Monday 16th October

Slept a bit longer as we were only being collected at 9.30 by Noom and yet another driver. Our tour said home craft village but it turned out to be a visit to numerous shops which had workshops behind their premises.
We visited leather, silk, silver and umbrella making shops/factories. It was fascinating. At the umbrella factory they also do the beautiful paintings on the umbrellas and offer to paint designs on anything the visitors have with them. Mim and I had beautiful designs painted on our bags for just 50 baht.
When we came out of the umbrella shop, Noom, driver and minibus gone! So we sat and had an ice cold beer. Eventually they turned up and said they’d gone for lunch. Said we would have gone too but Noom said they only ate from roadside. Told him that’s what we normally do and asked him to stop and buy us something on way back to guest house. When we were almost back, we stopped and he asked if savoury lice and chicken ok. It was very ok – so delicious.
After our now customary snooze, we took a 15 minute walk away from the direction of town and found a pavement strip with tables and chairs and many stalls from which to choose Thai meals cooked to order. Chose a stall where we were greeted by an old man in English who explained what his wife was selling. He directed us to a table and sat down to chat. He was 73 years old and his parents had come from Indonesia 100 years ago. He had been a dairy farmer until recently when he could no longer manage his herd of 40 cows on his own so had moved to Chiang Mai to be near his daughter and her family. Meal of rice chicken and fish balls with chili sauce was delicious. It only cost 55 baht including a coke. (80 pence or 12 rand for the two of us).
By the time we walked back it was dark. Had had to dodge the potholes on the pavements when it was light but doing so in the dark was a bit trickier. Crossing the road was also an experience – so many mopeds and motorbikes whizzing by.