Jewel of the North - a stopover

We only stayed in Chiang Mai for about 12 hours total, a stop on the path from Pai to Ko Phagnan. A couple of hours walking around the night market, a halal indian dinner and a couple of tuk-tuk rides. The town seems very cute though. it's like a smaller, nicer, cleaner version of Bangkok. AND - It has a moat!

The night market was pretty huge. Aside from the vast selection of trinkets, backpacker clothes, and other crap, there were also some art gallery/stores, a few restaurants, rows of leather massage chairs (masseuse included), and a stage with some traditional nothern thai performances. The most impressive by far was a choreographed kickboxing match (like muay thai, but "original" as described by a friendly thai drunk, who, refreshingly, was not trying to sell us anything, and was just making conversaion). The guys attacked each other with huge roundhouse kicks, streetfighter-like punch/kick combinations, elbows to the face, etc. For the finale, blue effortlessly jumped onto red's shoulders and came down with a huge blowto the head. as he kneeled over his fallen opponent's body, the audience of little thai children clapped and cheered, while trying to practice the moves on each other.

The other highlight had to be the hostesses of the authentic german restaurant - thai girls dressed in leiderhosen, blonde wigs, and an absolute lack of cleavage.