Back into Chiang Rai town proper we go, following the road to the river, then easily finding the stairs that bring you up top to the walkway in the middle of the bridge. Now we know! The views of the river are beautiful up here – even with the cars whizzing past behind us.

We do pass the church on the way back into town, but decide to skip it in favor of the Flower Festival, which the sweet manager at the hotel told us not to miss. We’re glad she mentioned it, because we had no idea the festival was going on. There are signs all over, but they have a start date in December only. No festival dates or end dates. We find the park easily enough, walking through the gauntlet of street food stalls that line the lane to the City park. Once inside the gates, it is a cornucopia of flowers – everywhere you look, trailing trellises of beautiful orchids in all colors, heaps of flower sculptures placed in and among the existing bushes and foliage, life size doll mannequins with ball gowns (think Cinderella) made of roses and an more elegant model with tulips, a stage decked out in a flower backdrop, it is all just a magical flower land!

And then there are the ever present gigantic statues of, well, anything you can imagine! The babies are the best though. Gigantic infants doing different things on the lawn. So cute and funny. Then there are the teapots sprouting flowers, gigantic vases filled with flower arrangements, the singer girls not to mention the murals of animals painted into panels on a vine covered wall.

A fabulous way to spend a few afternoon hours. Done with our wandering, we’re getting thirsty, deciding to stop on the way back to the hotel at Ribs & Co. as their sign has just pulled us in! A delightful beer (no wine) and banana chips later, and we are quite hydrated and prepared to walk our way back to the hotel.

Taking a quick break, we head back out into the streets at 5pm in search of beer. We hit the 7-11 across the street, but they don’t have any beer. At all. Odd. We try to ask the kid behind the counter, but he barely speaks English and doesn’t have a clue what we are saying. Ok, we’ll find somewhere else…we hope. The next convenience store has no beer either. Hmmmm….apparently the laws/rules are different in Chiang Rai and you can’t just get beer at any store. Well, this is an interesting dilemma. Nothing left to do but wander in hopes we find somewhere to buy some cans for the night. Heading into the night market area, we stumble upon some little teeny mom and not-pop convenience store where there is a cooler full of beverages and beer. Success. Maybe. Mom speaks no English. None. Fortunately there is a younger guy there who speaks some and sort of translates for us. We find out the price (input into a calculator as always!) then pull out the money. But when I go to get her a coin to get change back in a paper bill, it totally messes her up! She can’t figure that out at all. Even though I pantomime counting and pointing to the 20 baht bill I want back, she can’t get it. Finally young guy steps in and figures it all out – transaction complete! Phew. We’re now set for the evening.

Heading back to the hotel with our precious purchases, we take some time to explore the bus graveyard that is on the soi before you get to the entrance tot he hotel. We’ve passed it twice now and it fascinates us – this is where all the old buses go to die – well, not all, but a bunch! Except one has been added since this afternoon when we got here…..maybe they aren’t all dead? Who knows, but we can tell you this, we’re not getting in the blue bus in the back. Not a chance!

Hanging out, and cracking open one of our hard won beers as celebration along with my wine I brought along from Chiang Mai (yeah, I’m wasn’t risking that!), we cool off a bit and hang out until it is time to go to the walking street market behind the hotel. We picked this hotel because of the proximity to the walking street, figuring we might as well stay close – which has worked out well on all accounts really. The walking street is a long 2 blocks way, but still easily accessible down the back soi out of the hotel. The market is set up like every other walking street, vendors who set up for the evening with their wares. However this market is much more local than the typical Chiang Mai markets. There are a lot of hardware and houseware products, clothes (and not touristy clothes, but more practical every day wear), shoes, accessories, the random Weed stall – have I mentioned the legal weed business here? If not, well, let’s just say weed shops are EVERYWHERE around now. In Chiang Mai? Every other store front is a weed shop. It is crazy – and the occasional touristy souvenir stall. Really fun, but not so much we’re interested in purchasing. Although I do manage to make a deal for another elephant purse. What the heck!

The food stall area is jam packed though. We had hoped to eat on the street here, but that is not to be. There isn’t a table to be had anywhere, and no one looks like they are leaving anytime soon. Oh well, we’ve tried to time this so that we can see the clock tower show, so we just head on down to the tower and grab a prime position at the corner of Suk Sathit and Phaholyothin road. Perfect. And perfect timing, because the show starts almost immediately. The lights and music are crazy fun and pretty – made even more crazy fun by the cars that just keep driving by on the road. We love the transition from gold to red to purple to green. The balls and angels and kings and things that come out of the clock tower in time with the music are really neat as well (the pictures and videos only sort of capture these figurines – but they were great fun to watch.

We took a ton of videos to give you a better feel for the atmosphere, we’ll just let them speak for themselves:

• Chiang Rai Clock Tower
• Chiang Rai Clock Tower #2
• Chiang Rai Clock Tower #3
• Chiang Rai Clock Tower #4

Excellent free entertainment! Every night at 8pm for your viewing and listening pleasure. It is nigh on dinner time though, so off we go, back to the ex-pat area of town to find a restaurant. Ok – we’re just doing the Western thing here apparently, as we settle in at the Bavarian Beer house for some excellent German dishes of wurst and potato salad and….spring rolls? Ok, so I’m not going exactly Western! And of course San Miguel beer for Ed and a white wine….cooler for me! Yeah, once again I’m foiled on the wine, but this cooler is really, really, really close to the old Malt Duck we used to drink as high schoolers when we could find someone to buy us a 6-pack at the 7-11 all those years ago! It is just as sweet and fizzy – and you have to admit, the champagne glass is a fabulous touch!

Walking back, we decide to take a last stroll through the walking market, looking for more elephant bags with 2 zipper pockets (which I don’t find) but stumbling on a little coin purse/wallet sort of thing that cost 30 baht. For 89 cents US, figure it’s worth a try, even if it breaks tomorrow!

Back at the hotel, we relax in our huge room, sipping on our night time beverages, deciding that while we really wanted the suite, we’d not be using the balcony because it gets cold up here! As in find the heat setting cold. We will definitely be happy for the heavy comforter on the bed tonight. We may even need the swans – deconstructed of course!