Wat Tour, Italian Dinner in Chiang Mai

Our next day in Chiang Mai was really relaxed. We toured around the main street of the city, exploring various temples (or wats, as they call them), and just chilling out.

This is an entrance to a temple. That poor monk child...he was just passing by and his teacher told him to go stand with us while we posed.

Inside that same temple. Is this called the alter? That's a pretty good shot of what Buddha looks like to the Buddhists in Thailand: not at all fat and jolly, but certainly peaceful and welcoming. I even felt welcomed.

We saw this little wat and totally fell in love with it. I really don't hope the Buddhists have a philosophy against taking their picture when they're not looking, because I snapped quite a few candid photogs. Note the amazing display of patio lanterns. Wait for it...

And then I coined the phrase, "Kim Mitchell would LOVE this place!"

Here's Leanne taking photos of a gross wat where we also found about a hundred dogs. They were sleeping, limping, atop tables surrounded by roosters, and digging under the temple. It was pretty disgusting.

This dragon was at the first (and most run-down) wat we stopped into. I just thought it was interesting that the old artistic protector was right beside the new Honda SUV.

This is the inside of that wat...it was so disorganized. Not at all like the ones we saw later. Oh, and there were pigeons living inside the temple, so the carpet was covered in...uh, excrement.

Further on down the street, I found this sign rather beautiful. Isn't Singer a sewing machine company? Rather fitting for this town: they hand make just about everything from suits to wedding dresses.


This was the most North American building we saw in Thailand. It was so Manhattan. We have no idea what it was though.

We took a break at a coffee shoppe called Wawee that misted its customers outside, saving them from the intense heat. They served the ice coffee in this plastic cup that I, of course, kept. Stranger still: it's orange, just like the Predator AND the Nalgene. I have an affinity for orange plastic cups. This one will be PERFECT for the camp though...that's right, it survived the whole trip and the plane ride home.


These are the massive doors that lead to the old city. We stayed on the outside (the Starbucks and night market side), but all the other things we did there were contained within the old city walls. The door was quite impressive.

Just outside that door was an old square where the Sunday Night Market set up. What a sight that was. This was on our walk home after dinner.

What do you know: they have doctor fish in Thailand too. These things are super cool (though, in my opinion, also incredibly disgusting): the nibble at your feet, whisking away any dead skin from the bottoms of your feet. They're very popular in Korea.


We had this marvelous Italian dinner at this outdoor restaurant. I'm wearing the entirely ridiculous fisherman pants I snagged at the shoppe near the guesthouse. They are magnificent, but I think only appropriate for wear in Thailand. I guess we'll see when the summer months hit here in Korea.