Chiang Mai Day 1

Yesterday early afternoon saw us arriving in Chiang Mai with Bangkok Air on an Airbus 320 nicely decorated on the outside with pictures of fish. The flight was quiet - not much more than 30 passengers - and almost all were "Farang" (literally I believe it means Guava, but it refers to Westerners). Despite being a low cost airline and the flight time only 1hr 15 mins, they gave us a decent sandwich, pastry, soft drink and the kids got jigsaws.

Immediately on leaving the airport - which is only 3km from the city - we realised how different Chiang Mai is from Bangkok. No high-rise, much quieter.

Our hotel Pak Chiang Mai is delightful. It's a small family-run place built around a courtyard where they have lovely quiet niches to sit and relax. The decking has an area where massages can be given, a kids area, and underneath it runs a little fishpond. The kids were really happy playing here although we were embarrased when Fiona decided it would be a good idea to feed baby powder from the massage area to the fishes. Luckily the owner wasn't upset and said the filter would clean it.

The hotel has two PCs for internet usage. It also provides as much bottled water as we like. And lots of other nice extras like jars of Thai sweets and snacks sitting waiting to be tried. It's really at the level of a boutique hotel and the family who run it clearly try to go the extra mile. Our room doesn't have any view unless the neighbour's wall counts, but it's very quiet.

We ate a late lunch at the hotel, where they serve Thai and some western food for street market prices. Only the owner speaks English so it can be a little tricky to explain what we need.

After a late afternoon nap we headed off to the Night Bazaar which was nicer than the ones we saw in Bangkok - more spacious, relaxed feeling, and not just tacky rip-offs. Gyorgyi bought a couple of meters of nice silk and some other items, as well as spending an hour tea-tasting - which was free so we felt obliged to buy some tea we don't need. The young son of the lady who ran the tea shop was sleeping behind her on the floor - and she is there every night until 1am.

The people and the food look a little different here - more of an Indian food influence (the area is not far from Burma/Myanmar) and more women dressed in Muslim clothes.

So far we've stuck to Thai food only, but gave in yesterday and visited a Burger King for the kids. Fiona is quite happy eating rice and noodles all the time but Briana shows a little homesickness and would like some home comforts.

While at the market it started to get windy and we felt some drops of rain. Since the vendors started to cover up, we decided it was time to get going too, jumped into a Tuk Tuk and scooted back to the hotel. After the heavy overnight rain, the hotel owner told me this morning it is the first rain in 4 months. The air is clear and cool this morning. Apparently the air quality here in the last week has been very poor, so this is welcome.

Today we plan some temples. We stay 2 more nights at this hotel which is just inside the old city (a 1 km square area surrounded by a moat), then we move to another hotel a few km outside the city in the countryside for 5 nights.

Now the mosquitoes are starting to feast on me. Time to get some repellent creams...