a no-camera zone so … no pics.

The whole time we’ve been here, Tony has been on the lookout for Chiang Mai sausage and we finally came across it in a little place near the Three Kings Monument.  Very good indeed.

 

 

Wandered a bit then back to the hotel for a nap – we’re still finding t he heat/humidity knocking us a bit.. or is it the beers at lunch time?

 Off to the night market again, ominous looking sky which foolishly we chose to ignore and didn’t take the umbrellas.  It poured, and kept pouring all night.

 

 

Day 6

I had considered checking out a couple of the handcraft villages out of town but realised none of them were fabric orientated so we decided to check out the Airport Plaza Shopping Centre – the only really big mall type centre in Chiang Mai.  Grabbed a tuk tuk and headed over there about 9am, only to discover it doesn’t open till 11am – oh well, Starbucks & the newspaper filled in the gap (and they still make pretty ordinary coffee!)

 The airport Plaza is huge, and has a sensational Hilltribes handcraft section- spent a lovely 90 minutes browsing & chatting to some of the stall holders about the fabric - heaven – bought a couple of lovely tops too! 

 

I had a bit more of a wander round town this afternoon & came across a Wat undergoing renovations - gotta love bamboo scaffolding!

 

Next time any of my students complain about wearing their school unifoirm properly, I'm going to show them this photo - just love the boys in their pink pants!

Last visit to the night markets, a couple of purchases but a lovely hour spent chilling in the Colour Bar listening to live music over an iced coffee.  Bangkok tomorrow.