Chiang Mai--Tha Pae Gate and Waroros Market

(Aria's comments in Italics)

Our first impression of Chiang Mai (and Thailand), is the plethora of temples!

I think Thailand could be renamed the land of Wats!

But what fascinates me is that there are different styles of temples from Buddhist to Hindu, and then again a difference in architecture from ancient to modern.

Here's a rather unfortunate name for this Wat near our guesthouse.

Our kids thought it was rather funny!

The Som Thaew (taxi pickup) did not know the actual location of our guesthouse, so dropped us with our luggage a few blocks away.

We saw a few shops of interest on our walk in.

This was a very stylish but pricey furniture and decor shop. Very fun!

It was very tempting to crawl in there to try it out.

Despite the long train rides over the last 2 days, the eye candy was captivating!

We realized that even though there were many guesthouse options listed on Trip Advisor, there were many more that were not on the TA community that might be noteworthy options on our next trip!

The infamous Tha Pae Gate was just a 5 minute stroll from our guest house.

There were interesting curios and collectibles from the antique shops. We were sorely tempted to buy soem snuff bottles, and were already warned that many of the would be antiques were likely fakes.

They might not be antiques, but they are certainly gorgeous and interesting!

It was fortunate that we were committed to traveling light or we would have many new items tagging along!

We went to go get fruit juices and smoothies! They were fairly common, but still very refreshing after walking around in the hot sun.

We found many colorful, fun, and unique types of clothing and bags. I really enjoyed browsing through the shops. Seeing the patterns and color matches had inspired me to create more with my earrings! 

A fun and practical child seat for a moped... 

I thought that the clothing (obviously made for the tourists) was very fun and interesting. It made me think of all kinds of different ways I could mix and match them. I also thought of gifts for friends and family! ~Aria

We found a delightful dried fruit vendor inside this market

Shoes!!!! Gotta love 'em! I thought that the different types of weaved flip-flops and sandals were SO COOL!!!!

Nom Nom Nom!!!! Dried Barbecue Squid!!!

That namprik (fire water) was certainly hot.

~Shien and Aria