After a surprisingly comfortable night we arrived in Chiang Mai. It is Thailand's second city and has an ancient walled city in the centre. It has its own language and was once a separate kingdom (15th century) and the old royal family are the ones invited to ceremonies not the current Thai king. It's also yet another country that drives on the left because the king was given a Rolls Royce in an act of friendship from Britain when he felt threatened by the French in Indo-China a century ago (that's what our guide said). The city is surrounded by mountains and that is where we went to some quad biking on forest trails. Each trail got progressively harder and in the third Kate tipped over and suffered a few scrapes and bruises. A Japanese couple got to the first trail and decided not to proceed. After the third water stop Kate's bike wouldn't start so she rode pillion on Sebastian's through some gentle terrain to the waterside restaurant where lunch was served.The rest of our party arrived a few minutes later having dug themselves out of a couple of ditches so we were glad to have taken an easier route. After a good soak in the bath it was time for a sunset trip to Doi Suthep.
This was yet another beautiful temple complex full of statuary and golden buildings . We were lucky because the monks allow photography inside the temples and we arrived in time to share a religious ceremony.It was humorous to see the novice monks behave just like little choirboys,arriving late,squabbling and not having the right prayer books. After that it was off for dinner in a vast food court where we bought vouchers that could be redeemed at the various serveries. It was very cheap and similar to the Japanese food courts except theirs are fully automated. A stroll through the night market with all its souvenir stalls and bars with live bands playing led Zeppelin and chilli peppers covers until we reached the Chiang Mai cabaret where the local lady boys dance and mime to 70's hits.It was a great show and as our tour leader had arranged front row seats our single male travellers were singled out for special attention and Nick ended up on stage with his t-shirt ripped off. Kate was even kissed by a lady boy too during the Abba singalong finale and Sebastian never dreamed when he was promoting these songs back in the late 70's it would come to this. We returned to the hotel in one of the public taxis,they look like red hearses but are cheap because there are no buses here.