The four of us left Krabi on the 6th and flew up to Bangkok then straight on to Chiang Mai with Air Asia. We were lucky to be arriving on a Sunday, as this is the day they have the special 'walking street' market. Needless to say this was our first stop after checking into our cute hotel, Mini Cost, and even better - the hotel was down a soi (like a little laneway) off the market street, so super close! It all felt so exciting. Being with Michael and David was exciting enough, but the street was just amazing. So many sights and smells and sounds! It was crammed full of people, literally elbow to elbow and took many minutes to move a short distance, but we loved it - all the more time to peruse the many items for sale! The market was one of those 'start as you mean to go on' moments for Sooz and I - we both bought lots of items (many of them gifts so shhh) and got caught up in the buzz of everything. It felt like every 10 metres or so there was another musician to catch your ear - first a band of blind boys singing and playing guitars, then a little girl playing violin, next a girl dressed up in a hill tribe outfit and singing & dancing. Then intermingled with the music there'd be the smell of fried foods and orange juice from the hundreds of food carts. There could not have been a better way to introduce me to the city or to encourage me to love it at first sight.

Shopping was very much a theme of Chiang Mai. I felt like I was on a permanent silk and present hunt! Luckily Chiang Mai is the perfect place for such things. One of the days we hired a car from a woman who had a passion for Soozie's skirt (very odd!) and drove off to a village called Bo Sang, where we watched women making umbrellas from start to finish. They're so incredible and I enjoyed seeing the whole process. The only problem was when it came to choosing one to buy...they have so many colours, patterns, materials and sizes. And if you're reading this you know what I'm like with decisions! Let's just say it took a while...

From the village we set off to Hang Dong on a little antique hunt. I'd seen David's fabulous box in their flat which he had bought here and was determined that I had to have one. I was in luck! It's huge, and cost me ever so slightly more to send it home than it did to buy it, but it's beautiful and made my day. The others also made purchases and David used his newly developed haggling skills to get 1000 baht off the entire amount. Yay!

The final stop on the driving day was a temple in the hills called Wat Pra That Doi Suthep. They're really trying to cash in on the huge number of people it attracts and have set up loads of stalls and things at the foot of the 306 steps you have to climb to reach the top. The temple was worth the effort. So calm, and so beautiful. I've decided Buddhism is a pretty cool religion, mostly because the temples are so beautiful. Ever a magpie I love all the gold and pretty things. The view of the city would have been incredible from that height, had it not been so hazy, but it was still interesting to see it all spread out beneath our feet like that.

The time in Chiang Mai was over far too quickly. I loved it. Adored it even. Every day was just a lovely mixture of seeing beautiful temples, browsing the many shops and stalls and eating & drinking at a few of the hundreds of bars, cafes and restaurants. Chiang Mai feels like the 'real' Thailand. It's what I had expected Thailand and Thai people to be like. Leaving was such a sad moment, but I'm glad we had the time we did there and will be very much looking forward to visiting Michael and David in their future apartment one day! Thank you boys for enhancing our trip to the North. It literally could not have been better, unless it had lasted longer!