Bye-Bye Chiang Mai...

Our last few days in Chiang Mai were spent exploring, and it's surprising just how much interesting stuff there is to explore.

One experience that had been recommended to us was the night market, and so we took a stroll out one evening to see what it was all about. Wow! Every street in the old part of the city was turned over to market stalls selling as many local handicrafts as you can imagine and fantastic food (we pigged out on incredibly cheap and tasty chicken satays and juicy sausages, all cooked to order).

The market was busy when we arrived, and being huge it took us a few hours to cover, but when we left the place was absolutely packed! As a browsing/shopping experience We'd recommend this to anyone - it's just a great way to spend an evening mixing with locals and other travellers alike in a secure friendly atmosphere. And, of course, there are bargains to be had if you like haggling.

Finally, we visited Doi Suithep, a Buddhist Temple set high on a mountain overlooking Chiang Mai. Of course, Thailand is liberally dotted with temples and we'd already seen a few, but Chiang Mai is such a great place that we felt we couldn't leave without visiting one of it's most famous sites.

Here are a few images to give you a feel for the place:

Strangely, this place gave us the taste for visiting a few more historic temples; but where in the world would we find those...?