Sunday, November 16

Ate breakfast downstairs at the hotel's small bistro - American breakfast with ham, eggs, toast, potatoes, tomatoes and juice.  Chap came and met us there and introduced us to Jim and Sharon who are from Seattle area but spend several months in ChiangMai each year, staying at our hotel. Super nice folks who have some great suggestions.  We will meet them tomorrow for breakfast and they will introduce us to their tour guide, Jason.

Chap drove us back to his shop and his cutting factory in Hang Dong, about 30 minutes.  He parked by the cutting shop and showed us around.  He has a husband/wife team who do much of the cutting Chap determines the best shape and design for a stone and does a rough cut, then passes it along to these cutters along with dimensions and type of cut and they finish it.  They were working on sunstone today.

Then we walked a few blocks to B. Tree Gems, their lovely shop with a large Bo Tree in front. Very nice and spacious and nicely arranged, and air conditioned!

 Met Mook, Mam's daughter who works full time in the shop doing sales, designing and book keeping.

They are in an area called Handicraft Village which has hundreds of shops, many of which sell wholesale and have goods that are manufactured here or close by.  We saw some amazing wood carvings, clothing, jewelry and many many products, though we saw only a small fraction.

Chap has many stones, fossils, carvings and a lot of jewelry that Mam and Mook design. Local business is a bit slow because of the Thai economy, but this is the beginning of "high" season, so hopefully will pick up and be as good as the US part of his business.

Had lunch across the street at Pankled Coffee, with Chap and Mam.  I had a fruit salad with a tamarind dressing, Greg had Pad Thai.  Lunch and drinks for 6 for about $30.00!

After lunch, Chap took us to see a huge wood carving shop called Tip Manee,

that employs 85 carvers. No photos allowed inside, but the work was beautiful & intricate.  Then we stopped at "Mikki's", a small cafe with WONDERFUL pastries which we had to sample.  Greg and I had the rainbow crepe cake - yum!

 Chap went back to meet someone while the rest of us wondered around, got lost, but eventually made it back to the shop.

Chap drove us back to the hotel and we met Cheron and her tour guide Jason in our room.  He explained many options and showed us photographs and answered many questions.  He left and Cheron explained a few more things about the hotel and Thailand in general, like how to hail a taxi (hand down, never fingers pointed up).

This evening is a special Sunday market, so we walked there. There are small daily markets all over town, but this is a very large one held once a week.  There is also a Saturday market on another street and the Night Bazaar, which is a daily night market!

This is a walking market, where they close off several blocks of one or more streets, mainly Ratchadamnoen Road and vendors come and set up stands and displays.  There were also some beggars and some people playing instruments.  Very interesting and it got busier as it got later.  Selling everything from fried bamboo worms to squid to pastries, plus clothing, purses, scarves, wallets, and hundreds of other items.

 Soon it

was a bit overwhelming with numbers of people, so we exited at Thapei Gate (There are four main gates around the 1 sq km old city.) and walked back along the Mae Ping River.  Had dinner at a random Thai Restaurant called Mamory Delicious Restaurant and Cafe.  Very good.  Back to hotel to relax a bit.

This is part of the old wall which used to surround the city.