Imperial Mae Ping Hotel

An early morning flight into Chiang Rai and out again as quick as possible, to the Imperial hotel resort thingy in the Golden Triangle. If you push aside all the golden triangle kitsch - including the "U R Here" sign , its not a bad place to chill out ...

... deserved it after our night of celebrating! The rest of the day we just did some shopping walking the Pratuman Market near our hotel – souvenirs and great deals on everything you could want. (Pic of shopping) That night we went to the Baiyoke ...

... several islands.  We ate at a little seafood place with yummy lobster cocktail and lobster thermidor.  (So roughing it!).  The hotel was really cute.   It is a bit modern and the beds were harder than the hotel in Chiang Mai, ...

We had breakfast at the hotel and waited for the van to pick us up for the day's adventure.  Our fellow travelers included a 40 yr old Aussie, his 24 yr old Filipina girlfriend - he was just on the trip because he needed to cross the border to renew ...