I am gradually getting to know Chiang Mai bit by bit. Today Nik and I started by going to his favorite coffee shop. Then we finalized our apartment search, went to the mall, stopped by the apartment to pay our deposit and take photos, got a flat tire, and finished the day by having dinner with Eh, a good friend of Nik’s from his last visit to Chiang Mai.

I’d have to say that this was a pretty darn good day. It was relaxed, I learned a lot more about Thai culture, and we ate good food.

Khâo Sawy table at Central Airport Plaza Mall

The parking lots at the shopping mall are as big, if not bigger than in the US. They separate motorbikes from automobiles, and ours was near B2.

After paying our deposit, we took one more look at our future apartment. The building is a brand new “condotel”, meaning that they rent by the night or by the month. We will be leasing it for 3 months. It seems to be a good neighborhood, and we will be able to walk to a few restaurants and convenient stores. And the busier parts of town are just a short ride away.

Our front door with mountains in the background.

This was taken standing in the living room looking through the glass sliding door into the bedroom.

The apartment is a fully furnished one bedroom corner unit, with a sliding glass door between the living and sleeping area. We will have a small balcony, full bathroom with stand-up hot shower, marble floors, 2 locking wardrobes, covered parking, security, internet, weekly maid service that provides us with clean linens, and we have a distant view of the mountains. Sounds pretty good, huh?

We will be paying 8,000 Baht/month + utilities ($250). Cheap, right? As we learned this evening, by Thai standards, this is quite expensive and luxurious. The average Thai apartment is about 5,000 Baht/month max ($150), and the average salary is 7,000-10,000 Baht/month ($218-$312). After I learned this, I sort-of felt like we had been ripped off. But there are two of us, and most of the amenities I mentioned earlier do not come with the typical Thai apartment. Honestly, there is no excuse for this kind of luxury in Thailand. The only reason is that we can afford it. N and I are not wealthy people, but our nation is. I knew that this trip would teach me about economics, and this is one of my first significant lessons. We are traveling on a pretty tight budget, but today made me realize more than ever that our budget is only tight by American standards.

Flat tire

And of course, as we left the apartment, we got a flat tire. Luckily there was a mechanic’s shop just across the street, so we rolled it over and they had us back on the road in 30 minutes. Now we know where to go if we have any trouble!

I just read Nik’s very thorough blog post about our time in Krabi and our first two days in Chiang Mai.  I never do this because I know that if I do I won’t have the desire to write my own….so I am going to do exactly what I have been avoiding…I am going to direct you towards his post for photos and to get the gist of the past 6 days.

N’s blog: 2 Nightz Krabi, 2 Nightz Train, 2 Fast and Furious Nightz Chiang Mai Drift

Sorry for the cop out, but here are my additions….

This is Nik as I see him 50% of the time. His love and excitement for traveling and documenting is amazing. It makes our travels last forever. And I thought he was obsessed when he had a little point & shoot camera last year....now with his fancy new SLR, he can't get enough!

I don't know what "CME" is, but I like their office! I love the contrast between the bright yellow and the white and gray that occupies most of the city. (this office is just off of Nimanhemin Road)

Motorbikes are the primary means of transportation here in Thailand, even in the rainy season. Here the driver is lucky enough to have a passenger holding the umbrella for her, but it is not unusual to see drivers with one hand steering and the other holding an umbrella.

Oh so tasty!!

I just had the best latte in Chiang Mai at Cafe Mong Pearl. Most coffee here is instant, and therefor not up to my Portland, OR standards. It may not be Stumptown’s finest, but it might be as close as I get.

Our visit to Koh Phi Phi Don, off the western coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea, can be described in two parts:

Tuesday, July 3
Part 1: Bad
Tuesday morning we boarded a ferry boat from Rai Leh beach. We chatted with a Louisiana-born California girl for most of the ride, which was very nice. She was on her way to Bali, Indonesia for 6 weeks, in which she plans to spend at least one week in silent meditation. We talked about California, Portland, books, traveling and Tobasco sauce. She was the first girl I had spoken to in over a week, so this small bit of conversation was refreshing.

Now for the bad part…We did not have room reservations, so we ventured out through the city with all of our bags to search for a room. The first two were too expensive. The third was too depressing. The fourth and fifth didn’t have hot showers. The sixth was too expensive. The seventh was a bit more than we wanted to pay, but it had wireless internet. And the eighth was too loud. To add to this fun and excitement, it was about 90˚F outside, raining and we hadn’t eaten all day…needless to say, we were in bad moods. We decided to splurge and go to the first room. They didn’t have the room available any more. We skipped the second, and settled on the third one that was depressing but cheap.

Our depressing guest house

Exhausted and hungry, we left our bags and set out for lunch. We found a nice little thai place in the midst of Panama City Beach-like tourist shops (Panama City Beach, Florida that is. If you’ve ever been there you know what I mean). Afterwards we went back to the depressing room for a nap on the bed that felt as if we were going to be stabbed with springs every time we moved.

For dinner we decided to have pizza. Dinner was miserable. The food was okay, but the restaurant was packed with sex-hungry Australian college kids on holiday wearing mini skirts and too much makeup. Everyone was checking everyone out, and it was not a pleasurable situation. Nik and I left as quickly as we could and headed out for a walk on the beach where we both let the frustrations of the day out. During our walk, we decided that we would leave this terrible place tomorrow. It wasn’t beautiful enough to stay and endure the bad lodging and over-sexed-gawking.

Even the beach was depressed.

Wednesday July 4 – Friday July 6
Part 2: Good
Determined to make Wednesday a good day, we woke up early and took a hike up to the Koh Phi Phi Viewpoint. We were rewarded with this:

Click for larger image

Then we purchased our ferry tickets back to Krabi, packed up and headed to the same Thai restaurant from yesterday for lunch. It was still only 12pm, so we found a bench by the pier to people watch until the ferry left at 2pm.

Tourists and commercial deliveries fight for space on the deteriorating pier.

As we sat near the pier, the weather was nicer, the water was bluer, and Nik and Jamie were happier. In fact, we were so much happier that we decided to give the island a second chance, but we were going to get the heck out of the tourist hell. We confirmed that our ferry tickets could be used the following day, and we took a short longboat ride to Hat Yao (Long Beach).

Our beachside bungalow.

Hat Yao was beautiful and just what we needed. Calm water, nice people, quaint bungalows, beachside hammocks, oceanside restaurants. Pure bliss.

Seaside view from our bungalow

Nik’s Blog: Koh Phi Phi Don

Last Tuesday, we left Krabi to visit Rai Leh Beach. This area is a peninsula that juts out into the Andaman Sea, but can only be accessed by boat because of the high mountain range to its east. Therefore, we hired a long-tail boat from the Krabi pier to Rai Leh (1000baht).

We stayed at Rapala Bungalows our first night (350baht). It was a small bamboo bungalow with a hammock on the front porch. This may sound amazing…but it wasn’t. The mattress was sitting on the floor, which means that it was damp with moisture…meaning that it was probably covered with mildew and mold underneath the sketchy sheets. The bathrooms here also were nothing exciting, and the walls weren’t completely sealed so we were bitten by mosquitoes throughout the night. Needless to say, we looked for other accommodations.

Rapala Bungalows photo courtesy of Nik

The second and third nights we stayed at the Highland Resort (350baht). These bungalows were much nicer for the same price. The bed was raised off the floor with clean linens. The walls were still not completely sealed, so we still had mosquito bites the next morning, but the shower was clean and refreshing.

Highland Bungalows photo courtesy of Nik

The view from the lawn in front of Highland Bungalows.

Also, the bungalows are set in a mountain valley with tall mountains on three sides with the fourth side opening up to the sea. The setting was beautiful….paradise!!

Rai Leh has the best sand you’ve ever set foot on.  It is super fine, almost like mud but not gross.  We spent most of our days here lounging and reading with an occasional walk to the rocky area to see crabs and sea cucumbers.  The at sunset, the locals congregated at the beach to play a full pitch game of futbol with a side game volleyball.  They were quite impressive, and I was very tempted to join…but it was all Thai men, so I didn’t think I’d fit in.

We camped out near that far rock for most of the day to stay out of the direct sun. photo courtesy of Nik

Soccer at Sunset photo courtesy of Nik

The food at Rai Leh leaves a lot to be desired.  Most of the accommodations here are big resorts, so most of the restaurants are big resort restaurants.  This means ridiculously high prices for mediocre food (of course, we don’t know what the food tasted like because we weren’t willing to pay!).  We ended up having expensive museli and yogurt for breakfast (90baht), snacks for lunch and soup for dinner(50baht).  It was not the best, but we made it.

Nik’s Blog: Rai Leh Beach