Delhi to Bangkok to Chiang Mai

Two day Post: 7/7 - 7/8

Well our last day in Delhi was pretty uneventful. We woke up a little later than planned after our long Taj adventure. We said goodbye to the Wood Castle and hoped to find a cab to quickly take us to the Lotus Temple (Bahai House of Worship). It's shaped like a lotus flower and looks gorgeous, but when we found a group of taxis and explained what we wanted to do and what time our flight left, they told us we didn't have enough time. :(

The airport wasn't eventful. I wasn't feeling great...maybe that lime soda had some water in it?? The flight was an easy one (around 4 hrs) to Bangkok. As the flight was preparing to depart, the moisture in the air made the plane all steamy; it was slightly unnerving, but we were assured that it was normal. The person in the seat behind me thought it was a great idea to DRUM with his fingers on the back of my seat, which was GREAT. :( We had individual little tv screens though, so Mari and I both watched a FABULOUS Bollywood film!! The Bangkok airport was the most modern we'd been through in a while. It was the first time we used an actual jetway since leaving Chicago.

We met the hotel shuttle and when we arrived, we realized that somehow our reservation didn't go through. We were able to get a room for around $30 anyway, and we were happy to have a place to relax for the night before leaving for Chiang Mai.

This morning, we packed up again, left our bags at the hotel and headed out to do a little exploring in Bangkok. We took the hotel shuttle to the airport and the free city link from there to downtown. Unfortunately, that link wasn't on our map, so we weren't exactly sure where we were going to end up. We figured it out after a couple conversations with workers at the station and made our way to the Victory monument and the surrounding markets, where I purchased a new shirt for 20 Baht (61 cents). In Bangkok, we saw our first Starbucks since leaving the US and a ridiculous number of Dunkin Donuts and 7-Elevens. Jess-- I guess that means you could live in Thailand. We took a picture for you! :)

We got up the nerve to grab some street food and ended up with some chicken satay and DELICIOUS coconut pancake things (need to find out what they're called). Then Mari found an adidas bike jersey for 180 Baht. We hopped on the SkyTrain and went to see the Erawan Shrine, which was near the area where the protests had taken place recently. We saw the damage done to one of the shopping malls and also many signs and t-shirts saying "Together We Can". It seems that things are pretty much back to normal and that they're really working toward reconciliation here.

We wandered into one of the huge malls with many EXPENSIVE stores--fancy cars, jewelry, nice restaurants, etc. After a frozen yogurt treat, we took off for the airport and our flight to Chiang Mai. The flight was so quick-- 1 hr. It was nice to have someone picking us up at the airport (Thanks Ton!). So nice to not have to plan and figure everything out on our own here. Went for a Thai dinner and some sorbet with Ton, then back to his house (which is BEAUTIFUL...nice wood floors, beautiful decorations, and a pool...a lovely retreat).

Attempting to stay up and watch the Germany v. Spain match, but it shows at 1:30 am. 12:30 right now and I'm fading! Tomorrow should be a great day! Going to see a couple temples, then and elephant camp and the Chiang Mai night market in the evening.

Hopefully easy internet access over the next 4 days means we'll have more pictures for you soon!

-Michelle