A full day in Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is Thailand's second largest city (after Bangkok) with a population of almost one million.  Within the city there are 350 temples-the most per capita in Thailand. 
We hired a car and driver and visited the biggest, highest and most revered Buddhist shrine in northern Thailand-Doi Suthep.  This temple is high up in the mountains which border the city.  Very scenic. We can see it from our hotel room.
There are 350 steps up, and 350 steps down.  This rivals the steps we had to take down from the 24th floor during the hotel fire drill. We anticipate leg pain tomorrow.

Al, near the bottom of the stairway

Intricate scales on the dragon at the temple

Doi Suthep Temple

Buddha in the temple

 Monks are well-respected and in the social hierarchy they rank just below royalty.  Monks are prohibited from touching women, and they can't receive anything directly from a woman, either.

Our driver took us to three factories-silk, silver and leather.  All the tours were very interesting. 

 We saw how the workers combine 92.5% pure silver with 7.5% pure copper to make silver for jewelry.  Then we watched how they make moulds for silver jewelry, and cast the silver into the mould.

Silver technician

 At the silk factory we saw moths laying eggs, the eggs turning into worms, worms eating mulberry leaves and growing very large, then spinning silk into a cocoon.  Then the silk factory boils the cocoons and harvests the silk.  The finished silk cloth was dyed into a multitude of colours, all very vibrant.  This factory also sold silk clothing, and they would make to order.

Worker weaving silk cloth

Worms spinning into cocoons

Silk products

Finally, we toured the leather factory.  There, they make leather products out of not only cow and sheep hide but also elephant, alligator and stingray.  These last three made up into exotic looking wallets and handbags-with a price tag to match.



Stingray leather-made only from the centre strip of the stingray's back



Our hotel offers a buffet lunch and since we were pinched for time we opted to eat here.  Excellent choice.  The buffet has Thai dishes and they are tasty.  From spicy soups to noodle dishes to curries-all so yummy.  There is a selection of fresh fruits-mostly melons and dragon fruit, for dessert. 

Thai people use a fork to push food on to a spoon and they eat with the spoon

Since lunch was so outstanding we had dinner at another restaurant here at the hotel.  There was a wide selection on the menu, and we didn't know how big the portions were because everything was so cheap.  We asked our server if the size was big or little.  His English was limited.  We think he said the portions were small.  We ordered a soup, two appetizers and two main courses.  The portions were not small-they were enormous.

Here's the load of food we received

Stellar city view during dinner

The restaurant staff really tries hard to please, even with limited English.  Al ordered a Bailey's with his coffee after dinner.  The server questioned Al to make sure he understood what Al wanted.  He still seemed puzzled when he left our table.  We saw our server talking to another server.  Shortly a small dish was delivered to the table-it contained bay leaves, not Bailey's. 

Guess what we did in the whirlpool tub this afternoon?  Yup-laundry.  We started to wash out some clothes when Al noticed the tub had jets.  We filled it up, added soap and turned on the jets.  Take that Maytag.

Our new washing machine