the Vanished city

The next morning we were picked up bright an early for a tour of the Chang Mai museum and a bicycle ride around the vanished city, and ancient city ruins a few miles outside Chiang Mai.

On the way the porn star was pointing out the anciant walls of Chiang Mai, very old brickwork surrounding the old city .. quite fascinating. On arriving at the museum we were shown in and I think were the only ones there. Then ensued the most boring tour of a museum I have ever experienced (not being a big museum fan anyway, unless it’s of prehistoric dinosaurs or some such!). We were subjected to the entire history of Chiang Mai in microscopic detail, fed to us in the form of pictures, writing, models (they were pretty cool) and even a short film.. fannytastic!

After what seemed an eternity or two, we set off for the vanished city, the only reason we chose the tour. It turned out to be more than a little dissapointing though. The vanished city consisted of one small building, nearly identical to the brickwork we had seen on the outer walls of the city. Old Uma showed us around, and we stroked the stray animals that were wondering about and were told there was no bycicle ride. We had just wasted half a day in Chiang Mai, not amusing! But at least we had the porn star to keep us amused on the bus ride back to the cirty. We were told the view of Chaing Mai was spectactular from the Doi Suthep (spelling?) so we decided we would have a hook.

Before dropping us off we were taken to some temples. Some SA wasn’t allowed to touch on account of her being a female :)

There was string hung inside and all around, from temple to temple. The reason for this is an answer (..Google has..).

On arrival back in town we got some food, was a bit overpriced though – think it came to about 45p each, extortionate! After this we flagged down a little bus/taxi to take us to the Doi Suthep. After turning down a few quotes of how much they would charge and not knowing what it should really cost, we settled on a price for both ways. We began the climb to the top of the large hill on the outskirts of the city. The driver picked his son up from school on the way and off we trotted. The bus was a kind of truck, with an open entrance on the back and sideways seats, and the journey was a little on the hairy side. SA even nearly fell out at one point, typical bint that she is :) After rescuing her, we arrived and were told to be back in an hour. We had a wander up to the top and a looksie round the temple. There were monks in prayer and a statue of a white elephant. There was also a memorial with photographs of many foreigners who had died in Chiang Mai so that was a bit freaky. Were we going to make it out alive? More stroking of stray dogs and we had a look over the entire city.

The view was pretty amazing, we could see for miles, the entire airport … watching the planes come in to land was great!