final days in Nimman

The area that we've been staying in is called Nimman, which is on the north west side of the city outside the old city walls.  The good things about the area: 

- Lots of good / fresh food with tons of vegetarian / vegan options

- Tons of massage parlors with good prices

- Everything is walkable

- Many people speak at least some English

- Good access to 25m and 50m pools

The not so great things about the area include:

- The air almost always smells of car/truck/scooter exhaust

- The international airport is nearby, so loud aircraft flybys are frequent

- There's not a lot of nature to be accessed on foot

- Tons of low-hanging electric wires are strung up everywhere

All of the above being said, we've been thoroughly enjoying our stay in Nimman.  The first 2 days we walked everywhere averaging 12,000 steps per day.  Yesterday, we booked a 2-day scooter rental and have been venturing a bit further and walking a bit less.

We've been achieving our goal of 1 massage per day, have consumed a lot of different types of Thai and Burmese food (including pad thai and green papaya salad), have gotten in pool workouts every day and have visited 2 different night markets.

Today, we decided to head out for an adventure before breakfast to the Wat Phra That Doi Suthep.  This is one of the most important temples in Chiang Mai and was built in the 19th Buddhist century.  Legend has it that a monk found one of the Buddha's shoulder bones.  Part of this bone was placed on the back of a white elephant and sent into the jungle.  The elephant is said to have climbed up Doi Suthep to the top, trumpeted 3 times, and then died.  This was interpreted as an omen and the temple was constructed in this place.

To get there, we drove west on our motorbike past the university and then rode back and forth on switchbacks up the mountain to the top.  It took us about 30 minutes total and because it was so early in the morning, the air was quite cold.  But we made it before the tour buses, so we had the place to ourselves for a solid 20 minutes.

After we parked our bike in the parking area, we started up the 306 serpent-lined steps to the temple.  

The temple was beautiful with so much detail on all the buildings and some really great views of the city of Chiang Mai.

Today is our last day in the Nimman area.  So, we are going to celebrate by checking out the Sunday walking street market (in the old city), playing in our hotel pool, and another massage!  

Tomorrow we'll have our last hotel buffet breakfast (we are all still loving it) and then we'll get picked up in a van and transported to the Elephant Nature Park - a sanctuary for rescued elephants.  We have all been really looking forward to this part of the trip and Todd and I can't wait to see Gordy's face when he sees an elephant in real life!