Buddha statues on a ledge of a crumbling old chedi at Wat Lok Moli. Just north of the city walls this isn’t one of the most visited wats in Chiang Mai but we liked the shades of orange in the towering chedi and the cute animal statues around the grounds.
We have left Chiang Mai now but when we look back at our five months there the Yee Peng and Loy Krathong festivals last October/November stand out as the highlights. The city was decorated with lights and lanterns and this photo was taken at one of the colourfully decorated plazas.
One of our favourite destinations in Colombia was the quiet mountain village of Salento in the coffee region. We trekked for hours along muddy paths up steep trails and on our way back were rewarded with an up close look of the giant wax palms in the Valle de Cocora. It was a cloudy, rainy day but somehow that added to the mystery.
For more of our favourite places in South America see our free ebook South America Highlights.
Iberry is a cool ice cream cafe in Chiang Mai that’s popular with young Thai hipsters. We love the homemade ice cream and desserts there but what we love most is the huge garden fully of quirky details like this giant yellow dog underneath a tree with patterned light shades hanging from it. Bizarre but cool.
The orchid room was one of the highlights of the Royal Flora expo in Chiang Mai. We are used to these beautiful flowers being rare sightings but here we found a display of hundreds of varieties of orchids of all colours and patterns.