Apart from some of the remnants of an obviously once quaint town -- colonial style cafes, temples, sections of the old city wall, and plenty of lane ways -- all of which we pottered around, Chaing Mai has been developed at an astonishing rate... And is now very much wrapped up in western sensibilities.The most unexpected thing we found (bearing in mind we've seen little in the way of western infrastructure since leaving home) was a mall: Central Festival. We&...

People flooded the streets. Voices were raised. The crowd was at fever pitch... That's when the explosions stared. We took a deep breath and entered the fray. If this is how Chiang Mai celebrates its Lights festival*, I'd hate to see it riot! Seriously, closest to a war zone I have ever come!! Saying that, there were pockets of tranquility. What struck me the most was the juxtaposition between the calm elegance of vast numbers of paper lanterns being rele...