Chiang Mai

In the middle of December we took a few days and headed up to Chiang Mai. It is about an 8 hour drive from Bangkok in the northern part of Thailand. Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand with approximately 1 million people (Bangkok has 13 million!) The city still has some of its ancient stone wall and moat around the center part of the city. It is a charming and artistic place to visit.


On our visit to Chiang Mai, we were able to see how paper is made and then turned into fans and umbrellas. Here Daniel and I are pounding the paper pulp. This has to be done continuously for 4 hours!

Watching an artist hand paint a fan.

Checking out a waterfall.

Meeting up with friends of a friend of mine. Thanks, Keri, for connecting us! We had a great time!!

We visited an amazing flower garden. It was so beautiful, I asked Pun if we could live there. As I looked at all of our pictures from this garden, no one picture really catured its essence, so I chose one with Daniel. :)

I was really hoping to see an area where the hill tribe people live. There are several tribes scattered across Northern Thailand. Here is a picture looking down at their homes.

We drove on some beautiful mountain roads. This particular road is just above the hill tribe.

Helen and Daniel wanted to see elephants. Here Daniel and I are riding bare back. Helen, who was very excited by it all, would not ride one.

I inadvertantly turned our camera to b/w. So here are our "by accident" artistic pictures!

The Night Bazaar Market--great shopping!

Thailand is known for its beautiful orchids. We went to visit an orchid farm only to find out that most of the flowers had been sent to the Flora Expo being held in Chiang Mai in honor of the King. We did find a few, and here is a shot of one of the prettiest ones we saw.

Chiang Mai is a place you could visit over and over again and never see it all. We left hoping to return as soon as possible!