Success - another mission completed!

Liz
Feb 4
4 min read

Updated: Apr 19

Chiang Mai, Day 75

Yesterday we did quite a bit of walking and of course, it's not just our 'normal' walking, no, we are talking about traipsing about during the hottest point of the day like the mad Scottish folks we are. Well, in reality, by the time we are ready to step out of the apartment, it's usually nearing midday. There are various reasons for this, but mainly, I'm more of a morning person, so I normally wake first. I'll have breakfast, do some admin, write my blog posts, etc., and then about 9.30-10.00, R will wake up (he usually goes to sleep a bit later than me as he's often reading or watching a film on the laptop in bed). But by the time he has breakfast, showered, and done his stuff, it's nearly midday!

So today is no exception, but we decided not to go too far and just take things easy today. I also keep saying that I'm going to go for a swim, but somehow, by the time we get back and, get showered, I can't be bothered and then I like watching the sun go down from the balcony, so I'm starting to think that we don't really need to include a pool in our future accommodation stays, especially in very hot climates!

R suggests that we once again explore and try to investigate the mysterious water feature thing that we could see from the previous accommodation balcony. Clearly this has really been bugging him as he tells me he thinks he has narrowed down where it might be coming from and our only challenge will be if we are able to access the location.

So once we are both ready, we set off on our mission.

Before we head towards the location in question, we nip across the road from the apartment complex to have a nosey at the shops that are located there. There is a good little collection of useful places, including a pharmacy, a Dairy Queen, a Seven-Eleven, a KFC (we haven't used this to date!), various fitness places, some health and beauty type places, and a few food seller stalls. So overall, it's very handy for the folks that are living in the Sky River complex.

I should also say at this point that we need to walk past R's favourite local restaurant but disaster strikes and we discover the restaurant is closed on a Sunday. I mean how can the hard working family do this to him?? Nevermind, its onwards and upwards to the water feature.

Well we are over the moon to have finally located the 'water feature' which is part of the Empress Chiang Mai Hotel and Convention complex. Although we were quite disappointed that it was not displaying the water at the time we where there.

The 'water feature' we used to see from the balcony at the Astra Condo (in the background)

To curb our disappointment, we then head over to the Duomo coffee shop for a cooling beverage and cake. We had no idea that this place also sold cakes until we read a review about it online! How did we miss that???

This is fast turning into a day of successes, as we not only find the coffee shop open (we did think it might also be closed on a Sunday, and we hadn't checked before heading there), but it was open, and we managed to get a couple of cool drinks and two enormous cakes!

After finishing these beauties off, we did struggle a little as they were pretty big, and we then nipped over to have a look at the Sacred Heart Church. It's quite strange being in a country where there are so many temples and very few churches, as we are so used to it being the other way around.

Sacred Heart Cathedral was first established in 1931 by the will of Pastor George Merabell and a Thai monk named Nicholas. At first, the Sacred Heart church was just a little wooden dwelling that was made to be a place for religious activities for Christians. It is said that Sacred Heart Cathedral is the principal church of Chiang Mai, and the church is very precious for Catholics who live in the north of Thailand, as it has a long historical background and was built while the dissemination of Christianity was blooming.

As we start to head back to the apartment, we decide to pop back to the 'water feature' - as we are curious if the water is flowing again and yet again we have another success - it is in full flow but we cannot go too close to it as an employee is sitting at a table close to the area and we don't expect that we would be allowed in this section. However, our mission is complete, and we are satisfied that we finally managed to locate the elusive 'water feature'.

As to what the system and features are all about, we shall just leave that for another day...

Then it was back to the apartment: shower, rest, and a lovely evening on the balcony watching the sun go down over Chiang Mai.