Dec 16-18, Chiang Mai

Suvarnabhumi Airport Arrived in Bangkok around 7.00 a.m. with four hours to kill waiting for the onward flight to Chiang Mai. Still no Sky train, but at least the gardens are nice. Our total time to Chiang Mai was about 25 hours from leaving Manchester, with 4 hours wait in Amsterdam for the China Airways flight. Not ideal - but the cheapest deal we found.

This was our third time in Chiang Mai, so we didn't need to do any sight-seeing. We booked in to the Raming Lodge, a new 'Lana boutique style' hotel on Loikroh Road, quite close to the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar.

Raming Lodge The rooms were large and airy (but a little dark) and peaceful at night, a real bonus. The location was excellent for the Night Market and, apart from lacking a pool, a good place to stay. It was mid afternoon by the time we unpacked and ventured out, looking forward to a cold beer - only to find that Thai elections were in progress and nowhere was serving alcohol - by law!!!

After an early tea, we held out until about 6.30 pm but then had to call it a (long) day and slept 16 hours - missing breakfast the next day. Once up, we both went to the dentist - to get our teeth laser whitened. Chiang Mai seems full of dentists these days, the one here was on the same street as the Raming Lodge. Not quite the normal holiday fun - but a lot better value than the UK.