Week Two



Yvonne's Detour in Chiang Mai

Monday, January 11: The flight to Chiang Mai from Bangkok was fabulous (business class) on Nok Air (a new Thai no-frills airline operated by Thai Airways). The seats were large and roomy and a nice boxed lunch was served to the lucky twelve passengers in business class. Business class on Nok actually costs less than economy on Thai Airways, but there are only twelve of those seats. For the pleasure of sitting in business, there is a 500 ($12.50 US) baht surcharge. It was worth the extra money.

We booked the Diamond Riverside Hotel where we stayed the last time. The hotel is considerably more run down and the included breakfast buffet was just OK. We decided we wanted to move, but Yvonne took a slight detour. Her report follows:

I felt tired and ached everywhere and wanted a massage but couldn't leave the room. Here were were in Shopper's Heaven and I spent the next three days in the hotel room. I left just once to visit with Sally and her new husband, Podam ("Po"). We had an enjoyable evening at a very nice restaurant, the Riverside, on the Ping River. I ordered rice soup because my stomach was upset but Neal, Sally and Po feasted on a number of delicious items including a whole fish with a sweet & sour sauce. The presentation was beautiful: the fish was covered with pineapple chunks. This dinner with lots of beer was under $25 for four persons.

After that things declined for me. Neal loaded up with numerous remedies from the local pharmacy including electrolyte drinks. However, I never left the hotel until we moved to the much nicer Porn Ping Tower less than a block away. I left by cab. Then it was off to the Chiang Mai Ram 1 hospital to see a doctor where I was diagnosed with a gastrointestinal infection from something I ate in Bangkok.

The good news is that I recovered quickly and I had an opportunity to spend two nights and three days in a private room in a first class private hospital in Thailand. It rivaled a fancy hotel and is even nicer than the Porn Ping Tower. For one, the room was huge with a huge bathroom! It had a sofa, two end chairs, coffee table, table for eating my meals, hospital bed, cable TV with American movies and English-speaking stations, a refrigerator filled with drinks I could drink, a complimentary gift bag with everything I could need while there, 24 hour room service, 24 hour visiting, a printed menu to pick all of my meals from and very cute pajamas. Service and care was impeccable.

By Sunday, I was shopping in Chiang Mai and having a massage. I decided not to go to any other countries and to just stay here to rest and relax. I found out about a holistic spa north in the mountains of Chiang Mai in Doi Saket and made arrangements to spend 3-4 days there with Neal. More on that in week 3 coming soon.

Neal's Experiences

I don't have much to say because "computimg" isn't a relaxing vacation activity for me the way it is for Yvonne. It was fun to see Sally & Po, & I kept eating the delicious food at the Riverside long after everyone else stopped.

I walk a lot in cities when I travel, taking photos. In Bangkok, one walk was from our hotel to & through the colorful Chinatown area, returning through a neighborhood of old buildings that reminded me of the French Quarter in Nawlins. In Chiang Mai, I've taken several walks from the riverside area where we stay into the Old Town, bounded by the old moat & the remains of the old wall, which contains beautiful wats, Lanna Thai houses built of teakwood, & other sights. A few times I walked all the way to the far side, where Yvonne was in the hospital.

Once on the way back, I had dinner at Huen Phen, a "Tropical Northern Thai" restaurant written up by food writers. The food was delicious, & the setting is an old house decorated with antiques & crafts.

I enjoyed a long visit to the Chiang Mai Cultural Center & Museum in the former City Hall in the Old Town. The display rooms had excellent videos with English subtitles, covering history, crafts, culture, hill tribes, beliefs, etc.

Behind our hotel is a nice massage place I've been to a few times. Behind that is the Kalare Night Bazaar, where you can watch free Thai dance/music shows while you eat, & look at crafts. Behind that is the main street of the night bazaar. Across the street is the best part of the night bazaar, a 4-story building with lots of nice crafts & antiques.

When Yvonne was first out of the hospital, we had a couple of meals in a restaurant in the hotel. We made a strange couple: She ate bland Western food, & I ate spicy Eastern food. I ordered a king fish in chili garlic sauce with basil & was surprised to get the entire fish, served beautifully. I put it on a bed of rice. It was 1 of the best things I've ever eaten. At first, I thought most of it would end up in the refrigerator in our room upstairs. I can't believe I ate the whole thing!

OK, I wrote this on Yvonne's laptop while lying in bed, & somehow deleted the photo on the home page in the process, so I'm going to give her back her laptop so she can fix it.

                                                                                                                        

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