Where did my weekend go?

Eighteen hours on a plane? Are you kidding me? Unfortunately, no the 18 hours is not a joke. The non-stop flight from LA to Bangkok is 17 hours and 53 minutes. The Traveling Hillbilly was in for a long and painful flight. With the long flight, plus the time difference, the odd thing was the Traveling Hillbilly left LA on a Friday night and got to Thailand and it was already Sunday. Where did my weekend go?

I have to admit though, the flight was not nearly as bad as anticipated. There were plenty of on- demand TV shows and movies to watch, as well as some really fun games. Plus Thai Airways kept us well fed and the service was excellent! I would highly recommend Thai Airways for any future travel plans to Asia.

After almost eighteen hours, we finally hit land again. Yeah! Unfortunately Bangkok was not the final destination for this first leg of the trip. After going through customs, which took all of 5 minutes, it was time to catch another plane to Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is in the northern part of Thailand and is the 2nd largest city, next to Bangkok, although still much smaller than Bangkok.

We arrived yesterday, exhausted but truly excited about the adventures to come. The Traveling Hillbilly was very excited to arrive at the hotel, Rachamankha. It's a small boutique hotel and is true Thai style. It only has like 25 rooms and is set up in square with a beautiful courtyard and pool in the center. It's unlike any place this hillbilly has stayed before. As tempting as it was to just check in and go to sleep, we decided it was best to power through and spend the day sightseeing. We wanted to get on Thai time as soon as possible.

We walked around the old town area and down by the river. We wandered through several outdoor markets and finally stopped for a drink right on the river. With the long plane ride and all the walking, the legs finally gave out and we took a Singtao (basically a small covered pickup with the bench seats in the back) to get back to the hotel. We finally called it a night around 8pm. Boy did that bed feel good. The hillbilly was asleep about 10 minutes after the head hit the pillow.

The Traveling Hillbilly got up early this morning and decided to jump in the pool and do some laps. What a great way to start the morning. After a few laps, I met my friends for breakfast, which was actually excellent! After breakfast, we headed off on foot to see some temples. There are over 700 temples in this city, so there's no way to see them all.

After seeing a few temples, it started to rain. We decided it would be a good day to go over to see the new Mandarin Oriental hotel and have a drink. Since the Mandarin Oriental is on the complete opposite side of town, we hired a car/driver to show us around the city and take us over to the hotel. It cost us a whole $30 dollars for almost four hours! What a bargain.

We stopped at a silk factory, a silver factory and a pottery factory. All were very touristy places, but still great to see. As for the Mandarin Oriental, I can't even do it justice. People laughed when they were building the place. They thought there was no way such it would do well in Chiang Mai. But this Traveling Hillbilly was in awe! They did an amazing job on this place. You cross a moat to get into the place and they take you around the compound in a horse drawn carriage. It is truly over the top. It kind of reminded of Venice, Italy. Not that it looks anything like Venice, but when I was in Venice I kept thinking this seem like Disneyland. It is just so over the top, that you think it can't be real. It seems like a fantasy place created by Disney. That is how I felt about this hotel. You can't even call it a hotel. It's a world all it's own. I can't even begin to describe how beautiful it is. I'll post some pictures soon. I know they won't do it justice, but hope they'll give you some idea of how amazing the place is.

Tonight, it's off to the night market and some dinner along the river. Tomorrow is the big elephant safari and river rafting adventure. I'm very excited, but also nervous about tomorrow. As a lot of you know, this Traveling Hillbilly is afraid of heights. Now horseback riding is one thing, but riding on an elephant is quite another. Hopefully I'll have some interesting stories to share.

Stay tuned...