Not only did the city's glittering temples make Chiang Mai's look drab, but the very air was infused with a pal-pable spirituality.
The Sharia court argued that Ms Mai's case should have been tried under Hudood laws and not anti-terrorism legislation.
This is bad news for NGO leaders hoping to use Ms Mai's case to draw attention to the gender imbalance that they say pervades every aspect of Pakistani life.
If you get hungry as you get lost shopping in Chiang Mai's streets, the temples along the way host food stalls selling flavoursome northern Thai cuisine and other stamina boosts for the small change in your pocket.
Chang Mai straddles one of Asia's great crossroads - a southern spur of the Silk Road - fusing commerce and culture between points farther north and west in modern-day China, Laos and Myanmar.
The Mai Mai were set up in the late 1990's by Laurent Kabila, shortly after he overthrew President Mobutu Sese Seko.
The World Development Movement's Barry Coates points to the proposed MAI rules.
Born and brought up in the northern city of Chiang Mai, he began his career in Thailand's notoriously corrupt police force, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel and completing a Phd in Texas before resigning.
Ms Mai had appealed to the government after the High Court's ruling that those acquitted should not be released.
There's also a wide-spread belief that the amulets and intimidating wooden masks the Mai Mai wear give them magic powers.
The Congolese Army's in the midst of an offensive to try to wipe out these militias and capture the most powerful Mai Mai leader in the region, Jedieaun(ph).
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