Today was a sort-of city tour and started at two inner city markets. The first was the wholesale food market and the second a large drygoods market. As is typical with such market visits we got to see all the obvious foods as well as some not so obvious.

Second on the agenda was a rikshaw/tuktuk ride visit to the Three Kings Monument . These are statues of three kings and friends who formed a pact in the 13 century which established the Lanna Kingdom and established the city of Chiang Mai. Near the statues is a brass model/map of the original royal city.

After our visit with the three kings the day turned into a series of Golden Temples, all Buddhist, all well restored and all magnificently decorated with gold and other adornments. All the photos are labelled with the name of the relevant temple.

Wat Chiang Man was the first temple in Chiang Mai and was built in the late 13 century. The large brick remnant is part of the original city wall. There is substantial restoration and repair work underway at this temple and all kinds of mechanisms for the general population to make donations, from sticking a gold leaf on a statue, to putting ones name on the back of a roof tile. We chose to make a donation which will help buy coffins for people who are too poor to buy their own.

Our second temple was Wat Phra Singh. Like the previous temple we were impressed by the buildings and the energy and money that has been expended on repair and maintenance.

Our final temple of the day was Wat Phra That Doi Suthrep which is a good hours drive out of town and at the top of a 1500 meter mountain. It is considered one of the most sacred temples in Thailand and it is said that any visitor to Chiang Mai must visit this temple. The first stupa was built on this site in the late 14th century and the access road was built in 1935. The temple has recently been damaged (last week) by a wild hail storm and crews were busy erecting bamboo scafolding in order to make repairs. In addition ongoing restoration work can be seen; see the seond last picture.