Trip to Thailand & Laos, Nan - Part 1

The second morning (after my suitcase was returned...of course after I had bought new clothes and stuff) I left Bangkok for Nan on Nok Air. I love the way they decorate their planes (but not the way they cancel flights...two on this trip) Flights leave from the old airport which I used to love but now looks rather forlorn now that its reduced in size and has no hope of any improvements.

In Nan I checked in to the gorgeous Pukha Nanfa Hotel, an 80 year old Teak hotel which had totally been redone two years ago to a boutique hotel.

My room on the second floor with flatscreen tv couldn't have been nicer.

There was a safe in the closet and a huge bathroom inside the wall on the right.

After settling in I headed out to view a few of the sights. The town itself is just the usual boring concrete buildings but the old temples are something else.

Those are elephants under the mold below the gold chedhi.

My next stop was the Nan Museum, housed in the home of the last Nan ruler.

By the end of the -14th century Nan was one of the nine northern Thai-Lao principalities that comprised Lan Na Thai (now Lanna) and the city state flourished throughout the 15th century under the name Chiang Klang (Middle City), a reference to its position roughly midway between Chiang Mai (New City) and Chiang Thong (Golden City, which is today's Luang Prabang). The Burmese took control of the kingdom in 1558 and deported many of the inhabitants to Burma as slaves; the city was completely deserted until western Thailand was retaken from the Burmese in 1786. The local dynasty then regained local sovereignty and it remained semi-autonomous until 1931 when Nan finally accepted full Bangkok dominion. Parts of the old city wall and several early wats dating from the Lanna period can be seen in contemporary Nan.

A walkway on the grounds.

Guardians at the door.

The National Museum

Just a cute dragon on a Wat on the way back to the hotel.