Thailand: Day 2: Heading North

I wake in the morning at about 6, watching the sunrise, even though that is nothing more than a slight brightening of the overall haze of Bangkok. We go downstairs and have a good breakfast from a small buffet. It contains a small portion of scrambled eggs, and has vegetable fried rice and spicy Thai noodles. There are several locals, all dressed very nicely, for a wedding we sermise. We eat and the hotel calls us a taxi back to the airport.

We run around for a while looking for a place to buy a ticket up north to Chaing Mai, a mountain town. We get distracted momentarily by a man approaching us claiming to get us tickets, but after taking us down and down to some basement level of the airport, where no one else is, and telling us that the ticket counter is closed, we leave to go find where we are "supposed" to be.

We find a ticket counter and stand in line for a half hour or so and then buy tickets to Chaing Mai, about an hour or two later. We hang out at the gate and board. A one hour flight drops us off in Chaing Mai.

We are approached upon leaving the airport for a taxi, which I try to dismiss, as we are told not to take anything from anyone who approaches you. But after standing there looking lost and stupid for a moment the guy persists and we acquies. He says he knows our hotel, the Sri Pat hotel, and will take us there for 120 baht. I ask how far it is, once we are under way, and he says about 20 minutes. Maybe 5 minutes later we are there. Oh well.

The people at this hotel are incredibly nice. We check in and are taken to a very nice and comfortable room. Spacious, well appointed. It has a small balcony with a single chair and a small table. It has an in room safe, which makes me happy. We leave and go to explore.

We start a walking tour of nearby temples, called Wats, and find the first a few blocks from our hotel. We are greated by some Thais near a Tuk Tuk, who gives a bit of a schpeal and let us be on our way. We explore and take pictures and sit prayer style and revear the Buddahs for a while. We are exploring the back side of the grounds and we are approached by a friendly Thai who says that he is a teacher and is visiting family in Chaing Mai. He studies architecture, and converses with us for a while, stating that there are 352 Wats in Chaing Mai, and suggest 2 in particular for their varried architecture, and marks them on our map. I don't know why but Lucy and I always have great luck with people. They always seem to want to talk to us. It's intreguing.

On our way out we hire the Tuk Tuk driver, a very friendly female, who originally offered us a 1 hour tour for 100 baht, but upon inspecting our map marked by our friend, and probably seeing the 60 baht he had written on there, she says she will do it for 60 baht... imagine that. We visit a Chinese style Wat, with monks shuffling around sweeping leaves, and construction going on all over the place. The map makes the city look big and the Wats far apart, but our Tuk Tuk ride was mear moments. We are approached by another local, who says that he works for the state, and talks to us for a while, telling us about the temples etc. Both he and the prior local had suggested this particular government run clothing store, so we had to check it out. After wandering around the Wat taking pictures and revering the Buddah, we go the this store.

A friendly man takes us in and we notice that it is all suits. Very fancy clothing. All custom made. You pick your cloth and they fit it to you and build you whatever style you want. They have books and books of styles and they want something like 2,000 baht for a pair of pants; that's about 60 dollars. Not going to happen. We bow out and leave. We let our Tuk Tuk driver go and we walk the rest of the way. We stop by a bazaar on the way back and do some shopping. I purchase a linen shirt. "First customer of the day", she says. "I make you good deal. Good for you, good for me". I purchase the shirt for 140 baht. We buy a cheap watch for about 300 baht, and a get a cool new hat for 350 baht. We kinda get lost on the way home, but eventually find our way back, and collapse at a restaurant next to the hotel.

We have been at it for almost 8 hours without food, and we are very dehydrated, apparent by our extemely swollen digits. We order some food, which is overpriced and marginal, because it is a more tourist/American centric place, but we don't care. We eat and then stumble back toward the hotel. We stop at a local massage parlor, one of many found everywhere, get much needed feet massages. 150 baht for a 1 hour foot massage. It was divine. I dosed off several times. Relax we return to the hotel and go to bed.