The bus journey from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai whilst a little bumpy (back seat) was truly beautiful. The air, clean and fresh and the mountains plentiful.
Chiang Rai immediately feels different from Chiang Mai! it's a real town with a couple of roads geared up for travellers. It is Chinese New Year whilst we are here and we have great expectations, this being out third in Asia. Our thinking is that we shall just 'be' here, like we were on holiday.
Our digs are in a very smart new place and have busted the budget by 200 baht but I don't care, word on the street is accommodation is pricey and poor in Myanmar so little bit of luxury won't go amiss.
Bang across the road is the cheapest beer in town so becomes 'our bar' in an evening for the continued Backgammon Championship (I'm still losing). Breakfast is just a few doors down, chicken and egg noodles in coconut milk - yep it's soupy but it is gorgeous, topped off with fried egg noodles.
There is a western style shopping mall just on the edge of town which we head to out of interest or need for McFlurrys. There's a lovely food hall but I get tempted by a ham and cheese bread twist much to Mr Fox's disgust. It's delicious and he does have a bite. This is the man who was excited about toast and marmalade this morning.
Dinner a couple of nights is by the clock tower. Gold by day the clock tower changes colour to music at 7, 8 and 9pm. It's quite spectacular to watch, and to be fair as much as Chinese New Year offers us although I did see 3 Chinese dragons blessing a business earlier on in the day. There doesn't seem to be too much of a Chinese influence here so it's not that surprising but still a little disappointing.
Our wanderings find us sat on a tram touring the city's Wats which are truly beautiful and somewhat (!) of a different style, but the balcony is beckoning so we bail out half way round and head back to the drum.
Adrian drifts off to get more dollars in a pre-Burma panic and I similarly head to Boots for shampoo and deodorant. Both Nivea and Dove are available here but with those pesky whitening agents. I'm hoping Boots will have non-whitening. Wrong!!! I manage to bug (I think) some deodorant but the 7/11 saves my bacon with small bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Number one pre-Burma panic over, I'm sure there'll be more tomorrow.
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