Getting Grounded and Pounded

On Thursday, when we entered the gate of Baan Orapin, our Chiang Mai hotel, we are immediately enticed by the spacious tranquil grounds and serene old Thai architecture.  The original building was built by the owner's grandfather 100 years ago.

Our rooms have teak floors and large living space.  Every time we enter we feel,"ahhhh..."

Departing Bangkok for Chiang Mai, we had an easy flight with gracious Bangkok Airlines.  We loved their travelers lounge with free snacks and coffee and wifi.  A taxi was waiting for us thanks to our hotel.

Lisa immediately befriends one of the hotel residents.

Chiang Mai (CM) is in the northern mountains and cooler than Bangkok; a pleasant temperature day and night.  It is a bigger city than we expected, but like most tourists here we spend most of our time wandering the streets and alleys of the old walled city (there is a modern high rise city all around us) but we try to ignore that.  Shops and sidewalk sellers are everywhere but it is delightful to learn that Thais do not engage in high pressure sales.  It is not like China where people tug you into their shops.  Bargaining is easy, because the price usually drops even if you just hesitate to buy.

We spend our first nights wandering.  The first evening we are pointed to an open air dining pavilion and so we buy dinner at stalls.  My Pad Thai is $2.  A beer is the same.  Walking out we say hello to two Aussies getting foot massages in comfy chairs that line the walkway.  They are sipping wine and declare it wonderful.  We immediately negotiate our own massages - Ben and John at one vendor and Lisa and I right next door.  The Thai masseuses really work us over, in a good way.  Massaging and pounding our muscles and toes. Our half hour massages cost $3.

The stalls include colorful goods that may or may not be made in Thailand.  These bags may be. We look forward to the famous Sunday Night Market which we hear includes many indigenous art, textiles and sliver work.

 Friday morning at breakfast I look up to see a couple being seated nearby.  The woman smiles broadly at me and says, "Hi Jackie! ...It's Celia."  I am just flabbergasted, because it is Celia and Mark Bewley from home.  They hosted a Thai AFS student named Napat a couple of years ago and visited her family for 2 weeks before coming to CM.  I knew they were traveling to Thiland, but had no idea our dates would overlap.  Though I had forgotten, Celia says I mentioned Baan Orapin to her.  We immediately join them for breakfast and they share their CM tips.  Celia and Marked were Peace Corp volunteers on an island in Micronesia when they were newlyweds .  Mark just retired from Caltrans and Celia is a retired teacher.  Their son gave them miles for first class airfare as Mark's retirement gift. Wow.

The day before, the Bewleys had gone up into the national forest to visit a famous wat ( temple) and later learned that just a few miles further was the summer palace and botanical garden that they missed.  They advised us to go there first and then go down to the wat last.  We are glad we did.  

The palace gardens were beautiful and peaceful and we saw acres of roses amid royal buildings all constructed since the 1960s.  It took a bouncy, windy ride in the back of a "red truck" to get us there and I was a little sick from the exhaust fumes.

 Another red truck delivered us downhill to the wat.  This was quite a different scene.  The wat was crowded with visitors, and rather chaotic.  

We get back to CM and poke around some of the art galleries near our hotel.  This shop had fanciful elephants and you can even paint your own.  We look forward to getting to know elephants first hand on Sunday when we go on our Elephant Tour.  We will be painting ours with scrub brushes and water!