So the final day of the Yi Peng festival arrives in Chiang Mai, another bright and sunny one.

I have settled into a nice routine here now, relax around the city in the morning, lunch somewhere and then further afield in the afternoon. Today lunch was the famous Chiang Mai noodle dish, kow soey, rice noodles in a curry broth topped with crispy fried noodles and the meat addition of your choice. Very delicious.

Then, after finding a songthaew heading south, I went about 7kl out of the city to the original site of Chiang Mai. This place was only rediscovered in the late 70s and some partial excavation took place throughout the 80s. This site of the original city was abandoned due to severe flooding, as it's very low lying between the Ping river and its tributaries. Now it has developed into a leafy suburb of Chiang Mai and houses and villas vie with the ruins, in some cases making further excavation here impossible due to land ownership issues. The main information centre and starting point for the tour around this area is Wat Wiang Kum Kam, a pretty but modern Wat brightly painted but in the low slung lanna style. In front of the main bot is a rather beautiful four sided stupa, each of the four sides have niches with fine Buddha images inside. It is here that you can pick up a map for the area or join a motor buggy to ferry you around. There are also two person pony carts which do the same thing, so for 700B I spent the next 2hours trotting around the site.

It is vast, but most of the temples are in a very ruinous condition and have also sunk some metres into the soft, muddy ground... It is also a rather good place for mosquitos, so I'm quite glad when it's time to head back into the city.

On the way back I stopped off at a temple just past the Chedi hotel on the riverside. This modern temple is brightly painted and extravagantly gilded. There is a dock on the river here where boats leave for trips up the Ping river. It's all very photogenic.

Also the monks and novices are sending up the vast paper temple lanterns into the warm afternoon air. These lanterns, made in a checkerboard design are made at the temple and are helped skywards by being filled with hot air from tar soaked rags, or when that fails, petrol soaked ones. It takes several people to organise this and ten minutes or so before there is enough hot air in the lantern to get it airborne, they could have it licked in two minutes in the house of commons! The last finishing touch is a firework attached to the bottom as it lifts off sending silver sparks earthworks as it soars away.

I wander back to Wat Chedi Luang to take some pics as the sun sinks down behind the Doi sutep mountains casting a warm purple light over the Chedi as the last orange rays caress the high branches of the teak trees and watch as darkness falls and the cool evening air descends.

Heading back for a shower, I see the floats getting ready for the last big parade of Loy Krathong along the road by the civic hall.

Later on, I walk though the old streets to the tha pae gate, where tonight the large stage will see the Yi Peng beauty pageant. Along tha pae road itself the floats are gathering and moving slowly towards the Narrowat bridge. They are more elaborate than last night, brighter, noisier, bigger with more attendants on foot in front.

I head back to my favourite bar in the night bazaar where last night I got roped into making krathongs for sale on the side of the road... I sold three amazingly, but I did base my design on the millennium dome! Then later I wander to the river and let three krom Loy (paper lanterns) fly off into the nights sky. So ends another enjoyable day in the Rose of the north, Chiang Mai.