The Temples

by Catherine Crabtree
(Seattle, WA, USA)

I went to the Night Bazaar on my very first night in Chiang Mai and it was an incredible experience.

The textiles, the art, the wood carvings, the food. It was the perfect way to set the tone for an exotic and intoxicating Chiang Mai experience.

After bringing an arm full of incredible finds back to my hotel from the Night Bazaar, I spent the next day doing a temple tour wondering from one tiny temple to another, each being incredibly quaint yet at the same time extremely grand... they truly rival any of the more renowned temples in Bangkok and Ayutthaya. The Wat Chedi Luang was my personal favorite.

Most of all, the people in Chiang Mai are some of the most beautiful and most friendly in Thailand. I found Chiang Mai to be one of the most enchanting and lovely of all the many cities I visited in SE Asia during a 2 month long trek through Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.