Arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand

We called a Grab taxi (about $3.00) to take us and our bags to the Big Ubon Breakfasts for one last great breakfast before we flew out. It's only about 2 kms, and we would normally walk that, but Ubon is definitely not pedestrian friendly, especially during morning rush hour. 

We had a great breakfast, and the owner Andy offered to drive us the short distance to the Ubon airport terminal.

Ubon airport is small. Easy to check in, and easy to get through security. They have about 6 flights a day between Ubon and Bangkok, and then one direct flight every few days between Ubon and Chiang Mai.

Our flight wasn't full, and it departed ten minutes early!

Love the paint job on our plane!

And... we're off!

Interesting water flow down below.

Lots of puffy clouds.

Arriving in Chiang Mai.

We had lots of time, so we tried to take the cheap public transportation to the Chedi Home Guesthouse where we have a five night stay booked. But we couldn't seem to find the place to flag them down! Anyhow, we ended up taking a Grab taxi again.. 189 baht ($5.50 USD, $7.20 CAD) for the fifteen minute ride.

The Chedi Home Guesthouse.

We were welcomed at the desk with a glass of fresh orange juice on ice.

We're kind of splurging on this accommodation. It's been that kind of a year, so why not end it off that way!! This place was recommended to us by our friends Glen and Steve who stayed here last January. 1,200 baht ($34.50 USD, $46 CAD) per night including a nice breakfast. Besides, it's Christmas and we wanted somewhere a bit nicer.

Our room.

The facilities.

The swimming pool in front of the ancient temple.

First on the agenda is that Ruth wanted to experience a Thai massage. There is a women's prison here in Chiang Mai and it's a popular tourist thing to go to the women's prison massage training place. However it's a bit confusing because there are actually four different locations that advertise this, and we only found out later that Ruth ended up at the wrong one. Bit of a tourist scam really, because the cost of the one hour massage was 300 baht ($8.65 USD, $11.50 CAD) whereas it's easy to get a normal Thai massage for 250 baht.

Anyhow, she still enjoyed it but might have to go back to the proper training place later in our stay. Personally, I'm not really interested in the "Thai" massage which can apparently be pretty aggressive, but would maybe take part in the normal relaxing massage. 

Dragon at a temple.

One of the many ancient temples in the old city area.

Lots of elephant statues.

First impressions of Chiang Mai? Not really enthusiastic. The old city area is far too touristy. Every second establishment trying to sell tours to save the elephants, or organic this or that, or massages. Very artsy fartsy in our opinion. However we realize there is a lot to see outside the city, and we're very close to some great hiking areas. Also, the weather is perfect, with forecast highs around 27C (81F) and overnight to 15C (60F). We'll update our opinion again towards the end of our stay. 

Speaking of hiking... we're off to the trailhead!

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