Chiang Mai is a national treasure - a cultural symbol of nationhood (to quote the guide). This explains why during this holiday week the place is jam packed - guesthouses are full, trains are booked and there are crowds everywhere. We arrived after the weekend on the night of the 29th after a long, rock-n-rattling 10 hour train ride. We were not able to get an overnight train so were had to endure the ride wide-awake, naseua knocking on the door continuously. We have quickly discovered that we both get motion sickness quickly. I was prepared with crackers and dramine. Reading is out of the question so to pass some of the time we watched the last 2 movies we had stored on the IPOD. I'm sure the other passengers were wondering what we were laughing about as we watched Zohan on a 2"x4" screen.
We stayed at the Top North Guesthouse. Not anything special, simple room, holes in the concrete, mold in the bathroom, but big enough for a family of 4 and with air-conditioning (a benefit at night) all for 500 baht - the equivalent of 17 dollars. (That is for all nights but the first. We had our first experience of being overcharged by someone who books a room for you. We paid 800 baht in Bangkok for this room that when booked at the door cost 500. We also figured out we almost paid double for the train ticket bought from the same agent. Oh well - live and learn.). We spent our first day looking for a new guesthouse and getting oriented to the city which turned out to be much bigger than we expected. After looking at many places we decided to just stay where we were - simply because we got lazy.
