New Year's in Thailand: Chiang Mai

We said goodbye to our quiet beach town in Phuket this morning:

We took a quick 2 hour flight to the northern city of Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is a quieter city, although much busier than Naithon in Phuket. It's supposed to be cooler here, but right now it's the same temperature as Phuket without the benefit of the ocean.

Chiang Mai has an Old City area. It's a square area with a medieval crumbling wall and moat surrounding it.

We are staying on the east side of the gate at a nice hotel with lush gardens and ponds and two pools.

We headed into the old city to get lunch. There are lots of tourists here, although most are European or Chinese. There is a ton to see just walking around, and I'm excited to spend a couple days here. We had a great lunch with guava and passion fruit smoothies. We then met up with Yuliya's climbing friend Jess and headed back to the hotel to book some tours for the next two days.

Chiang Mai is full of Wats (Buddhist temples), monks, cafes, and wifi (almost every business has free wifi including the massage places). It's way cheaper here than Phuket. It's a great place to just walk around and take in the sights.

Some photos from our walk:

Bike tuk tuk

Roadside bananas

Monks

Tuk tuk

Orchids

Potted lily pads are very popular. Many have tiny fish (or maybe tadpoles)

Wat Chetawan - the closest wat to our hotel.

We then walked about 10 minutes to go to the famous night market. The night market is huge, with tons of vendors selling souvenirs and lots of interesting food. They also have singers and other cultural performances.

Wat Chetawan at night