Chiang Rai

We arrived in Chiang Rai, a quiet small city in north-east Thailand, a bit like a small version of Newcastle without such a good football team, on the afternoon of the 5th November, just as people were waking to Bonfire Night in the UK.

We are renting a two-bedroom house from a Canadian ex-pat who spends time teaching English in China. The house is part of a street owned by Mr Chian of Chian Guest House which is over the street so we have access to their pool, laundry service and wifi as well as restaurant if we need it. We're just settling in now. We have a kitchen and are cooking ours and Kaya's food again! She is loving carrot and sweet potato with coconut milk and scrambled eggs as well as new fruit to her - pineapple, watermelon and papaya.

We shop for fruit, veg, eggs, tofu, rice and noodles in the local produce night market. Today we came back with two types of long green veg that we've never cooked with before. No idea what they are, except one looks like a sort of aniseedy flavoured vegetable seen in Thai dishes. One cost 2 baht.

The Mae Kok river is nearby with a fancy new concrete prom. Also at hand are a couple of play grounds, the public library (where we went this morning and read Kaya a story about a baby with two mouths who ate lots and worried his parents but went to see a wizard and lost a mouth, got upset he couldn't eat his huge lunch by a pond, was advised by a stick person to go back to the wizard and next thing you know he is on a three seat bike singing songs with his happy parents!), some shops, an on-street 1 baht a litre water dispenser and a som tam stall.

We've been into the Saturday night Walking Market today, a long street packed full of stalls selling all sorts of gifts, clothes and handicrafts, a few food stalls (thought not as many as you'd expect in Thailand), live music and lots of people. Kaya loved it. We bought her two rattles and a pair of long pants. Thai's worry we don't cover her feet as the cold weather of winter is setting in and its only getting up to about a nippy 29oC during the day. That's much higher a temp that in Britain parents would be worrying about getting their children out of the heat.

We also visited a temple yesterday where Kaya rolled around on the carpet in front of the Buddhas and poked the carpet a bit. It is the beautiful old Wat Phra Singh temple which is all wood with red and gold decor inside. Today we saw the Chiang Rai Youth Orchestra perform at the Doi Chaang Coffee Shop.

We should be here for three weeks and then plan to move on to Pai, Koh Lanta and either Bangkok or return to Ayutthaya for the few days.