Chiangmai to Bangkok

Our Homestay experience was a positive one, but it wouldn’t be for everyone. The accommodation was primitive, meant for backpackers, a step up from sleeping in a tent. We were in the middle of an agriculture area, with many rice fields. We were awakened early by midnight dogs barking, 3 am rooster calls, 5 am calls to Buddhist prayer, & 6 am huge flocks of noisy birds landing in trees surrounding our cabin. What made up for it was the kindness of our hosts. Today is another travel day, flight #18 on the trip. Our host drove us to the airport. On the way we stopped at her friend’s business. They make & sell silver jewelry. Kim bought a couple of nice pair of one of a kind earrings. We decided to wear surgical masks today to hopefully keep us healthy, & away from the coronavirus. Our flight was uneventful and we arrived at around 4:45. That’s when the adventure began. We managed to find a helpful English speaking woman who showed Kim how to purchase two tokens for the Airport Rail link train. Not as much English signs or spoken as we thought. The airport was the beginning of this train’s route so we got a seat. At the 7th stop we had to jump off & transfer to a second line which we stayed on for 2 stops. We then found our way to the BTS skytrain, which was absolutely jammed. We squeezed onto this train, travelled a couple of stops & found our way to our hotel’s free boat shuttle. We lucked out & hopped on just as it was leaving. 3 hours after we landed, we finally checked into our home for the next 7 nights, the beautiful Chatrium Riverside Hotel in Bangkok. We asked for & got a free upgrade, a room with a great view of the city & the river. Things are lookin’ up, way up to the 14th floor, in fact...Read more