Dinner

Anyone looking for restaurant recommendations in Thailand? Good, I've got just the place. May I suggest Aroon Rai in Chiang Mai?

Here's what we ate. We started with their locally made sausage. A little too spicy for me, but Jim enjoyed them.

Our hotel proprietor insisted that we try kow soi gai while in Chiang Mai. It didn't disappoint. It's a delicious curried egg noodle and chicken soup.

We were having a bit of trouble finding a place that served kow soi gai, so we asked a nice English-speaking gentleman working at a bookstore we visited. He suggested Aroon Rai and insisted we try their gang garee gai, a yellow curry with chicken and potatoes. Good recommendation, bookstore guy. Delicious.

You can kind of see in the photos that we also had a beer with dinner. I can't remember exactly how much our bill was, but it was probably about eight U.S. dollars.

And so it begins ...

The adventure has begun.

We're a little over a week in and up to this point we've spent A LOT of time traveling. At my count, 41 hours on a plane or train ... and that doesn't include the time we waited at the airport or train station.

That said, the travel has been mostly fun. While I was worried about spending 14 hours on a plane, it was, in reality, uninterrupted time to read. It was great. I finished my book.

We spent a few days in Bangkok, our first stop. Bangkok, for me, was busy, noisy, dirty, full of annoying tourists, in other words not my favorite. We did go to the Grand Palace (click for photos), which I very much enjoyed.

On the overnight train North to Chiang Mai we met two Swedes who made great company.

Chiang Mai is my heaven on earth. The weather's more comfortable (80s instead of the 90s we experienced in Bangkok, and cooler at night), the people are friendly and the food is amazing.

Also there's a bookstore on every corner. Speaking of which, I better get back to it. Stay tuned ... more to come!