Wednesday 2/14: Bangkok to Chiang Mai 2/14/2007


Another fairly uneventful day, actually. This morning Anne had Bible Study class to teach, so I went out gold shopping. Unfortunately, the place Anne sent me turned out just to have 18K gold, and I really love the 23K gold they sell so much of here, so that was a bit of a bust. Fun to look, though.

Then lunch with Anne, and off to the airport to fly to Chiang Mai, in the northern part of Thailand. [Bangkok’s new airport is rather a disaster; only open for 6 months, the tarmac is already getting uneven as some concrete sections sink; we had to take a bus all over the airport and then climb up long flights of stairs to enter our Boeing 777; dark and ugly terminal interior; etc., there’s talk that they may have to go back to the old airport!] But an easy flight to Chiang Mai.

Here I was met by local university piano teacher Bennett Lerner, an American who’s lived in Thailand for about 20 years now. Very pleasant and interesting person. We checked into my hotel (not terribly satisfactory, I may be changing hotels tomorrow) and then went by tuk-tuk (something between a golf-cart and an open car, used for taxis a good bit in Bangkok, and all the time up here, named for the noise the two-stroke engine makes) for a delicious dinner of northern Thai food. The restaurant was charming, with lots of local woodwork, textiles, etc in a narrow garden-like setting. After dinner, back to my hotel to catch up with internet etc.

See, not much to tell! Hopefully tomorrow will be more exciting.

Love to all,

Carlyn

Last updated 12/07. Copyright 2007 by Richard C. Morenus. Questions? Send email to richard.c@morenus.org