Days 36, 37, 38 including Easter Sunday and April Fool’s Day in Chiang Mai - Sun 31 Mar, Mon Apr 1 and Tues 2

Days 36, 37, 38 including Easter Sunday and April Fool’s Day in Chiang Mai - Sun 31 Mar, Mon Apr 1 and Tues 2
Three relaxing days enjoying some RnR in an air-conditioned B&B (3 Sis) in the heart of Chiang Mai's Old Town's walls and moat, opposite two Wats. We explored Old Town and Lanna history and culture leisurely (intermingled with chores and repairs). The trucks largely stayed in the car-park and we got about on foot or in tuk-tuks. 

 Guy and Cheryl gave us a (surprise) little basket of chocolate eggs for Easter. We’re yet to see Christian emblems so it was tricky to find a little item in return. We did pick up a bunny keyring in the markets though, and gave them a memento citing the Year of the Rabbit. In looking it up on the internet to find something meaningful to write, we found it was GirlRob’s Year, whereas BoyRob was born in the Year of Ox (our compatibility turns out to be 80% as a couple, so we might celebrate our relationship about Kazakhstan – just in case!!)

The Sunday evening night markets inside Old Town were most enjoyable - displays of fabrics, colourful clothing, handicrafts, Thai dancing, busking musicians, and food food food... (GirlRob bought a leather etching – now has to worry about customs).

The Umbrella Village was somewhat disappointing, so commercial, but their hand-made paper products from natural fibres, and delicate parasols, were beautiful. Artisans had boards of designs for tourists to choose to have hand painted on to T-shirts or umbrellas (and hair dryers to dry them quickly).

The Lanna Folk Museum was beautifully presented and maintained, and explained some of the things we’d seen (eg offerings to the Triple Gems – Buddha, Teaching, Community - bring not only merit and prosperity but also are spiritual anchors for acceptable behaviour)

 An absolute disaster occurred on Monday when a piece of lens disengaged in GirlRob’s camera and caused black shadows in the photos. Given this is a vital communication tool and trip recorder BoyRob had to rearrange his priorities from a leaking fuel cap and a broken chair to concentrate on a solution. The camera shop couldn’t do anything, but passed on an address in Bangkok. We hadn’t actually planned to go into such a large city, but will consider it now. A further consideration is a request from Lance at EarthCruiser to show our vehicle to interested people there. 

We readied the mind and body for the next part of the journey by stocking and cleaning – including a car wash.  It took an hour and 7 people (some on ladders) to scrub and polish Ozzie – all for less than $8, including blackening the tyres. It is no wonder there are so many non-Asians living in Asia.

MnM turned up on the last evening (as is their wont) and we all traipsed off to dinner at Hot Chili (so kitch with its swings covered in roses), then home to our little B&B (easy to find as its next to the Phoothawee …) Darn, just remembered, still haven’t written those postcards…