DAY SEVEN CHIANG MAI, THAILAND. JANUARY 16th 2026. [<Click on the title to see the entire day]

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This morning after breakfast I headed down to the massage place in the Temple area, but they were busy so I continued walking. Now not only are there massage places every two doors, there are also temples everywhere. But this video shows you the road, some traffic and the variety of businesses on that main road.

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My friend was coming to meet me, so I filled the time with going to the hairdresser. Note the intelligence of the bed that you lie in to get your hair washed. No more sore necks. Wish we had this in our hairdressers :) Once my friend arrived we then headed back to the massage place had a massage and headed out of town with a Grab.

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The next five videos show the Umbrella Festival as it was called. We took a Grab and drove roughly 30 minutes out of town. I always find it better to see how the outer areas look rather than the touristy places. Note I do show some tourist places on my pics and videos but I also show details of real life for the Thai folks :)

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SO!!! after waiting what appeared to be 3 hours but was most likely closer to two hours, the parade looked like it would start. It had been said it would start at 4pm. That did not happen :) Note that everywhere you go you have food vendors, clothes vendors etc. This type of shopping/eating is all over the streets of Chiang Mai.

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The Band in the parade. Note how most Thai people are NOT fat? I believe this is why the hospitals do not have line ups for illnesses that western food creates. Thai people do not overeat and stay off fatty/sweet foods.

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Well, I found the parade a little lame. But I am not a huge fan of parades at all. I do not go to any in Edmonton. It was a long drive to get here and even worse going home.

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Last video of the parade and then holy moly what a task to find a Grab. They are not big fans of driving out of the city. Therefore, you have to hope someone has taken a ride to where you are. It took about 30-45 minutes to find one. Now if the driver does not know where you are they text back with a pickup point. We could NOT find this pickup point even googling it. Finally, my friend went into 7/11 [yes, the store lol] and as always Thai people will bend over backwards to help. The cashier was no exception. She spoke to the driver and told him where we were. He asked that we cross the road and meet him on that side. We BRAVELY did that LOL. And home we headed, but the day was not over as we decided to head down to the Night Festival.

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Night had fallen and we walked all the way down to the Night Festival area that I showed you in the past videos. Once near the end you have the food vendors. I had seen the vegan vendor when I walked here before. Now I was going to eat from her set up :)

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LIVE music, great food, vegan ice cream for dessert and a GREAT sleep after all that walking.