Thailand: Day 3 Chiang Mai

I arrived in Chiang Mai just before 6am, I took a tuk-tuk to my hotel where I went to drop off my stuff. I was told they would have my room ready for me at 10am. I used this time to nap in a chair in the front lobby and then went out to get some breakfast. I quickly discovered a bakery, so I bought a wonderful apple pastry and headed on my way. I came across the market where I purchased some freshly pressed pomegranate juice. Headed down the street where I came across a temple.

Chiang Mai is well know for its Buddhist temples, they have the most out of any place in Thailand. Because of this it is often a place of pilgrimage for Buddhist. Many of the temples lack the grandeur that you see in the large Bangkok ones, but they are still beautiful.

The temporary prang made from bamboo and earth was made for the New Year, which started the following day.

An intricate system of troughs and fountains are set up to cover a buddha with continuous water.

Giant Lilly pads, to give a sense of scale the silver coins on the pads are about the size of a loonie

School children coming to help decorate the temple for the New Year.

After my exploration of the temple grounds, I headed back to my hotel but I still had some time until my room would be ready. On the way I found a cute little cafe and sat down, ordered a croissant and consulted my travel guide on what I would do for the rest of the day. I put sticky tabs on a couple of different destinations. And headed back to get settled into my room. A shower and a quick nap were needed. The quick nap actually turned into a several hour nap, and when I awoke in the afternoon there were a couple of things I needed to do. First stop find a way back to Bangkok for the 19th. I made my way in to the old city where I came across a bagel shop, which became the best lunch ever. Then I found several different tourist booking places. One of which had an available over night train ticket which was significantly cheaper than what I had paid for for the worst bus ride ever. I paid for the ticket and I was told that it would arrive for me at my hotel by 4pm.

I then made my way down to Wat Phra Singh, one of the more famous of the Chiang Mai temples.

There was a band performing traditional Thai music

A market set up outside of the temples

Real Monks? Wrong! These are wax sculptures, prominently featured in many temples. Super creepy if you ask me.

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I did a little shopping on my way back to the hotel, after I got there I took a quick dip in the pool and settled in with my book and watermelon shake.  At 6pm I had to meet my guide for the next three days. I had booked a hiking/river rafting adventure for 2 night, 3 days online through a tour company. A friend of mine had recommended it. I did this in hopes of an easy trip with out much pre-planning involved and it would make me friends as it put together people with similar interested and age groups. A few days before my trip I received an email,  as it turned out no one had signed up for my trip, so I was to go alone on the hiking/river rafting trip. Oh well, I'll just become best friends with the guide. I was excited to meet the guide, hopefully he would take me around to Chiang Mai at night, maybe get to know each other over dinner. Then I meet him. And spoke very little english. To the point where we were unable to have a conversation or for him to be able to answer my questions. I'm not going to lie, I was a little disappointed. My hopes of a new friend, and possible night out in Chiang Mai with another person where shattered. So I emailed my mom and let her know I was alive and about to on a journey into the jungle with my non-english speaking guide.  And then I went out a little angry to find some food. In this process I happen to stumble across a street cart that made the best pad thai ever. Then back to the hotel to back up my stuff and get some sleep before the potential longest, quietest trip of my life.