To get around Chiang Mai you stand on the edge of a street and hail a red truck.

This is kind of like a group taxi, continually scooping up passengers and dropping them off.  When one pulls over, you need to have a destination name ready for the driver.

So far, we have always been waved in when we say, “Tha Phae Gate,” the name of a famous opening in the wall around the Old City.

Giddy from the success of our first red truck transaction (20 baht per person for the ride—35 baht currently equals one U.S. dollar), we clambered out of the back to look around at our first view of downtown.

The first sign that caught our eye (probably because it was one of the few in English) said Gecko Books.

We are all fond of a good book store and used books are even better: we can spend hours perusing titles and enjoying the smell of the musty pages.

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