Chiang Mai 2/1

After breakfast we set out to the local zoo. After a red truck ride we arrived, and paid the admission. Our guidebook touted the ZOO as a great and very inexpensive attraction, and it may have been true a few years ago. Now, the entrance fee is 100 baht (not 50 as in the guidebook) and then you have to pay separately if you want to see the pandas (another 150), ride the monorail (150) or ride the tram (100). We were given a map and we started walking. There were either no signs or unintelligible ones. After walking up hills we tired and were ready to leave when a tram driver stopped and invited us aboard. The short ride back to the entrance was a relief. We started walking in a different direction and another tram took pity on us. We finally saw some animals. Hippos, elephants, giraffes, emus, bears, flamingos, birds, and tigers, leopards, and a jaguar. Al fed a piece of meat to a grateful leopard. We then took a red truck to an upscale neighborhood of Nimmanhemin. It’s supposed to be the hippiest part of town. It was quite different from any other place we have been to – more glitzy, cosmopolitan and mostly expat. It was a hot day so we spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool. When it got dark, we decided to visit yet another market that we saw from the red truck the previous night – the Warorot market. It was different from the other markets because it was mostly food – stalls with foods being cooked, fruits and vegetables and also a huge flower market. There were also some clothes, but no touristy trinkets and not that many tourists. We were hungry so we picked a barbecue stall and bought some pork skewers and a piece of grilled chicken. It was delicious. We walked around, bought some fruit (rambutans and mangosteens); Bo bought a pair of very funky plastic shoes; and then we went back for more grilled pork and chicken. By then the market got very crowded so we left. On the way back we stopped at our night market and bought some mango and sticky rice for desert.