Chiang Mai-Day 1

We flew to Chiang Mai from Bangkok the next morning, aboard a HUGE airplane that was barely half full for the 50 minute flight. We found taxi drivers awaiting us once we gathered our baggage, and found Jen, since she had booked a flight on another airline. It took two taxis to get all five of us and our bags to the Chiang Mai Orchid Hotel, where Randi had made us our reservations for the first two nights. After seeing the price and realizing how much less we could be spending, we changed our reservations to one night. We still got the hook-up though and ended up only paying half as much as a standard rate because of Randi's connections!

Somehow I fried the ac cord for the laptop computer, which defies logic but it happened anyway. Somehow we managed to stumble into a restaurant that pulled some dusty English menus out from under the bar-so everyone was reasonably happy for lunch. Sometime in the late afternoon jet-lag started to kick in and it ended up just being Ashley and I for dinner in the city that night. We couldn't find the place on the map that we were looking for, so we settled for something else...we managed-mostly because of the Thais ability to speak broken English-to convey the message of "No meat" and we enjoyed our dinner. Then we headed back to the hotel.

The pollution is amazing in Chiang Mai...it was extremely evident in the night time-as the headlights illumined the exhaust spewing from every car and motorbike that zoomed by us on the streets. We both had expected something a little more slow-paced in Chiang Mai. It was a few more days before we found that quiet and calmer part of the city we were looking for.

Setting foot in Thailand

Ashley & Rio landed in Bangkok a little after midnight local time, on Thursday November 20th. They were on board Japan Airlines flight 707 from Tokyo, where they had met up with Rio's good friend Randi, and their new friend Tyra. Ashley's friend Jennifer was a few hours ahead of them and already at the hotel outside of Bangkok when the rest of the group got there.

The shuttle bus took the group to the Queens Garden Hotel, on the banks of a river close to the Bangkok airport, since they were leaving the next day at noon on a flight to Chiang Mai. The hotel room was just like any you would find in America, except the bathroom, which didn't have a separate tub for bathing, you just showered standing in the open space of the bathroom and the water flowed to a drain in the floor. And the minibar was actually cheaper-priced than the 7-11 around the corner.

They were all hungry though, so they tried such treats as Lay's Seaweed flavor potato chips, salted cashews that were actually sweet, green pea crisps, corn & cheese flavored cookies, sunflower seeds and dark chocolate peanut M&MS. YUM! Fortunately for them, it was about 2:30 in the morning by the time they showered and fell asleep, so breakfast was only a few hours away!

As most of you know Rio and I were married on November 8th. We then went to Asheville N.C. for a brief getaway and it was amazing. After we returned home we had a week of parties, goodbyes, packing and planning. For most of you that know us you can imagine that we waited til the last minute for several things but we finally got everything together at about 5 am the morning we were leaving! We made it to the airport- thanks to Rio's dad- with time to spare , delirious from the night before we then boarded the plane and the adventure began! Before I go on I should share Rio's travel prep for long flights. He likes to stay up all night the day before and sleep on the plane. I thought that sounded like a good idea.....wrong! I had been up for about 48 hours when finally arrived in Thailand. Needless to say I felt a little like a zombie!