Chiang Mai oh Mai!

When we arrived in Chiang Mai it was night time. Our flight had been delay, but at least China Southern
was  consistent. Dave and I quickly found the taxi line up and were soon on our way to the Vanilla Place Guesthouse, which would be our home away from home in Chiang Mai.

Mr Kem, Mrs Kem, and their aptly named dog, Happy greeted us. Check in was quick, as were directions to the best thai food in town, by coincidence it was just a few streets over from our Guest House. We ate most of our evening meals at the Lemon Grass near the open air market. It was very popular with locals and tourists alike and often had a line up. It wasn't the cheapest place in town but the food was delicious and the service was great. Our first dinner had my eye lids sweating even though I had ordered my Pad Prik King mild. Dave ate Pad Thai most of the time, even though it isn't a popular dish with the locals. By the time it came for our last meal, I ordered like a regular Chiang Mai local and had the Khao Soi with medium spice, or as our server said "normal". I was very proud to be normal.

 Our Guesthouse proprietor was happy to arrange everything for us at a very discounted price to whatever was listed on the website/pamphlet and he would do it with very little notice. Our first day we spend wandering around on foot running some errands and seeing the town from ground level. We very much enjoyed the freedom of wandering around on own and spend quite a few days doing just that around Chiang Mai. My camera was practically jumping out of it's case the morning we got up before the sun and walk the perimeter of the old town. With the sun rising behind centuries old temples and the buddhist monks collecting alms, it was an unbeatable and free experience.

When our sights were set on things not with in walking distance we hired a pick up truck to take us around. On our pick up truck day we had a outstanding lunch at Huen Phen, the Kem's favourite lunch place though they say you should not go there for dinner. After lunch we ventured up to Doi Suthep, a temple on the top of a mountain. It was incredibility beautiful. On a clear day they say you can see forever. It was not a clear day for us, in fact it was an unbelievably smoggy day and we could barely even see the city. We ended our day by bartering in the old market and purchasing a few souvenirs.

Dave rode elephants the last time he was in Thailand and really wanted to do it again. I struggled with this idea for quite some time. Elephants are quite a tourist draw and attract a lot of attention along with money. Many elephant "farms" and "rescues" actually abuse their elephants. I don't want to encourage any kind of animal abuse by participating. It took me a long time to find some ethical options. We ended up at the Baan Chang Elephant Park. Being up close to something so big was unreal. When I looked into their eyes, I could tell how intelligent they are. I still had mixed feelings about riding elephants as I climbed up onto my elephant's back and my mixed feelings remain even now, looking back at the experience. It was amazing but kind of sad. These otherworldly beings, weighing literally tonnes, with incredible intelligence have been beated into submission to let puny humans sit on their backs. It just doesn't sit well with me.

Our last day in Chiang Mai also coincided with the full moon festival. It meant early closures and lots of street food. It was surprising to me that it had take us so long to dare to dine on street food, but it did. But when we dared, we really dined: street thai coffee, street quail eggs, street noodles, street meat-on-a-stick, and street banana/potato cake balls! Yum!

Other notable activities: Cooking School, River Cruise, Boy's Blues Bar, seeing men running power lines while standing on said power lines, and of course Tuk Tuk rides.

Vancouver to Chiang Mai via Guangzhou

We started our travelling extravaganza with brunch at Cafe du Soleil with my sister Kim. We thought the smoothies and special breakfast would be our last Canadian food for three weeks. Kim then drove us to Vancouver International Airport, where we quickly discovered that our plane had been delayed, for 6 hours. Kim had already driven away, as she had a ferry to catch and it seemed silly to skytrain home just in time to skytrain back to the airport, so we stayed and made the best of it. We toured all the Hudson News stores and restrooms at the airport in an attempt to discovered where is the best place to buy Pringles and where one should eliminate them after.

I am a firm believer that Pringles are the best air plane food. I love how easy they are to carry on a plane, how hard they are to crush when compared to their bagged counterparts, and I especially love how if they are left unopened before take off, the lid will protrude upwards once at cruising altitude. I know Lays now produces a Pringles can imitation but it's just not as good. Dave and I purchased a lot of Pringles at Hudson News and the best was near the "aquarium" by the Milestones.

Having six hours and two 15 dollar meal vouchers to kill at the airport wasn't that difficult. After our Hudson News and restroom investigation, I took a nap while Dave read and texted simultaneously. Following some down time we lindy-hopped around the closed area and then had dinner at the Milestones. When boarding time finally came, we felt as though we could be considered YVR experts.

Our thirteen hour flight to Guangzhou went as well as one could expect. We were seated behind the barrier separating us from our upper class brethren, which fortunately provided us with highly valued leg room, but on the flip side it also made us incredibly jealous of the first class richies on the plane. After a nice nap on the plane, our seat neighbour awoke a began looking a photos on his computer. We had exchanged niceties at the being of the plane and we had detected a Slavic accent of some kind in his voice. Now he was looking at aviation photos, photos of the inside of cockpits that were not dissimilar to the plane we were currently on. The slide show continued with old family photos, the Slavic accent seat-mate in the air force, posing in front of planes. Then the kicker... photos of the twin towers. My heart started racing. Could he be a spy? a rebel? a insurgent? a radical? I poked Dave and made the universal eye signal that he should look at the computer. Obviously Dave would automatically understand my thought process and come to the same conclusion as me. He would understand that if one of us didn't become John McClane (if you don't understand, watch Die Hard) and stop the terrorist plot something awful would happen. However, the photo slide show had moved on. Instead Dave, misreading my ques, started up a conversation with the man who I thought was about put a fire-y end to our honeymoon. As it turns out, the man is a pilot and was on his way to Guangzhou to begin working for China Southern Airlines. The rest of our flight went by with the man giving us helpful advice on the finer points of airline travel.

We arrived in Guangzhou Airport and hurried through customs. We were very happy when we walked across the street to Guangzhou Pullman Airport Hotel. The bed was fantastically comfortable and the shower was glorious. Notable feature: the bathroom had a glass wall with a remote control for the blind... see photo!

Both Dave and I were thoroughly jet-lagged when we hit the streets of Guangzhou.  It's crazy, hectic, cars were everywhere, people scurried across the streets and into stores. The horizon was obstructed by heavy smog and it hurt to breath. We quickly made our way into a Starbucks and found a nice window seat to observe the citizens of Guangzhou. With our hotel check out time coming and our flight time nearing we made our way back to the skytrain. On the skytrain, we had many admirers. Many locals seemed interested in the tall people on the train, especially the blonde one.

Before we knew it, we were boarding the plane to Chiang Mai and waving good bye to Guangzhou...