Destination: The city of Chiangmai, also called The Rose of Thailand.
Day 1 (18 March 2008)
Crawled out of bed at 5am. Our flight to Chiangmai with Air Asia was to be at 8.05am, and we had to get to the airport by 6.30am latest. It was a blessing that I had some work in KL the days before so I had a few normal work-rest days before, instead of having to travel Miri-KL-Chiangmai continuously.
David, our taxi driver to the LCC terminal was early as usual. I was not into much conversation at that hour of the day, but since David was so punctual and so helpful, both Fabs and I forced ourselves to engage in an animated conversation in Cantonese (which I cannot speak nor understand properly) about the goodness of dog meat. It did not matter to David that I was a dog lover...I love dogs...ALIVE.
The flight to Chiangmai left KL on time and got to Chiangmai on time. Our first glimpse of this northern city in the valley was...disappointingly hazy. It was to be expected. I have read all there is to be read on Chiangmai's scorching heat of mid March, but secretly I was hoping for some freak weather change. If there is a time when global weather screw up would be welcomed, this was IT! But sadly, everything was acting to perfection - even the breeze was being good to stay away and not stir a single tree leaf.
It was okay, I thought. This was our precious romantic holiday! Nothing is going to spoil it. Please let the hotel be perfect, let there be a thunderstorm. Squinting hard enough through the haze, we could see the mountain ranges that surround the city. I bet it looks absolutely breathtaking during cooler days.
Our pick-up to Baan Nam Ping (means village by the River Ping) hotel was a serious looking gentleman who stuffed our bags at the back of his van and silently drove us along. He did not speak a single word and I was getting a little sad. I thought this was a country of friendly people. Fabs squeezed my hand reassuringly. It will be okay, he smiled.
Chiangmai seemed like a city of mismatched plots of development. We would pass by sleepy rows of shop houses, and then the next instance a huge mega mart dedicated to hardware would loom ahead. I could hardly wait to see how the hotel looked like.
It was a peaceful little spot indeed, our river village. We had a small cottage overlooking the River Ping surrounded by lush greenery, fragrant flowers and colourful butterflies. Room was clean, and cozy. Again, we were greeted by a silent hotel staff. Okay, except for the "Hello" and "May I have your passport" part.
The hotel was rather quiet too. Well, we had wanted a peaceful place, but this was too quiet. Where is everyone? So we headed back into the city centre, another 20minutes of silent taxi ride to the Tourism Thailand headquarters. After collecting what felt like a load of bricks worth of travel brochures, we found a nice little eating shop and had the best lunch ever! Northern Thai food at the most reasonable price. And then it rained!! It RAINED!!!!! My prayers answered. For 5 minutes anyway. But that cleared away the haze and by late afternoon as we were walking along the streets of Chiangmai, there were blue skies and fluffy white clouds. We realized the reason for the silence we encountered earlier was because not many locals speak English well and usually stayed away from conversations. But they were kind and very helpful anyway. That was such a relief! They didn't hate us! :) YAY!
Our holiday was turning out very well after all.
Clouds blanketing the Titiwangsa ranges at dawn as we flew over the spine of Peninsular Malaysia
Our village hut by the River Ping - compete with a verandah and our patch of river bank.:)
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