AlanandVal

Straight to Bo Sang


We landed in Chiang Mai, Thailand around 11:15 pm and by the time we got through customs and picked up our bags, we were close to midnight.  We had booked our stay at an Inn that provided airport pick up, so we knew that somewhere along the way we should find a man named Peter, ready to drive us "home".  Sure enough Peter was there holding a sign with our names on it and thanks to being in a country where you can still park at the door of baggage claim, we were on our way within a matter of minutes.

As soon as we stepped foot outside the airport the heat hit us like a wet blanket, even at midnight. And right away you meet the "smell" of Thailand, a scent you seem to pick up throughout the country.  It's a mixture of the spices and sauces they use for cooking.  You would expect to only find a smell like that around a restaurant or maybe even a residential area during dinner time.  But thanks to the fact that Thai's don't really adhere to the typical American meal schedule and the fact that anyone who can find an empty area and has a pot and something to make fire with can have a "restaurant", the smell of food is constant.

The Inn was about 12 kilometers outside the Chiang Mai city. However with the airport being on the exact opposite side of the city it meant we had about a 30 minute drive.  As we circled Chiang Mai we could see the lights and started to realize how big Chiang Mai really is.  Then we started going away from the city and we started to see that we had truly landed in a different world.  As we got closer to the Inn we realized that even though it was past midnight families were still out at street side food stalls eating, playing games, etc. And as we arrived in Bo Sang, the town we would be staying in, and made our way through the neighborhood where the inn was located, we started to realize that this stay was really going to be an experience.