Day 84: Down to Chiang Mai

Main thing for today was getting ourselves onto a bus, and out of Chiang Rai. We hadn't been able to book coach tickets online (kept getting an error message in Thai and google translate was no help), so we picked the 11:30 bus and made our way to the station. We arrived at about 11am and on trying to buy tickets, discovered that the bus was sold out and the next one wasn't until 12:15. Oh well, not a huge delay.

With time to kill we decided to have an early lunch (the bus trip was 3 hours 15 minutes with no stops), and after a bit of wandering we discovered a cat cafe! I'm not a huge fan of cats but this was great - most of the cats were sleeping but some ran around entertaining themselves and playing. And of course they were very friendly and ready to be patted.

Back out to the bus station around midday, loaded up on snacks and water and off we went. Bus trip thankfully passed uneventfully, with lots of rice paddies and small mountains to see out the windows. Arrived in Chiang Mai right on schedule at about 3:30, and after fighting through the usual horde of tuk-tuk drivers with "fixed" (extortionate) prices, we found a city bus out the front that was leaving at 4pm and cost 15 baht. Most of the tuk-tuks would have wanted at least 150 baht!

Off the bus and found our hotel with little difficulty - freshly renovated room in an old building. It's nicely done though not especially well thought out - no cupboards so our bags are both on the floor, no convenient power points, and the safe isn't attached to anything which rather defeats the point!!

Freshen up and out into the city around 5pm. First stop was the Tha Phae Gate where the ancient city walls used to be. The walls and gate date to around the 13th century, though the current gates were "restored" (built) in 1986! Met an 8 week old beagle puppy here that was very friendly, so we had a little play and a few kisses.

Had a brief look around but I stubbed my toe and decided the best solution was to sit comfortably for a while, and what better place to do that than at a bar! So we found a bar and had a few drinks on the rooftop. Just as we started leaving in search of dinner around 7pm, the rain which had threatened most of the day started rolling in - not too heavy but annoying enough.

We walked over to the night markets which are huge here and one of the big attractions, but I was hungry and getting wet so not really in the mood. Most of the stalls were selling the same tourist tat we've seen hundreds of times now in basically every market in Thailand, from Koh Samui to Chiang Khong. Chang singlets, elephant pants, counterfeit football jerseys.

Found the food area and ate from food carts, where I had a Chinese pork noodle soup and Shandos a pork & rice dish. Topped off with the usual banana pancake of course! Walked back to the hotel visiting a couple of interesting looking shops along the way; thankfully it had stopped raining by this point, though there's very little effective drainage so you have to watch your step like a hawk.

Looking forward to more exploration tomorrow!Read more