Sunday 18 January, 2015

Wow are we sore today from riding those elephants yesterday! And we have decided to walk around the old town to see all the gates. We know that will be at least 9k!

The walls gates were built in about 1296, in a 2000m x 1800m rectangle with an 18 m wide moat that took 90,000 men 4 months to build. They have been rebuilt a few times.

We started at the Chang Phuak Gate which was to the North and used by the Kings to enter the city.

We headed to the west gate, after turning the corner where there was a shrine near the wall.

Saun Dok Gate, the west gate is known as the flower gate as there was a huge floral garden where the royalty used to picnic outside the gates. It is now a temple.

So many eateries that we passed, you wonder how they all make a go of it!

Stopped for a coffee break and then turned towards the south gate. This is the wall on the corner.

There was a lovely park that we stopped to take some photos in. Beautiful bridge and flowers.

We came across the first of the southern gates, Saen Pung, that was used to transport the deceased out of the town for cremation.

The moat gives the area a real peaceful feel. Most gates had such huge trees on either side, they were stunning.

The second south gate was Chaing Mai. This gate was used by the people to travel to Lamphum.

One of the many food markets is here.

Lovely fountains in the moats all around the city.

We stopped to have a bite of lunch before seeing the last gate, the Tha Phae gate which had been named the Chiang Ruak gate because of the village nearby then changed to denote the houses on the water.

Through the gates they had markets on so we wandered there for awhile, before heading to the last corner then home!

Lovely sink at the Burger King toilets! Right next door to Coffee Club.

Tonight we ventured to the night markets. OMG, I have never seen so many people at markets. It was wall to wall people and you just surged with everyone. There were about 2 km of markets. We had corn on the cob and lovely banana spring rolls for dinner.bought several things after thinking there wouldn't be anything that we hadn't seen earlier!

Home sweet home, feet up...we think we walked over 15km today!