Sights of Chiang Mai

One Sunday afternoon I headed out to see the temples. Chiang Mai is a very old city in the heart of the Ancient Kingdom of Lanna, and I have never seen such a small city with so many beautiful, ancient temples so close to each other. At my first temple I was approached by a taxi driver. He wanted to know what I was doing, where I was from, and of course.....did I want to hire him to drive me around and show me all of the temples?

He offered his taxi services for a mere 50 baht (maybe $2 CDN). Why not? It's burning hot outside, and I'm wearing sandals. It's a bit city to walk to all of the temples.

True to his word he drove me around to the temples and waited for me to finish looking around before putting back in the front seat of his Airconditioned 4 door sedan. Then he offered to drive me to a wholesale distributor where they make many Thai handicrafts. Okay. Why not? But...."I have to be back at my guesthouse by 3:00PM. Can we go there and be back in time?" "Okay, no problem?" cool. Off we go.

It's about a 20 minute drive to the handicraft village (it's already 2:40). I take a look around. There are many women making beautiful handpainted bamboo and silk umbrellas, carving wood, and painting. I looked around for a while. The owner took the above photo of me. This was right before he offered me a carving for a 'really great discount'. I bought it thinking I was getting a great deal, only to realize later that I was totally swindled.

It's 3:10 - I'm late. Time to go back to the guesthouse. I get in the taxi tell him I need to go back to my guesthouse. He starts to panick. No, not yet. There's a gem shop and more handicraft shops he wants to take me to. ummm...sorry mister - I want to go home.

He's driving me back towards the city but is shifting in his seat, exhaling heavy, and looking panicked. Finally he points to the gas gage. "look lady". He's on empty. He then opens out his pockets to show me that he only has 20 baht. He needs me to go into a shop, I don't have to buy anything, just look. Please, will I do this for him? Apparently shops pay taxi drivers to take people to their shop. I'm not pleased. I'm late. I don't fully understand what's going on. I go into the shop. It's a tailor shop. Not really easy browsing. Only thing to look at is the bolts of fabric on the walls. I actually have to sit down and flip through their magazine and pretend like I want a suit.

Needless to say I'm not very happy.

I leave the shop as soon as I can. Walk back towards my taxi. There my driver is. He's showing me the 100baht he received from the store owner.

Please...can you take me home now?! He takes me home....surprise surprise - he had no money to make change for me. He gets a tip?! ?!?!

Picture #2: This reminded me of an organ...but when you pressed the different pedals different ancient bells would ring.

Lexi....this one is for you!!!!








#3 Coconut. When you buy these they crack open the top and put a straw into it. You drink the fresh coconut milk and then crack the top right open and dig in with a spoon. All of the fresh coconut meat lines the shell. SO DELICIOUS!






#4 Art for sale a the Sunday Market. Possibly the best market I've ever been at in my life. SO MANY THINGS!!! The people here were all very friendly, the prices were great, you could find really beautiful, unique, handmade Thai items. A fabulous way to spend every Sunday evening.

I'm gonna miss this place!