Day 4 - Chiang Mai

Merry Christmas (and happy birthday, Jessica)!  We spent Christmas day exploring more of Chaing Mai and enjoying our last full day in the city.  After breakfast at the hotel we grabbed a red taxi to Wat Umong, which is a very old temple in the jungle.  The stairs up to Wat Umong were guarded by these dragons (nagas):

And here is the actual temple:

Also on the grounds of the temple were a series of tunnels dating back to the 16th century.  We made our way through the maze, snapping photos:

Two bats above one of the small outcrops

These colorful strips of cloth were hanging all over the building around the temple

 After Wat Umong, we headed to the Chiang Mai Zoo and Aquarium.  The zoo was fine, nothing much to write home about except both a cute baby elephant and baby giraffe.  The aquarium, however, was really cool.  There were great freshwater exhibits with enormous arapimha (absolutely wrong spelling) and catfish.  In the saltwater tank they had leopard sharks, black tip reef sharks and huge trevale (again, I can't spell the names of fish).  We didn't take many photos except for the small bridge from the zoo to the aquarium site where we saw this strange sight:

Those are small children inside huge floating hamster balls on a large pond.  Apparently this is a fun past time at the Chiang Mai Zoo.

 Starving, we grabbed a red taxi to a place Andrew had been talking about for the last two days - SP Chicken.  Unfortunately, as soon as we arrived, we realized it was only open for dinner, starting at 6 p.m.  Instead, we grabbed a table at a small Northern Thai restaurant on the street that was written up in our guide book.

Yay, everyone is happy to sit down and eat

Woohoo!

This woman mixed up a few of our dishes in this large bowl that seemed to be a type of mortar and pestle

Mmm, yummy Northern Thai food

This is just a cool photo of a truck bed full of jackfruit I took while we were walking around the city after lunch

 We got back to the hotel around 4 and rested a bit before dinner.  Of course, we couldn't miss SP chicken, so we set out on a mission, determined not to miss it a second time:

Success!

These chickens were on spinning spits cooking quickly next to the hot charcol

Four hot sauces, four beer glasses, four sets of silverware and a plate of cucumbers.  What more could you ask for before a meal?

A different view of the spinning chickens

The chickens were being basted with this sauce.  No idea what it was.

Finished chicken on the plate :)  I would have taken more photos of the meal, but we started scarfing things down before I could get a hold of my camera.

 In search of an after-dinner drink, we walked to the riverside and down a few blocks to a sleek, modern hotel called The Chedi.  We had a coupe drinks and called it a night.  Tomorrow we're off to Luang Prabang in the afternoon.  Sad to see Chiang Mai go, but excited for what Laos has to offer.

Art shot at The Chedi of my gin and tonic (with cucumber)