We are headed to the last part of our journey! Time has flown by, and now we are getting ready for our flight (on a puddle jumper no less) to Chiang Mai, our last destination before home. We are up early, as usual and take our last morning walk along the river, circling back through the city in a big loop. We finalize the packing (making sure to put all the heavy stuff in the little bag so we don’t run into weight problems), then wait for Tara’s other neighbor to come pick us up in his little Jitney for our ride to the airport. We haul our bags down the street and load them into the back of our little open air transport and off we go. We don’t have seats yet and we can’t confirm the flight, so we figure we should get to the airport sooner rather than later, plus there is a lounge we can use. Turns out we are there way early, its a quick 20 minute drive there, and its a really small airport! But we get checked in and situated then go hang out at the lounge – which is really just a cube of glassed off area in the domestic waiting area. But, it’s fine for us. We sit by the window watching planes come and go and listening to a family behind us who keeps us in hysterics with their banter and the games they play with the kids to keep them quiet. They are wonderful – don’t know how they are the rest of the time, but if their behavior the hour we spent listening to them in the lounge is any indication – they should be role models for the world. . Seriously that great with those kids and everything in general (including when one of the kids spilled a drink on the dad’s crotch – which was greeted with enough laughter and happy tears, that the whole lounge basically joined in).
After our 2 hour wait, we move on to the departure lounge, only to find that the plane is delayed – due to weather in Chiang Mai. We don’t see any weather on the radar, but what do we know. We get into a conversation with an American gentleman and his Thai girlfriend who tells us it is probably the fires keeping us grounded. It is fire season after all, with the cold nights and the fires being lit to keep warm. He gives us his background, moved to Chiang Mai a year and a half ago, loves it, will never go back to Florida. Yeah, we get that! We tell him about our travels, and he his, and spend a nice time just chatting as we wait for our flight to finally be released.
I manage to spend our last Kips on a couple of postcards, we’ve managed our cash so well there is nothing else we can afford, and finally we are ready to go. No jetway for us, we walk right out onto the tarmac, and wander out to our little prop plane to board (along with everyone else who is out there snapping pictures of themselves with the plane!). It’s actually not that bad a plane – or a flight – in the long run. It’s more like an Embraer, just without the jets. And since it is the only direct flight to Chiang Mai, my reticence (ok abject fear) of prop planes has to be put aside in favor of expedience.
The flight is uneventful, we arrive in Thailand about 90 minutes late, grab our bags, walk through the international arrivals to the domestic arrivals, stopping on the way for Ed to get a SIM card and me to stop for the ATM, then we organize the taxi and are whisked away to Peaks Gardens in no time.
We are met by Nithya’s housekeeper, shown the keys and the door lock code, then let loose into the world of Chiang Mai. It’s just like being home! The condo we rented this year is a 2 bedroom on the front of the building with a wrap around porch we can use to hide from the afternoon sun. We chose to move “up” to this unit to get away from the construction that had started in the back of the building last year as well as the Catholic School’s loudspeaker announcements. Plus, a bigger unit just gives us more space to organize and hang about during our 10 day stay.
We get quickly organized, and since it is so late, head out to the street food market and Outlaws for dinner. Even though it is Makha Bucha day, we figure we can at least order sodas or something from Outlaws while we sit and eat our food. When we arrive Maya greets us with a big smile and says hello, I remember you, it’s been what, 6 months or so? We’re amazed! It’s actually been a year, yet she remembers us and exactly what we drink! So sweet. And bonus – tonight we are drinking “coffee.” Yes, even though it is a dry day, somehow they are ingeniously serving our drinks in coffee cups – my wine in a mug, Ed’s beer in a tall to go cup (that actually makes it look like cappuccino!). Perfect!
So, the night goes perfectly with our whole salted grilled fish, pork satay skewers and “coffee” to keep us hydrated! And since we planned ahead, we have beer and wine waiting for us at home as well. I’d call that the perfect first night in Chiang Mai!
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