Thailand day 4 – Chiang Mai

Another sunny, cloudless day in Chiang Mai.  The travel arrangements are not proving easy to coordinate.  The flights to New Zealand have gone by the time we get to the travel agents again, and apparently there a no flights available until the middle of February.  This seems unlikely and we spend some time in an internet cafe (the guest house internet is too slow to allow any meaningful searching).  Any flights there are, are horrendously expensive.  Oh dear, time to rethink!  Flights for the boys are still looking pricey too, now that we are working to fixed dates.  I think we need to play a waiting game for a while.  We spend an hour or so in the  lovely Buak Haad Park in the north-west corner of the old town.  This small park has a two ponds, both with fountains and full of large, black fish, fat on bags of fish food that are sold by ladies at the entrance.   It’s possible for 10 Baht to rent a rush mat to spread out on the lawn and a few people, Thais mainly, are laid out in the shade.  We forgo the mats and sit on a bench under the trees with an ice cream purchased from a passing ice cream cart. In the evening we walk down Loi Kroh Road which runs east out of the old town to the Night Bazaar.  This is the seedier side of town;  lined with pick-up bars frequented mainly by older foreign men.  Not surprisingly, given Thailand’s reputation, there are numerous foreign men of a certain age to be seen about Chiang Mai with young, attractive Thai women.  The night bazaar is located in a plaza near Le Meridien hotel about 10 or 15 minutes walk from our guest house.  It isn’t as large, nor is the quality of merchandise as good, as the Sunday Street Walking Market and it doesn’t attract such crowds.