Bus tickets and museums

Last night we were lazy so we just walked down to Taste from Heaven for another delicious vegetarian Thai meal.
This morning we negotiated with a tuktuk driver in front of our hotel for a drive to the bus station to buy tickets. He started at 150 baht one way for a 20 minute drive and we finally settled on 200 baht (about $6) return, with him waiting for us at the bus station. These negotiations can be fun or they can be tiresome. This guy wasn't a whiner. He gave us a price and smiled. We raised our eyebrows, smiled and gave a counter offer. It doesn't need to be painful but it has to be done. After about a minute, we had arrived at a price that we could all live with. Once again, it's not much money but you just don't want to be treated like a sucker.
The bus station was a bit confusing but with smiles and gestures, we finally found the right building and the right ticket booth. We got tickets on the Friday mid-morning bus to Sukhothai, about a 5 or 6 hour trip for 239 baht each (about $7.25).
We set out again from our hotel for the Chiang Mai Cultural Museum. On the way we ran across El Loco Tex Mex restaurant which is highly rated on TripAdvisor. We'll dine there tonight for a change. Thais are crazy about the old American west. Lots of them wear cowboy hats and we even saw an Old West theme park outside of Chiang Mai. Go figure.

 In the plaza in front of the Thapae Gate through the old city walls, there are these signs hung from all the trees. The penalty for violating the alcohol ban in that area is 6 months in prison. In Thailand, they don't fool around. When we first entered Thailand from Cambodia by land, there were signs at the immigration line that said that drug trafficking was punishable by execution. Tourists are treated well in Thailand and need not fear the police but I would not want to get myself in trouble. Yesterday, when we tried to buy beer at the 7/11 at 2:20 in the afternoon, the lady showed us a sign that said there were alcohol sales from 8 am to 2 pm and 5 pm to 11 pm but none at 2:20 pm. So we walked back to our hotel and bought beer at the front desk for a slight surcharge at 2:30 pm. This is a little confusing.

 Some of the trees are in spring blossom and are just beautiful.

This is a statue of three kings in front of the old city hall which is now the Cultural Museum. We bought a package of tickets to 3 museums for 180 baht each (about $5). The Cultural Museum took us a long time to tour. It had a lot of interesting history of the Lanna kingdom which was centred in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai has only belonged to Thailand since the late 1700s when the Siam kingdom centred in Bangkok helped the Lanna kingdom drive out the Burmese who had colonized it for over 200 years. The history of southeast Asia is very complicated.
After the Cultural Museum we enjoyed mango and banana shakes at the Reading Room restaurant across the street. Great refreshment for 30 baht each (about $1). Then we went back to work in the Chiang Mai Historical Centre next door. This was okay but a bit more of the same.
Around 2 pm we came back to our room for a cool down. Tonight, we'll go have some Tex Mex, Thai style, and then hang out at some kind of outdoor craft exhibition and music (maybe) by the Thaphae Gate.