Sunday morning

The hostel owner assured me that I could find my leather belt and reading glasses at Waroros Market so I was headed that way again. For variety I walked to the south perimeter and continued around the inner ring. This was just as much to spot Brown Rice, a restaurant that had been recommended to me.

The canal has fountains which are more attractive at night when lit.

Interesting building facade but I don't know what they sell. Maybe a Thai reader can enlighten us. I can't read Thai script, it looks to me like printed circuit board traces. Any kind of Latin script, let alone English, is uncommon in Thailand. When I bought a bag of potato crisps, the only word in English was the flavour: Original. I wonder how the expats, an estimated 50,000 in Chiang Mai, cope. I spotted quite a few in the supermarkets and shopping centres, some with Thai wives in tow, or perhaps the other way around.

There is another market on the eastern flank with the usual produce. I was attracted by the brightly coloured lanterns.

There was a display of Thai zodiac animals just outside a gate. Apparently the dragon from the Chinese zodiac is replaced by great snake in the colloquial Thai zodiac. The other animal is the little snake of course.

At the market I found the leatherware stall. When I asked they helpfully took me around to the reading glasses stall. For lunch, from various vendors, I had: steamed pork balls in sweet chilli sauce, fried spring rolls, cylindrical kueh kapit (obviously more widespread than just in Malaysia), boiled peanuts, coconut ice cream, and a guava drink. All cheap, satisfying and as I remembered them.

I wanted a air-con place with WiFi to cool off so I had a coffee and cake at Black Canyon Coffee, just inside the Tha Phae gate, pictured here. (Vestiges of the various gates are at the edge of the old city.) BCC seems to be a Thai franchise chain. Their rivals opposite, Coffee Club, has Australian franchisees, but I see that they are now half owned by Thai interests and going global. Incidentally Thailand has highlands that grow coffee.

Back at the hostel, I got a haircut from a barber around the corner. The queue was long and I had to wait some 45 minutes for my turn, but I had nothing else on the agenda so just had a nap while waiting. It was cheap at 30B (~$1), though the record for the cheapest haircut I've had goes to Cuba at 16¢. Interesting that the barber didn't use the razor to shave the stubble near the ears like he did with the other customers. Maybe he didn't want any trouble from a farang in case he nicked me.