CHIANG RAI
I made my way to Chiang Rai, Thailand. I decided it would be a good time to use some of my Starwood points, so I booked my free room at the Le Meridien. It was a phenomenal hotel, especially for the 3,000 points it required. In higher traffic areas, the hotel would have easily been 12,000 points a night. I had a giant suite all to myself, and it actually felt quite empty and lonely. That didn’t stop me from enjoying the giant bathtub and fluffy bed. For those of you that don’t know, I’ve been in hostels for the last two months, so the fine amenities were much appreciated. After a thorough cleaning and multiple hair washes, I caught up on bills, flight bookings, and some blogs with my fast internet. It was nice because I’m running about two weeks behind on blogging versus what I’m actually doing. I also wanted to be in a place where I could communicate to everyone back home as my sister-in-law Clare had her second boy Henry. I can’t wait to meet him.

Over the next couple of days, I enjoyed the pool and the Mae Nam Kok river views. There wasn’t a lot I wanted to do in Chiang Rai, so it was nice to have this break. I had the hotel shuttle take me to a food court/shopping area where I had some great dumplings and durian sticky rice. I took a rickshaw (a bit out of town) to the famous white temple Wat Rong Khun.  It started pouring rain along the way, and these giant trucks were spraying water all over us. I got soaked, but the driver and I had a good laugh. In town, I walked around for awhile and visited six or so of the other temples. The white temple was stunning. Although I was very “templed-out” this temple was completely different from the others, so it made it well worth the visit. I wish I’d started tallying the temples that I’d visited because I’ve seen so many. They are everywhere, and I find myself speeding through them by the end.

For those of you that don’t travel much, I really recommend unlocking your phone and getting cheap local SIM card at the airport of your destination. They are so affordable, and I have full access to my phone and its apps for maybe $10. It makes it so much easier to navigate a city.

Later I researched visiting the “Golden Triangle” look out point, the intersection of Burma, Thailand, and Laos. After much reading about the tour, I wasn’t impressed or convinced to go. It seemed very much a “checklist” item that was staged for tourism. The view and the opium museum were the main things that I wanted to see. I decided to skip this and enjoy my break. I had the intent to cross over to Laos since I was so far north and right along the border. It wasn’t quite as easy as I’d hoped (2 day, 1 night boat/bus ride). I decided I was ready for a change in scenery anyway, so I decided to save Laos for August. The short flights within southeast Asia are so much cheaper than the ones within the United States, so I did a quick flight back to Bangkok.

BANGKOK
I arrived at the BKK airport and took two trams/trains and a 20 minute walk to the Aloft hotel. I enjoyed the Le Meridien so much, I decided to use more Starwood points. I got settled and then took the sky rail to a shopping area to the high end stores of Siam Center, Siam Discovery, and Siam Paragon. I also visited the MBK food court. I’m not a big shopper (and plus I’m on a major budget), so I just walked through the stores and admired…until I hit the food section. In the basement of one of the Siam buildings, there was a massive food court with all kinds of foods—I mean all kinds. I was in heaven just staring at the the displays for each restaurant/booth. I settled on some dumplings at one place for my appetizer, and then I had a caesar salad and a fruit shake later. I enjoyed people watching and then continued my evening through the shops, thinking that Michael would have loved to sample the food with me. As I was thinking of that, I came upon a store called FOX (funny enough), and I decided to go in and have a look. I felt obligated to buy Michael and me some light weight neon shirts that said Fox on them. The lady at the front told me they were 50% off. I asked her if they were 50% off the sticker, and she said yes. When I checked out, the sticker was the 50% off, so they were more expensive than I thought. She didn’t speak English well, but I was trying to show her that my last name was Fox, just like the store. She had no idea what I was saying. When I tried to pay, she was confused with my credit card, so she got her boss. The boss came out and showed her, and the boss thought it was great that my last name was Fox. It was annoying that I paid more than expected, but I guess it’s my fault because I don’t speak Thai. I walked around the night market in that area, and then took the sky train east to the Thong Lo stop. At first I was a bit confused on how to know how much to pay for each trip, so I think I overpaid a couple of times. Since being in Bangkok, I’d been on three different types of trains/trams/sky trains, and each had a different type of payment coin or card. It wasn’t nearly as efficient as the one in Seoul. That evening, I enjoyed a plate a sticky rice with two Germans that were working in Bangkok. They were so nice and helped me plan my next day in Bangkok. That evening I stayed up late at the hotel enjoying some television movies and being in a comfy bed with a clean bathroom. For the morning, I took an expensive taxi (300 baht!, $9!) to the Grand Palace. The taxi driver was grumpy and a terrible driver, but I tried to pretend I was still in a great mood. The hotel told me (and I read in Lonely Planet) that many of the drivers will tell you the palace is closed, and then take you to one of the many entrances that appear closed. Then they will try to get you to pay to go elsewhere. Although my guy was grumpy, he took me to the correct spot. The palace was full of tourists and had many temples (again back to my speed walking and dodging the large groups of Chinese or Japanese tourists).  I had low expectations for the place but was awed when I went into the main building with the jade Buddha. The Buddha wasn’t all that impressive (really small), but the palace was beautiful with intricately painted walls all the way up to the high ceilings. I sat in there for a very long time in admiration. From there, I walked around the remaining palace grounds and got free admission into the queen’s sirikit museum of textiles. The air conditioned rooms were a nice break, and I actually found the museum enjoyable. From the palace, I took a very long walk to the reclining Buddha Wat Pho, a giant Buddha that spans 46 meters long and covered in gold leaf. Some local children were playing music (marching band) and dancing. Michael gave me a restaurant to try on the river, so I took a cab to northwest to Steve Cafe and Cuisine. My food was delicious. I hadn’t eaten yet for the day, so I ordered three things. I started with a lemongrass salad. It had so many flavors, and it reminded me a bit of the oriental salad that my mom makes back home. I also had crab spring rolls and prawn pad thai. Even from far away, Michael knows the best restaurants. The next morning, I headed to the DMK airport. I asked the hotel to do some negotiating for me because the taxi was expensive again. I “high-fived” the valet when he was able to negotiate a meter rate for me instead of a fixed price. I wasn’t pleased to see the same grumpy man with blue leather seats pull up again. I pretended like I was happy to see him. We got in the car, and he started to drive away but didn’t start the meter. I kept harping at him to start the meter, and he was banging around on it and said 400 baht. I said, “No, meter.” He was acting like he didn’t really speak English. He tried to tell me that the meter was broken, but I kept saying meter. He said, “No, it was broken.” After several back and forths, and me telling him to stop the car so I could get out (I knew he was lying), he pressed a button at the bottom and the meter “magically” started working again. He was annoying, and I was sarcastically saying, “Oh look…it just started working. Wow!” After a terrible car ride and him yelling at me and trying to get me to pay more money along the way (for various tolls, etc.), I remained pleasant as I took pictures of him, his blue leather seats, and his taxi identification numbers. When I got out of the car, I was so annoyed with him that I pointed at him and said, “You, mean. I call hotel.” He pretended like he didn’t understand, but I know that he did. Later I submitted my photos to my hotel, and they filed a complaint. The people at my hotel were friendly, but the Thai people I met on the streets in Bangkok were not my favorite, especially after I’d been visiting Burma.