arrived in Chiang Mai

Wow, I’m awake early this morning.  May as well put that time to good use and blog and write postcards, right?

After a nice breakfast with J-J and his wife, a breakfast that included a healthy portion of durian, by the way,

Conrad and I were taken to the airport in Bangkok to fly north.  Destination Chiang Mai.  Nice little lounge, easy and fairly short flight.  Remarkably, we were served a hot lunch up in business class.  Wow.

I had expected Chiang Mai to be a hilly town enclosed tightly by mountains, but the view flying in showed a broad, flat valley.  

We landed and were through the airport and into a car and at the hotel very quickly.  A welcome day of fast and smooth travel!

Our hotel is lovely.  

The Tamarind Village evokes an older time, truly.  I had thought it an old complex converted to a boutique hotel, but it seems it was deigned this way.  Very tranquil here in the heart of the city.  Our room - a suite, actually - is quite nice.  

We settled in somewhat, headed down to ask the desk to make spa and restaurant bookings for us, came back up to unpack more, then took a short walk before dinner.

We kept dinner nearby, heading to the hotel restaurant, Ruen Tamarind, for our meal.  It’s a handsome space, and I know I will enjoy breakfast there on our mornings here.  Their bar looked promising, but the martini was only ok.  And not the focus of the meal, so we shrugged that off and sipped.  The food itself?  Great!  Presented beautifully.  And still too much.  We both loved the chicken in curry with fried and soft noodles.  I also loved the duck larb, but Conrad found it a bit spicy.  He preferred the tuna to be scooped into betel leaves for wrapping, and I liked that but not as much as he did.  

No dessert, a glass of wine each instead, and then we came back to the room to wind down.  I was lights out before ten!

No big plans today until spa treatments late afternoon.  Hooray!