Chiang Mai

We got up this morning, packed up our gear and got some breakfast before walking to the bus station. We only had to wait about 4 minutes for a mini-bus to Tak, 1.5 hours east of Mae Sot. It was another windy road, so I had my head out the window most of the time. We got to the Tak station just in time to have a quick toilet break and then board a bus northbound for Chiang Mai. We settled into our seats for the trip, and got to Chiang Mai about 6 hours later.

Chiang Mai is quite a modern city really, but there is a ban on high-rise construction, making it an appealing city. And it's small with less than 300,000 people. We had some trouble finding a place to stay, but eventually settled on the Libra Guesthouse, despite the construction going on next door. This turned out to be a good choice, as it's a very friendly place, and the staff are happy to do anything to help us out.

After dropping our gear in our room, we had some dinner and then walked to the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar. This market goes on every night from about 4:00 pm to midnight, and is absolutely huge. There are several different roofed areas, street stalls, permanent shops, and sellers wandering around on foot with their goods. It was nice to walk around after a long day sitting on buses, and Chiang Mai seems to have a more relaxed atmosphere than Bangkok. We didn't buy anything, but there was plenty we would have like to buy if we had the money.

Surrounding the markets are tons of sleazy bars and pubs, mostly with gross older western guys trying to pick up on the hoochie Thai girls working there. But we did happen upon a Thai kickboxing ring set up outside, and sat for a while watching guys beat the crap out of each other (really, Thai kickboxing is much more civilised than regular boxing). When we got bored of that, we walked back to our hotel and went to bed.