Yesterday, we said goodbye to Chiang Mai after a great 3-day holiday there. The weather gets quite cool at night, enough for a light woollen sweater. The locals, who are so used to higher temperatures, were wearing padded jackets. Even the staff in the Indian restaurant wore jackets, one with a fur collar. The night market is very high class and well-lit but there are the cheaper night markets for $3 polo-neck T-shirts.
A quick $30 flight from CM to Bangkok, then Janet said we should catch the local bus rather than the 380 B taxi. What seemed like several hours later, we arrived at our hotel, having to come the last dozen kilometres by taxi as we had no idea where we were when the bus stopped and we were told we could get out now. Bad idea, Janet. Not that mine are better as I got lost yesterday when venturing out without a keeper or responsible adult. I didn't take much money and found that I had 50 B left and still god knows where I was.
The decorations are beautiful in the city for the King's 80th birthday bash on Wednesday. Trooping of the Colour on television last night was said to have been spectacular and it was heart-warming to see the King looking good on the front pages of the papers this morning. Breakfast for two was outrageously priced at $A6.90. We have it under the trees on tables that astride ponds of goldfish.
Today, it's housekeeping. Janet is on the internet to business people in Australia and I am trying to confirm flight details for next Sunday to Penang, but English is such a difficult language for them. I find airport very stressing, intially very sexy but quickly it becomes stressful. They take themselves so seriously with AK-47 sub-machine guns, X-rays over and over again, ridiculously long queues, pressure to have everything exactly correct and then you feel that you must mortgage your house to buy their coffee which is undrinkable. You shuffle on board, cover yourself in olive oil and squeeze into a seat built for a child and try to read, hunched over in a modified foetal position until they help you off at the other end. We have 16 flights, and that translates into many hours on the massage tables later.
