Our long day(s) start off early enough. Last walk to the beach, last coffee at Kalawapai Market, last load of laundry, last eggs and sausage. It’s the last of everything! 
We leave the cottage right before the 11am check out time with 6 hours to kill before our first flight. We leisurely drive along the coast, heading to Costco in Hawaii Kai to wander around, graze a bit, and in general waste time. Since we’re not that hungry, the grazing isn’t all that appealing, but it does waste about 1/2 an hour. Since we are close, we stop in at the Kona Brew Pub at the Hawaii Kai harbor. It’s a great setting, all open air (as is just about everything in Hawaii!) and would be a great place to hang out and eat. Of course, we’re still not hungry but at least we can have beer and wine and while away a little more time in a very pleasant setting.
Soon, though, we must go (we can’t drink THAT much before we have to drive to the airport). Back into Honolulu we go, navigating to a cheap gas station (20 cents cheaper than everywhere else – odd –but totally worth the detour), then onto Thrifty to drop our car. We’re still way early for check in, but we’re first in line – that’s a bonus!
After about an hour of waiting, the check in opens up and we speed right through. We can check everything straight through to Chiang Mai and the agent even gets us seats together on the Bangkok to Chiang Mai flight – so we’re happy campers.
Off to the United Club where we spend the next 2 hours snacking, drinking and blogging. Then finally head over to board the first of our many flights.
We’re all boarded, All Nippon Airways, flight to Tokyo, we’re 2 of only 3 Caucasians on the whole plane! Wow! And sadly, seated across from screaming baby boy. Yikes. I manage to sleep, Ed only gets and hour or two. Stinks! We get to Tokyo bleary eyed and have to stand in line for security going through transit – and it takes forever! Thankfully we’ve got time before our next 9 hour flight to Bangkok. Finally through security, we still have time for beer and wine, which we find surprisingly cheap for an airport, especially in Tokyo! $10 a round. And good wine too! Who knew. We manage 2 rounds before the next wheels up!
This flight doesn’t have nearly as many children, which is lovely. I again manage to sleep. Ed again not so much. But we arrive relatively unscathed in Bangkok at 6am Sunday morning – we’ve lost an entire day and we really can’t tell you what time it is!
The next flight is short and sweet – 55 minutes – yet they still manage to feed you. How is that not possible on American airlines? At any rate, we are finally in Chiang Mai! Yes. We can finally unwind and maybe even lay down!
Richard (our landlord) meets us at the airport – which is a surprise because normally his wife (who is a tour guide) comes to fetch us. Richard has come personally because somehow he has mixed up our reservation dates and we won’t be able to get into the condo until tomorrow. He has reserved us a hotel room for the night, but is so upset, he is beside himself. Not a problem for us – it’s an overnight, we won’t complain – and truly – we can’t! The hotel is great – they are totally accommodating. Richard manages to get us into a room right away so we can decompress and relax. The room itself is huge, with a cool bathroom that has shutters that open and look back into main room. All the lights and a/c are controlled by this electronic control panel on the night stand. It’s pretty neat.
Plus, it is right at the night market, so it’s a perfect location. We take our bags up, get a little organized, then head out to stretch our legs. We are trying vainly to stay awake all day – we’ll see how that goes!
After wandering around the main drag for a bit, we head back toward town and the Chiang Mai Saloon. We like this place, it’s a hole in the wall, but with great dive bar atmosphere. It’s still early, only a little before noon, and the place is empty. That’s probably because it is Sunday and everyone is at the Sunday walking market (which is where we’ll be next Sunday, but its too much to even contemplate today!). We belly up to the bar and grab a beer (big beer!)
and wine, and then order chicken fingers ($2.50) and beef satay ($2.50)
Yum! Perfect meal for us – light and satisfying! We sit for a while, then head back to the hotel. Our intention is just to relax and hang out – because we are deathly afraid if we nap we’ll never be able to get to sleep tonight, but that bed is just too darn comfy! We end up napping – for a good long while too!
Then its back out on the streets – this time to O’Malleys, the Irish Pub, for Ed’s favorite burger! I have a Thai omelet with pork – which I love. And wine – yeah – they have great carafes here – and pretty reasonable too! only $9 – not too shabby – it’s like 4 glasses of wine!
Afterward, we wander down through the Ansuran Market to Bamboo – our favorite little dinky bar. It’s too cool – all open air – just a little tiki looking bar and patio set up around a big old tree. We have a couple of beers (wine stinks here) and listen to a great singer while hanging out around the tree!
Back to the hotel – we make it up until almost 11. Hooray! Let’s see how long we actually sleep!
No comments:
Post a Comment