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!

and then we were off again

So, we got home from Colorado last Monday, and we left for Oregon on Thursday.  Yep, a lot of travel.

Thursday, late morning, we headed to LAX once again. 

I am actually surprised they don't recognize us there, but I know there are people who travel even more than we do.  Ah well.  A little time in the lounge, and then it was aboard the first flight of the day:  LAX -->  SFO.

We had a little time again in a lounge in San Francisco, and then it was the next flight, this time to Medford, OR.   Mind you, it was a lovely evening to climb out of SFO.  A fine sunset over the Bay area.

Dozing ensued.

And then there it was:  Medford. 

My fifth trip to the state, my third city visited (Eugene was first, then three trips to Portland).  And with that, our long, wedding weekend was beginning!

flying south

Still catching up here, and returning to that Aruba trip from almost a month ago now. Four weeks since the first lecture? Is that right? It seems so very long ago in some ways, and yet it wasn't.

I wrote a quick first entry on the work aspects of the trip, and I think on reflection I should re-emphasize this point: this is not a blog for me to discuss work, to discuss libraries. Incidentally, perhaps, but not the focus. I'm not particularly comfortable bringing my professional life into this blog (though happy to talk with you about it one-on-one), and so I gave that aspect of the trip short shrift. I am, however, proud of what Nancy and I undertook. I thought we made did a very good job of addressing our topic, and I found meeting with colleagues and others in Aruba quite rewarding.

But this is a blog about food and travel more than anything, so again I'll turn from talk of work and focus on some of the more interesting aspects of the trip. And for tonight, before I head off to bed, some aerial photos.

One of the many many great things about Conrad is that he flies a lot for work, and there are spillover benefits to me. Most recently, I've acquired his elite status on United. On the Aruba trip, that came in handy: upgrades! I found myself on the flight from Newark to Aruba sitting in Business Class in a window seat on the left side of the plane. I cheerily took advantage of the view (when I wasn't watching The Descendants or reading The Hunger Games) to check out the view and speculate on where I was:

New York City poking through the clouds.

The Carolinas?


Cuba?


Over Hispaniola?



Flying into Aruba.







Puffy clouds, turquoise waters close in to shore. It was entertaining in and of itself, and I found myself surprised time and again that I was actually making this trip.

The day that travel doesn't hold some small magic for me, I should relinquish my status and stay at home. May that day never come.