Puripunn Baby Grand Boutique Hotel, Chiang Mai

Wat Gade itself, some six centuries old, has a deliberately skewed chedi (relic spire), politely not pointing directly at heaven. The temple museum displays a trove of artifacts from bygone Lanna life.
A short riverside walk leads north of here to the Super Highway Bridge. To see more of the Ping’s leafy upper reaches, walk south down Charoenrat Road to the tour boat pier near Naowarat Bridge.
Either side of the bridge stands Christian churches. Missionaries played a major role in laying the foundation for the development of Chiang Mai’s health and education system so Chiang Mai’s king allowed church building on this side of the river in 1897. The Tourism Authority of Thailand office stands just south of here.
Along this stretch of Charoenrat Road, wooden paneling and gingerbread tracery distinguish rows of galleried teak buildings, most notably Six-Pole House, now occupied by the Oriental Style shop. Chief among the discretely located teak mansions is the filigree edifice built for the Bombay Borneo Company, a British firm that installed northern Thailand’s first swimming pool. Masonry Chinese-style shop houses, too, retain original features, such as lucky decorative motifs on their whitewashed stucco walls. Conservation-minded owners have since converted some of these romantic old structures into restaurants, boutiques and antiques emporia.
After dark, souvenir hunters head to the hectic Night Bazaar. For a more authentic Lanna experience, cross the Ping over the footbridge by Wat Gade, which ends in the midst of Gad Waroros – a traditional Northern-style open-air market. Under a forest of umbrellas, this maze of stalls hawks everything from farm produce to clothing and ceramics. But it’s the adjacent all-night flower market*, Gad Ton Lamyai, that most tingles the senses, filling the black velvet air with color, commotion and fragrance.
* Ton-Lamyai Market, adjacent to Wararos Market, is the biggest flower market in Chiang Mai.

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