As a change from Asian food we had a very nice pizza for dinner last night and afterward a stroll down to the famous night market. Wall to wall shuffling crowds and stalls selling lots of tat so we only walked one block before retreating.

This morning we started with a tour of the Lanna folk museum. This area was once a separate kingdom to "Thailand" (before Thailand became Thailand) called Lanna. In lots of ways the culture, dress etc is more similar to both the Burmese and the Lao than to the Thai. The museum was quite interesting and well presented in what used to be the old court house building.

We strolled the shops and bought a very nice wall hanging and some cushion covers before having a quick look at the day market which is in the Chinatown area of Chiang Mai. It is just before Chinese New Year and so there is a frenzy of activity, noise, eating and consumption. Again, we didn't stay long before heading back to the cool and tranquility of the hotel for our afternoon siesta.

We were told by one of our guides that 40 percent of tourists in Thailand are now Chinese ! We can believe it. Our two years of living in Hong Kong, even though it was 30 years ago, and the necessary counterinsurgency techniques one acquires in order to survive there still stand us in good stead.