Chiang Mai Revisited

 
Thank goodness for being able to lie down on my bunk on the train, considering that the previous two nights have been spent on overnight flights. After consuming a strange western breakfast and pondering on why they always have to beautify a sausage into a flower shape, we are ready to disembark. 
Ou had booked the most amazing hotel, set around a leafy tropical garden with birds offering hellos and whistles as you walk past.  For three days we are the only guests, as Thai new year has just finished and many travellers have left. We lap up the luxury and breakfast daily in our own veranda, raised up in the middle of the garden and not having to share the facilities with anyone. 
We Head off to the usual haunts, the ever expanding night market and escape the heat in the vast array of coffee shops that have sprouted up across the city.  Now new boutique shops cater for the high end Bangkok visitors and more malls are springing up. 
Still many things stay the same; visiting amazing noodle shops by the road side, following the devout up the steep 300 steps to Doi Suthep temple and drinking beer at one of the lovely riverside restaurant and listening to live music ... Chiang Mai has it all.