On to Thailand

The real adventure began on September 23, 2012, with first-class seats on Korean Air to Seoul and then on to Chiang Mai. (We're getting older and it's a long trip so we treated ourselves.)

Our seats were more like personal pods with our own large monitors several feet in front of us and gourmet meals.  We had a very large choice of films and we eached watch What to Expect When You're Expecting (lots of fun) and an HBO film Hemingway and Gellhorn, which was particularly timely for George since he'd been reading For Whom the Bell Tolls, and the film is set after that book had been published and while Hemingway was still in Spain.  We left Honolulu at 1 pm and chased the sun westward.  We saw it setting while we were in Seoul waiting for our flight to Chiang Mai.

Our virtual friends Jaap and Ineke Vermooten of Holland (they had been Volunteers for Thailand and we had connected by e-mail and, eventually, Skype) had provided us a wealth of information about Thailand, Chiang Mai and volunteering in Thai schools, for many months, and they had suggested the efficiency apartment where we stayed for the first two weeks.  It is located near the heart of Chiang Mai and accessible to so many places.  We were on the 15th floor looking west toward the mountains.  We had a small balcony and, off the balcony, a bathroom.  We also had a small kitchen area.

From the balcony we could see Doi Suthep, the mountain, but also the name of the beautiful Buddhist temple that sits atop the mountain.  It was visible from our balcony day and night (unless clouds enshrouded the top of the mountain)

The first night we were there, the electricity went out for awhile (although that never happened again). When we headed out the next day, we saw a bit of the electrical infrastructure -- perhaps not a big surprise that there may be occasional outages.

 The first day we spent in Chiang Mai, we decided to take a walk and see the Old City -- the historic heart of Chiang Mai, not very far from our apartment.  The first thing that struck us was the volume of traffic -- cars, songthaews (pick-up trucks with a covered back and two benches on either side that picks folks up off the street for 10 ThB (Thai baht) (about 33 cents) and delivers them around the city), and motor bikes -- so many motor bikes!  We got to the first of two one-way multi-lane roads around the Old City and discovered there were no traffic lights to help pedestrians and no crosswalks, but there was a steady stresm of vehicles.  George couldn't believe there wasn't a way for us to cross, so we went into the hospital we were in front of and asked how we could cross; a woman told Mary:  "you die."  So we gave up on the Old City that day. 

Our top priorities for our first day were to get at least one Thai cell phone and to open a bank account into which we could transfer money from our US bank so we could use ATMs in Thailand without high fees.  We headed away from the Old City and ended up on busy Nimmanhaemin Road.  We persevered and finally got across the road.  We found a bank and opened an account but we were directed to Kad Suan Kaew to get a phone. 

We had walked past Kad Suan Kaew, a few blocks from our apartment, earlier that day.  There was a Starbucks there, a welcome sight which we visited often.  Most things are inexpensive in Thailand (compared to the US, anyway), but somehow Starbucks manages to get pretty much US prices for its drinks in Chiang Mai.  Of course, most of the customers are Western.

I noticed the KFC and Sizzler signs at Kad Suan Kaew and assumed it was an office building with those stores as retail space near ground level.  It took us awhile that day (and coming at it from a different angle) to realize that behind that facade was a very large, 4-story shopping mall with a Macy's-like department store called Central.  We got a phone, but also discovered it has a great supermarket (Tops).  Eventually, Mary was able to buy some clothes she needed at Central; we ate a lot of lunches at Tops over the next two weeks, and were able to stock up on vitamins and supplements at a couple of British pharmacies in the mall.



 But we didn't come to Thailand to shop.  So on the second day in Chiang Mai we hired our landlord's recommended tour guide, Na.  We told her we wanted a good overview of the city; she drove us around the Old City and to the Night Market (a huge bazaar that is especially busy at night) and the Fruits and Flower Markets nearby.  She also drove us to the east side of the river to the bus station and helped us buy tickets for the trip to Nan Province for a school visit, which we had scheduled for the following week.  She suggested driving to some rural villages and we quickly took her up on that offer.  She drove us past rice fields, horses and cows, and a temple.  The temple visit was a welcome respite after the bustling parts of Chiang Mai she had shown us. 

Na and Mary

Then we headed for a tailor shop that Na recommended and met Nina, who measured Mary for some blouses and a skirt that she needed for our training course and for teaching at a school.