Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai

I have now made my way up North to Chiang Mai, where it is slightly cooler than Bangkok. Admittedly this pretty much means that instead of a cool 25 degrees at night time it is now perhaps down to only the low 20's.

Both Ayutthaya and Sukhothai were amazing, they were fairly old cities so most of the temples were ruins, but they were still impressive to look at for all that. At Ayutthaya we saw the well-known buddha head in a tree as well as wandering the ruins of the ancient palace, the old seat of power of the Thai kingdom, now mostly foundations and the bases of a few pillars. I quite enjoyed the setting of the temples in Sukhothai, as many of them were surrounded by restored moats which had been there when they had first been built.

From Sukhothai we came up to Chiang Mai by bus, finding our way to the Guest House with a bit of difficulty caused by the language barrier, but we made it in the end. In the evening we headed out to see some more of the city and accidentally came across the funeral of a very important monk - they had a huge statue in front of the main chedi in the complex and were giving out food, which was fairly confusing at first and I thought we might have wandered into a religious festival. The celebration, or not celebration, as I'm not sure what word to use to describe a funeral as they seemed half celebration half sombre affair, seemed to go on for a few days and the princesses even attended, although I missed seeing them there.

I have also now been blessed by a nice monk who was in one of the other Temple complexes we visited, so I am expecting lots of happiness and health to come my way. Today though we got out of the city, hiring bikes from a little shop near the Guest House. It might have gone slightly easier had I had a map to direct us, but after a slight detour we managed to reach the tribal museum we were aiming for, and after we got lost the second time a couple of girls on a motorbike showed us the way back.

I am enjoying the food stalls that seem to line every road and am eating quite a lot of my meals from them too because I can't resist the smells. I will soon be heading out to the night market which should be fun, and hopefully I will not buy too much to bring back with me.