July 25, 2017. Goodbye, Singapore; Hello, Chiang Mai

LOCATION:  Chiang Mai, Thailand, in the northwest part of the country

WEATHER:  Not as hot and humid as Singapore.  Highs mid-80s

 

We have really enjoyed our  housesitting assignment in Singapore.  It was a lovely, artsy home....

This papaya tree was growing in front of our house..

And, along the way to the bus stop, we always passed trees full of ferns...

We said goodbye to our super nice homeowners and took a taxi to the airport.  The Singapore airport is the nicest one we've been to in the world.  It has little nooks where people can rest, free internet lounges, sleeping lounges, and just an overall air of sophistication and peacefulness.  This is one of the gardens inside our terminal...

We flew 3 hours north on Scoot Airways to Chiang Mai.  

While landing, we could see that the landscape is quite different from Bangkok or Singapore.  It is more jungly and mountainous.  Chiang Mai is the ancient capital of Thailand.   We found our cute "resort", located not far from downtown.  This is the entrance...

At the entrance, there is a statue honoring an elephant god with milk, water and sugar cane pieces to appease him.

There is also this sign at the registration desk....

And, funny enough....we saw a Thai famiy chowing down on their durian outside the hotel, since they couldn't bring it in.

 We walked around the neighborhood close to our hotel.  Chiang Mai is known for its temples. This one is close to our hotel.

 

This resort is quite nice, with a swimming pool, very comfortable rooms and nice amenities such as complimentary water and fruit.  They even supply cute slippers....

We walked around town and found a place for dinner.  We had Pad Thai and a green curry.  Both were $2.  While we were eating, it started to pour.  It was quite a thunderstorm.  Our restaurant's roof was aluminum and it made so much noise that we couldn't hear each other.  When we were finished eating, George wanted to catch a tuk-tuk back to the hotel as it was still raining a bit and the streets were gigantic mud puddles.  The tuk tuk driver couldn't find our hotel at first, so we drove around quite a bit.  What fun!     Here is a view from the interior --- bouncing along in the rainy dark...