Headed Northward
Yesterday morning we made the trip from Bangkok to Chiang Mai!
2 days ago (December 29th even though Squarespace is saying this is being written on the 30th) we spent our last day in Bangkok exploring the closest mall and lounging by the pool as we enjoyed our last hot moments in the south. Because Miriam has been such a trooper about trying new foods, I caved and let her get a happy meal at McDonalds. What’s interesting about McDonalds around the world though, is that there’s variance in their menus based on where they are. Miriams’ options for a Happy Meal entree included: a pork sandwich, a few different kinds of chicken sandwiches, a couple different forms of chicken nuggets, and a hamburger. After the McDonald’s trip, Miriam got to enjoy playing a bit with a little boy from Denmark, and they were able to communicate via his adults who all spoke English.
On Monday morning (the 30th in Thai time), we had an EARLY wake-up at 4:00am to catch a 7:25am flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, which is about a 1-hour flight. It was a struggle for us all to get moving in the morning and luckily we had done the bulk of our packing the night before. It was a little bit humorous how differently we approached the packing this time for such a short distance and flight — for our long-haul things were packed meticulously with attention to what we would need and when, and this time we just threw stuff in our bags with no real organization!
The airport flow at Suvarnabhumi airport (BKK) is really different from what we know here. There’s a million and a half check-in desks that you use to check your bags, then you go through to have your passport checked, then all the airport restaurants, shops, and lounges are outside security. We enjoyed our time in one of the lounges where we got to enjoy some curry, stir fry, and ice cream, then we made our way to the gate. It’s not until THAT point that you go through security, which means there are WAY MORE security checkpoints throughout the airport. I’m sure it takes a lot more people, but it’s actually quite lovely to not have to wait in long long lines for security and passport checks all in one place.
Last year when we flew from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, we flew on Bangkok Airways which is a boutique airline that flies domestically through Thailand. This year we went with Thai Airways. Another fun part of having friends in the airline industry: you can send them a text message with your list of possible airlines and they’ll rank them based on safety for you. The airlines we have worked with here in Asia in general seem to be way more generous than airlines in America. There’s more weight allowed in your baggage, and they always serve a meal or snack even if it’s only an hour-long flight. Thai airways did it right by serving taro custard buns and water that came to us in a mini-bag. All they had to do was walk down the aisle and hand the things out. Easy peasy. They then also walked through with coffee and tea for those who wanted it. Since we had just eaten in the lounge, Miriam wasn’t super into eating but she WAS into making a coloring instruction video for her YouTube channel (which is actually an app we use to share photos of her with our family). Once I get that edited I’ll embed the link in an upcoming blog post.
Once we landed in Chiang Mai things were easy peasy to get to our condo as the owner had lined up transportation for us—don’t worry, Miriam will do another hide and seek tour of our condo soon. We are staying in the Nimman neighborhood this year, named after the main road that goes through it, which is Nimmanhaemin Rd. We chose this neighborhood after reading lots of blogs and learning that this area has a great expat community, and there were two options for Miriam to go to school here. Turns out one of those options (the one we didn’t go with) is just a few meters up the road and across the street from our condo building.Another bonus to our location is that we are just a short walk to a few key places: Maya Mall, a pharmacy, and 7Eleven.
Once we got to our condo, our first items of business were laundry and a stop at the grocery store in the basement of Maya Mall. There’s also a food court in that basement, so to stop us from buying everything we saw, we opted to get lunch in the food court. Adam and Miriam had some kind of pork noodle soup, and I had roast duck and egg noodles. All of it was delicious, and each dish cost about $2 each.
Rimping Supermarket is definitely a grocery store that caters to an international crowd. We were able to find all of our staples (bread, salami, pasta, meats, cucumbers, berries, chickpeas) and then a few other things to last us a few days of cooking our own meals. And remember that French butter I wrote a whole paragraph on a few posts ago? They definitely had that and it’s all I remember it to be! Since we knew this would be a bigger grocery haul with it being the first, all three of us went so we could each fill a couple bags and walk home. We managed to get the perfect amount items that made that walk manageable.
You can’t see the backpack filled with a ½ gallon of milk and produce
After getting back to the condo we had a bit of time to rest before we needed to head out again. A few months ago I had joined a couple Facebook groups that have been really helpful to us, and on Friday I had seen a post in one of those groups from a family looking to set up a play date for their kids. We went ahead and responded to that post and made plans to meet up with them at a cafe that the other mom had read about in the same group.
Ya’ll…whenever you have a chance to meet up with a family from another country to just play and hang out, you should do it. The family we met up with was a Scottish/Swedish family. The dad is Scottish, the mom is Swedish, and together they run a bed and breakfast in Sweden. They had two lovely children and they are spending a few months in Southeast Asia because…those sweet Scandinavian parental leave benefits. Though our kids didn’t play together a ton (Miriam met some English-speaking Thai children who were able to meet her big American energy), we adults had a lovely time talking about things to do with kids in Thailand, politics, and just asking questions of one another’s respective cultures.
The place we met at though — what charming location! It was a bit out of town and in the hills, which meant that it was in the jungle and had kind of a Swiss Family Robinson feel to it. There was LOTS of place for the kids to play and for adults to hang out. As we were departing we also saw the largest spider I have ever seen in the wild. Trigger warning: a photo of that spider is the last photo in the slideshow below— it’s the large dot you see to the left of the tree on the right, so if you’re sensitive to spiders scroll down before you get to it.
We were all a bit tired after returning back to the condo after the play date. Adam and Miriam went ahead and played some Nintendo in Miriam’s room (which she’s thrilled to have a TV in her room), and I worked on cooking some dinner (a nice western style pasta). From there we called it a night.
The day I’m writing this is New Year’s eve day in Chiang Mai. The new year is a big deal around here, and the energy of it palpable. There’s a big celebration near the main gate of the Old City, then there’s another big celebration very very close to our condo — we’ll likely see their fireworks from our windows!
Early yesterday I received a message from my aunt who lives up here in Chiang Mai inviting us to the new year’s celebration at their church. Our instructions were to come hungry as it’s a big food festival, and they’ll send a car for us at 4:00pm. We head that direction 4 hours from now, and ya’ll, I can’t believe we’ll be spending NYE with actual real life relatives in Thailand - a thing I NEVER imagined would be a reality.
