2020-01-17 – Leaving Australia
Arrived at Brisbane airport early 9am for our flight to Chiang Mai. A perfect time to do the 10,000 steps for the day before getting serious for our flight. Was interesting to see that Travelex the foreign exchange booths to see dotted around the airport didn’t have any rates on display due to a computer virus. They had also closed down their web page as well. Ouch!
On arrival at the airport it was packed. Many people headed to various destinations. By the time our Thai airways checkin opened, the crowds had vanished. We were second in line and breezed through the checkin process easily. 3 seats to ourselves for the leg to Bangkok. Our bags were checked to Chiang Mai so we didn’t need to slow ourselves down transferring flights in Bangkok. Some of the pricing of food at the airport is crazy. Red rooster basic hand burger $12.99. As 11am approached we headed for customs. Once again we’re through this screening point and through immigration in 5 minutes flat. A record for us. From here Steve headed to duty free to do some photography and Alison to rest in the departure gate. The 3 hours wait went quickly and we even met the lovely man Stanislaw who booked us onto our flight 2 years ago. We thanked him for the kindness 2 years ago of giving us 3 seats to ourselves in the front of economy and making our trip a little bit special.
Our flight to bangkok took off on time and we settled back for our traditional Chiang beer, one for us and one for Neil and Connie. Then followed the green curry with bamboo shoots, nice and spicy. The flight was also pleasurable and we arrived 25 minutes early.
Not having done a transfer at bangkok airport before we headed off in a hurry to make sure we got through immigration with time to spare. Due to flight changes by thai airways we only had 80 minutes instead of our planned 160 minutes. This proved not an issue as we were the only ones in immigration when we arrived and we cleared security screening etc in 5 minutes, arriving at the gate for our next flight 100 minutes to spare. Our next flight on Bangkok airways sadly left 30 minutes late, but amazingly landed on 10 minutes late in Chiang Mai. As thai Airways had seated us in row 6 we were again quickly off the plane. As we were still classed are international passengers we headed for the long walk (one end of the airport to the other) for baggage claim. Thanks to our Silver status royal silk rating our bags were first on the conveyer arriving at the other end of the airport at the same time we did. Customs clearance was once again no wait and we arrived outside the airport in the warm night. Due to tiredness we were happy to pay a little more for a taxi. The ride was 200 baht or $10 aud. The taxi driver who spoke very little English but knew of the fires in Australia and in particular the millions of dead animals. This was the limit of what he had heard of the event.
11:30 local time we arrived at our hotel and booked in. We headed off for a walk to 7/11 for milk, 49 baht for 800ml. After some catchup texts from Neil it was off to our usual room 403 and a great night sleep.
2020-01-18 – Chiang Mai
We managed to sleep in this morning, 6:30 local time. Our with our coffee from home and milk from 7/11. Outside appears smoky which is what we have been reading in the newspapers. First stop for our day was our bank atm. Not remembering PIN numbers here are 6 digits our first attempt at accessing cash failed. There were some bank employees doing a promo shot of themselves on the step which we enquired if we could take the photo so they all could be in the photo. To our delight it was our bank manager “One” taking the photo. She was pleased to see us and told us PIN numbers were 6 digits. Problem solved! After we said our goodbyes we headed off to AIS at Maya lifestyle were we had to get new SIM cards and a deal 200 baht / for 10 mbs unlimited internet. Awesome. Whilst we sorted out the changeover of our SIM card including the mixup between phones, we headed off to the centre’s cultural event. These entertainments are just lovely. Before we knew it the morning had passed and it was time to head to the food court for a lunch we had been truly looking forward to. Krapow Moo Kai Dow was ordered, spicy pork with rice and a fried egg. Yum. From here we headed to the Chiang Mai bus (30 baht up from 20 baht) for the trip to Warorot markets to find a songthaew (25 baht) for our trip out to Bor Sang for the umbrella festival.
After a few hours the street closed and the shops spread across the blocks. We also enjoyed a Chang beer with some yummy street nibbles for dinner. We also met again a lovely couple we last saw in Bangkok airport from Dubai. They had liked our suggestion of the festival and decided to come along.
After dark we hailed a songthaew (30 baht) for the trip back to Chiang Mai square. From here we decided to walk home and happened across a large ceremony of people chanting at the Wat Chedi Luang. After spending some time we headed home for a quiet Chang before falling asleep very content, a wonderful day.
2020-01-19
We decided today we would start late, so it was time to catchup on our photos and videos. It was also time to give a few friends calls in Australia to let them know we were safe. In no time it was 11:30am and time to think about some lunch. Thai omelette and Krapow Moo Kai Dow was found near Chiang Mai University. From here we took an electric shuttle to the other side of the University to take in some markets (that were closed still) and onto Maya Lifestyle centre. The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying the singing and dancing on stage there before we headed home. The afternoon was spent watching movies and drinking a Bottle of Chang. Dinner for tonight was the local pad Thai restaurant.
2020-01-20
We planned today to be a bit of an admin day. First stop for the day was to visit our bank manager “One”. She is always helpful and wonderful. Then Alison went off to her hairdresser Nat before we then headed to Budget Rent a car and on to Big C Supercentre for lunch and some shopping. Lunch today was pad thai with pork and green curry fried rice with chicken. It was yummy. Then Alison headed into find a couple of thai tourist t shirts for herself. Being a size 12 at home, this became a thai size XXL. How’s that for deflating one ego! Next we headed off to the local shopping centre to locate a new power board. Didn’t manage to find one, and we also found out the bus we usually take back to Chiang mai does not run anymore. Oh well, time to Grab a Grab taxi home. This evenings meal was at our special restaurant which we ate many a meal at last year. We were excited to see our hottest who recognised us immediately. The food was just awesome with us ordering Suki Kaeng and Pa Nang Moo. Just wonderful! From here it was off to se the lovely lady who made us Banana Rotis for condensed milk and sugar. From here we wandered home via the local temple that looked glorious in the twilight. Discussing the day we both admit we are sad to be moving onto the travelling side of our trip.
