Chiang Mai

We are now in Chiang Mai, Northern capital of Thailand. We are planning on staying here for five or six weeks. The idea was to settle down in a town using the “Cinderella principle”: not too big, not too small; interesting tourist sites, but not too touristy; local color, but not without some larger infrastructure. You get the idea, and I think we got the town. The layout of the town itself is quite interesting. The old part of town is surrounded by a picturesque rectangular moat and decaying brick walls with large gates in the middle of each of the four sides. A morning run around the moat takes about 45 minutes, perfect for my weekly routine. People drive on the left in Thailand and traffic travels counter-clockwise on one road inside the moat and clockwise around the outside; a surprisingly effective system. The resources I come across call Chiang Mai Thailand’s northern capital and the spiritual center of the country. The place does seem very “Thai” and not overrun by tourists but there are, of course, a number of food and lodging options catering to visitors. I’ve also met a number of expatriates who have retired here because of the pleasant climate, interesting town, and affordable standard of living. Some parts of town are definitely geared to tourists, such as the famous Night Bazaar, but it is not hard to find the shops and restaurants frequented by the locals. Basically, all the places you want to go are within walking distance and, if Maya isn’t up to the trek, it’s easy and cheap to hire a tuk-tuk (note the baby in the back seat of the one to the right) or songtheauw - basically a pickup with benches in the semi-enclosed truck bed – who gather riders together who are travelling in the same general direction. Most of the locals get around on scooters. We have rented them as well. We can all fit on one and Maya really appreciates not having to walk so far.

We first stayed at Grace's Boutique House which employed a large staff of intern guides with whom Maya got along swimmingly. Most of the locals first assume Maya is Thai (which she looks as though she could be); in general, it's very easy to meet people when travelling with kids. The picture of the right is of Maya and Pon and the dog Noman on Pon's bike. While the staff at Grace's was great, we moved two doors down to the Na Inn for a larger sunny room. The photo on the left is of the kids and Mao who manages the Na Inn, which is shown in the upper right photo.