Tuesday, Nov 15 - Chiang Mai - River Ride

Today we had a light day of sightseeing.  First stop was the Mae Ping River where we boarded a scorpion boat (without the “scorpion” tail) for a ride up the River. 

We stopped at an herb farm where we were able to see many herbs that are used in Thai cooking and as medicines.  We also saw a really huge pig and some bunnies…all stated to be pets only.  Hum!  Maybe?

We also saw trees filled with lanterns from the night before.

And there were many krathongs floating down the river. 

After we got off the boat June pointed out a really unique temple.  The “really unique part of it was an elephant head at one corner of the roof.  Apparently the elephant rarely appears on the temples.  Other than the elephant heads the temple looked pretty much like most that we have seen in Thailand.

We took the afternoon off and after dinner we walked over to a main road to watch the Loi Krathong festival parade.  Everyone was in black and white out of respect to their recently departed king...   

and all of the floats were black and white with many glass tiles that made them sparkle.

We stayed for only about half of the parade and then walked back to the hotel.  Along the way we got a good view of the supermoon through the clouds.  

Looks like it was being eaten by a cloud person (or maybe a dragon).