Wats are everywhere. Walk a few blocks in almost any direction and wat'll you find? I know I know... bad pun! Hey dad- right up there with the "fly by night operation"!!??

After parking myself at the Libra guesthouse yesterday I decided to wander around inner city Chang Mai. When I say inner city.. I dont mean the sketchy part of town (like in Bmore), but the old city within the moat. So with a map and some directions from Gao I headed out. I actually did get to my first stop with no problems. Wat Changman the oldest one in the city. They have free Tai Chi there in the morning from 6-7am... I wanted to go, but didnt wake up in time. 2 sleepless nights in a row and this Viking needed her beauty sleep.

Anyway, after that I just started taking random turns to see where things led, stopping every now and again to try some interesting looking piece of food on the street. I even had a japanese crepe outside a thai school. i stopped in a 7-11 to buy more Betagen. I have never had this stuff until now, but its fantastic. Its kind of a liquid yogurt type fruit drink. i am in love with orange. well eventually it got dark and i decided to head back to my guesthouse. well wouldnt you know that i had managed to get to the exact opposite corner of the city. and since it was dark and i was stupidly still wearing my sunglasses i decided the easiest way was just to walk along the moat until i got back. hell of a lot further than it looks on the map.... especially when you miss your corner and keep going! argh! my visual instincts/ directional sense is notoriously terrible, but i should have trusted my ability to read the map and count! so i did finally make it back to my corner of the town... where i ate again at the Lanna Paradise. After all the walking I wasnt really hungry so I just had toast and coconut ice cream with pineapples. outstanding stuff. i am definitely going to have more. who even knew i liked coconut!?

so today, as i said i slept in until likt 830 or so, before heading downstairs for some breakfast... pancakes with honey and bananas... i am still looking for the elusive banana pancakes. fried bananas i have found, but not yet the pancake. i will not give up though and i will not leave thailand until i find them!! anyway... after breakfast i headed to the Chang Phuak gate to catch the first available songthaeuw (which is a truck with benches in the back) to Wat Soi Duthep... the Wat located on a mountain just outside of Chang Mai.

Wat Soi Suthep was supposedly founded when a white elephant carrying a holic relic dropped dead on the site. I got there, hiked the 306 steps up (one hell of a set of bleachers to run!), paid the entrance fee and took off my shoes out of respect for the buddhas... who are everywhere. you are not supposed to have your head above theirs (or the monks' either for that matter), but this was practically impossible for me, so I hope Buddha doesn't mind. I brought him some gifts of incense, candles and palms to make up for not being super short. there was a jade buddha that is apparently identical to the one in Bangkok that I didnt get to see. but the best part was the view of chang mai. really spectacular. i took a couple of pics and will get one up here soon. after leaving, i did more shopping, and then while drinking a coconut, started to walk up the mountain to the Phu Ping Palace. Well the sign said 4km (which i calculated to be 9 laps...2.25mi) and i knew it was all uphill so I headed back to catch the next truck back to Chang Mai. Me in my elephant pants next to the main chedi

i hope to actually get to to the night market today. after all that walking yesterday i didnt have the energy to go. then i have to pack a small bag to take with me for my 3 day trek which starts tomorrow. speaking of that... i have to get back to the guesthouse to meet the other trekkers. we will be trekking around the northern hills... should be outstanding if my feet can take it. when i return i will be enrolling in a massage course. I am definitely going to NEED a massage (not to mention a shower) when I get back from the trek.