I gave my talk today to a rather empty audience. Oh well! Afterwards, Rob and I went out for dinner. Chiang Mai really is excellent. We had another dramatic tuk-tuk ride into the city, walked around the Wat (where you can have a chat with a monk: "suggested topics: The life of Monks"), admired the trees (I thought that the massive trees were Bodhi (or Bo) trees, but I've just looked them up and now I don't think so --- Faith, what's the tree in the first picture -- it's massive?
We had a fun dinner in a restaurant that was "perfectly located" and "nicely decorated with Lanna Puppet". The rice came in a "chic banana leaf cone". "You will definitely enjoy the chef's laughter". Well that was true ... I accidentally ate the strongest chilli that I've ever encountered and, I'm sure, without drinking copious amounts of beer would have ended up in hospital.
We walked through the night market, stopping to buy some gifts and to decide whether Rob needed a large pair of boxer shorts or not and having an icecream. We ended up walking back to the hotel. Tomorrow is the last day of the conference. Then a day riding elephants. Then off to LiJiang. I'm really annoyed. Vikram and I discovered that we could get to LiJiang by a bus ride to Laos and then a 12 hour boat ride up the Mekong. Instead, I'm flying and have to spend from midnight to 6am in Kunming airport.
1 comment:
After an extensive search, George - I don't like to let you down - I belive it may be the yang tree, Dipterocarpus alatus. The dipterocarps (or, as one website would engagingly have it, 'dipterocraps') in general are the major emergent forest trees in the area, hence the enormous height.
It appears this particular one may have been planted 200 years ago by King Chao Kawila, and is thought to protect the city as long as it stands. So I hope you didn't even think of damaging it or one like it, because then you could have been in for a fine of 10 000 Baht!!!
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