After a rather challenging journey with a delayed flight from Edinburgh to Heathrow and then a missed flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, we finally arrived at our hotel at 10 pm. We were so hungry we spent 400baht (about £8) buying snacks from the snack machine in the foyer.
I could hardly contain my excitement as our taxi whizzed us through the very busy streets of Chiang Mai. At last I was in Thailand, the country I'd not been able to stop thinking about for 2 and a half years.
Everything about the place was enchanting. The lizards scurrying along the hotel walls, the crickets singing noisily in the darkness, dogs barking, smells of Thai cuisine wafting on the gentle breeze.
On our first day we decided to go for our first trip on a tuktuk - a little carriage attached to a moped type thing which chug chugs along emitting all sorts of nasty smelling pollution into the already heavily polluted air of Chiang Mai. Choking on fumes from the tuktuk in front did not spoil my sheer delight at the adventure I was on.
Anyway I consoled myself that at least it was nothing as bad as the pollution in Bangkok.
As we veered sharply round a corner Josh and I, clinging to the sides for dear life, both said in unison "This is fun!" I was so relieved that my child was enjoying the adventure as much as I was.
We stopped first at the market, and were completely in awe of what we saw there - puppies for sale in baskets - apparently people buy them to breed and eat !!!!!!!!!! (made me want to adopt them all.) Live fish in pails of water waiting for a buyer to take them home and cook them, a huge variety of various types and quality of fruit and veg. The pungent air and the strange mixture of odours made me happy to get back out into the sunshine.
Next we headed for Tesco Lotus as I longed to see what kind of "normality" there would be for us when we eventually moved there. I was surprised and impressed at the quality and cleanliness of the shopping mall where Tesco Lotus is situated. There's a KFC, a pancake parlour, a McDonalds and a fantastic food court with a huge variety of very cheap Thai dishes on sale.
I was waiting in the queue at the checkout when I heard the lady in front of me speak with an American accent.
More about this conversation in tomorrow's blog.
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