7 Days, Chiang Mai, Day 1

It's an early start today, and a rather nervous one as we head to the immigration office hoping to get a months extension. Everyone we have spoken to has told us it will be fine, but a slight worry still lingers that they will take one look at me and a big denied stamp will be slammed onto my passport.
Hoping to beat the queues, we grab an uber there at around 8 (8.30 is opening time). Unfortunately everyone here has had the same idea and the foyer is already pretty crowded as we enter. We grab a couple of forms and start to fill them in before joining the back of the queue. After a rather long wait we make it to the front where my passport is taken away and we go sit inside and wait for my stamp. The 30 day extension was no problem, apart from for Amy who has to wait until she gets her new passport in Bangkok to do it. In the end everything goes swimmingly, despite the 200 baht fee for some new passport photos as they don't accept ones normal size!
We head back to the hotel and pick up our bags, before heading to the bus stop to head to Chiang Rai. The success of the morning has raised our spirits, but they are soon dropped as we are told the Chiang Rai buses are sold out all day. After some food and deliberation we book a hotel nearby and book a bus for tomorrow. The hotel we are in is okay, but with no Wi-Fi and only one English channels that repeats the same five movie trailers all day, it is pretty boring.
The only plus side is it is near a few fast food places, so we pop out for an afternoon cheeseburger and coffee.
As night draws in, we are expecting a pretty boring one, so we head out for a walk. In the distance we saw a shopping mall called central festival that seems to look pretty Christmassy. We head towards it along a busy main road, and walk in to a very festive scene. A huge Christmas tree stands outside, and lots of decorations pass you by as you walk inside. Amy is in her element with the decorations, and is even happier when she sees a H and M and topshop! After waiting for her outside the shops, we walk around the mall taking it all in and beginning to feel very festive. A cinema showing the new star wars film tempts me but we decide to save it for another day. I usually hate shopping malls, but this one is great fun and is a small taste of home that we maybe both have been craving in the lead up to Christmas. Afterwards, we stop for a pizza which is amazing and some fries. We then pop into McDonalds for more fries (a tray full to be exact) before heading back to the room. We didn't expect much from tonight, but it has been great, and we go to sleep full of festive joy and fries, so many fries.Read more