We ran out of some steam in Chiang Mai. Or something about the familiarity of the town lulled us into a string of days filled with not much more than reading, walking, and rediscovering so much amazing veg food. The town has really boomed in the last five years. The little side sois are bursting with guest houses & restaurants geared for the Western appetite.
We tried to find a vegetarian cooking class for Fran, but alas "no have". We did find a dog that looked a little bit like Regan's Charlie Batch (without Charlie Batch's adorable underbite), and a cat that looked a bit like Grumpy Cat.
And of course we saw many more Buddhas.
We've visited Chiang Mai more than any other city, and each time we seem to find something surprising - like the 14 Century stuppa above - the tallest stuppa in Thailand.
We paid some exorbitant fee to get to Doi Suthep, a temple on the outskirts of Chiang Mai. These were the most interesting things we saw there.
Eventually she liked it. Um, sorta.
We almost took the slow boat to Luang Prabang, Laos. Dodged a bullet there... Last night we met a traveler from Holland who had taken the slow boat. He said the boat operators acted more like they were carrying precious cargo of potatoes rather than people. 1 toilet for 140 people. 2 days of motion sickness.
It's sleepy here in Luang Prabang along the Mekong River. Chilly mornings & evenings, and tourists have a midnight curfew.
It doesn't look like we'll end up traveling to any place we haven't already been (and the rest of our travel will only be by plane), but there is a certain charm & curiosity in seeing how things have changed... including us - so grown up that we shudder at the thought of a 10-15 hour bus ride and instead we book a flight.
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