Day 1.5: Hello from Chiang Mai

I managed to survive the 20-something hour travel time and have made it here in one piece, in sound mind and body more or less.

Actually the trek was pretty darn pleasant. I heartily recommend EVA Air: nice comfy reclining seats and good food. (The movies weren't bad either.)

Here's the route I took:

- Seattle (2:55 am PST) ----> Taipei, Taiwan (14 hours)
- Taipei, Taiwan -----------> Bangkok, Thailand (4 hours)
- Bangkok, Thailand--------> Chiang Mai, Thailand (3 hour layover + 1.5 hour flight)

I would have to say it was smooth sailing all the way through to Bangkok (at approximately hour 19 of travelling). It's that last leg that'll kill ya ;-)

I had to wait for several hours in Bangkok before I could fly out to Chiang Mai. I almost gave the Thai air folks at the desk a piece of my mind when we hadn't even begun boarding at 15:25 - which was our departure time. I kept talking myself down, reminding myself that expression of frustration or anger is very un-Thai-like.

Let me tell you, I was glad that I did. It took me about ten minutes on the flight to realize that I had missed an hour somewhere in my travels. While my watch indicated an hour delay, we were actually right on time. DOH! Glad I kept my mouth shut.

More on my first evening in Chiang Mai in a few...