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Chiang Mai is an historic city, which was once the capital of the old kingdom of
Lanna. The old city is a square kilometre in size, and has parts of the walled city that remain. Around the outside of this is a moat that has had lights and fountains added to it in recent times
Breakfast was massaman curry!
We spent most of the day visiting 3 museums, as you can buy a combo ticket (locals get it 4 times cheaper though!). The Chiang Mai Arts & Cultural Centre is housed in a 1920's government building, and has a lot of information about the history of the Lanna region which used to cover parts of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. At one stage a school trip came through the museum, there was waving and hellos from the kids (and a picture or two taken of us).
After a quick coffee break we went into the Lanna Folklife Museum which had good displays like the arts centre, but most of the interactive parts didn't work. And lastly (I had started to over spill information by this point) we went into the Chiang Mai Historical Centre, that housed excavations of the former royal palace.
There are over 500 Wats in Chiang Mai so we were bound to see a few (walked past plenty within the city walls). We headed to Wat Phra Singh that my guide booked listed as the best one to see. Part of it is ruined from an earthquake that happened a long time ago (almost like being in Angkor), although the base and the stairs (that you can't go up) have been restored. There are some elephant statues that have survived on the other side of it and there is also another temple in the complex that is decorated in gold and mosaics and looked good as the sun was starting to set behind it.
Dinner was at a recommended Cypriot restaurant, we had a mixed meze, and the haloumi salad I had was a good way to intake loads of green stuff.
We walked to the night bazar afterwards, it equalled all the other night markets on this trip so we headed back to the hotel fairly quickly!
Thai temples; 1
Bowls of rice; 43
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