15. Chiang Mai: Searching for Street Art

Chiang Mai, like Bangkok (see our previous three posts), doesn't surrender her street art treasures readily or willingly. To see them you have to trudge many miles, in baking heat, breathing foul air and waiting endlessly to cross congested roads as this once laid-back city continues its downward spiral toward urban nightmare.

But, we paid our dues - so you don't have to - and eventually came away with a pretty decent number of pieces, some of which clearly sprang from local myth and culture:

Other pieces that we spotted reflected, shall we say, "non-local" cultures:

Still others grew out of the fertile minds of their creators:

These are just a few of the murals we spotted while our boot heels were a wanderin' about town. Next week we'll take a closer look at the work of some of the stars of Chiang Mai's street-art firmament.