Chiang Mai to Bangkok

Our last morning in Chiang Mai! We had just enough time to return to a couple of favourite local temples and savour the pace of street life in the old city, Then we piled into two of the little red transport trucks ("rapchangs") with all our suitcases strapped to the tops, and made our way to the airport for the 1hr+ flight to Bangkok.

Thailand's capital city is immense and we managed to be in the traffic to our downtown hotel during the afternoon rush hour. There are an amazing number of scooters and motorbikes here! Every intersection looks like a motorbike convention as they all seem to sneak up between the cars at the lights and take over the front of the queue.

The Rikka Inn is on the street of the night market, so our minibus driver let us off at one end and we threaded our way through the growing shopping/strolling crowd to find it. Rooms here are smaller and less funky than the Parasol Inn in Chiang Mai, but they have everything you need in about 200 sq ft.

Dinner in a quiet outdoor restaurant down a private alley was delightful, but Bangkok's 33C humid heat doesn't dissipate until overnight, and then only down to 23C! A stroll down the night market street madness and back to our hotel room - thank goodness for air conditioning!

Tomorrow we are up early and off to visit the ancient abandoned Siamese capital of Ayutthaya north of Bangkok!