Chiang Mai

Here are Bec's lovely wares from today's batik art school. Tomorrow she's doing a Thai cooking course out in the countryside on a farm. While she's cooking I'll be visiting a National Park north of here and climbing Thailand's highest peak, then on Friday morning we'll be taking the bus north east to Chiang Khong and then crossing into Laos at Huay Xai. After that it's just a 2 day boat trip to Luang Prabang. Maybe we'll splash out and do the 6hr speed boat instead.

Chiang Mai is obviously a lot less hectic than Bangkok but the reason Bangkok charmed me last time (Nov 03) was because everything was so frantic, lively and rushed. This time though the 100 miles an hour pace of life was beginning to grate.

Above are a couple of wats (temples) I visited while I was out and about today.