Arrival in Chiang Mai


April 15
Once we depart the train, we are a getting our bearings once again in a new town.  Of course, we have numerous offers at the station to take a taxi into town and for assistance with finding a place to stay.  Since we are still in the middle of Songkran, we go ahead and proceed to a guesthouse that I have found online that we know has room.  We hire a taxi and are off to the old city of Chiang Mai.  The town is essentially a large square with a moat around the whole city and large gates at the corners to let traffic in and out.  The city is over 700 years old and is very interesting in terms of it historical significance.  We find our guesthouse and the very kind landlady (Jina) is waiting for us.  Unfortunately, the room is not yet ready for us to check in so we go around the corner and find a restaurant for breakfast or lunch.  We eat some much needed food and then attempt to walk around a little of the town, but it soon becomes apparent that Songkran is looming everywhere and we end up getting splashed despite our attempt to avoid it.  We return to the guesthouse and get checked in.  We rest up for a long time before attempting another foray into town.  We make it almost totally into the Sunday Market street before we are confronted with the “Water Crowd” and since we are about to melt anyway in the broiling heat, we opt to turn around and head back home.  We only re-emerge later to go to the Seven-11 and then we find a noodle shop where we have a nice and relaxing meal before calling it a day.

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