Bangkok

The bus from Pattaya to Bangkok takes you to the airport.  From there, you can either catch a flight to your next destination, or the skytrain into Bangkok.  We headed into Bangkok!  The infrastructure in Bangkok is great!!  It reminds me of Vancouver.  It's very easy to get around a big city quickly.  The population of Bangkok is a little over 9 million people, and within the surrounding metro area is 14 million.  But, we still found Beijing busier with its almost 21 million people.  We got off the sky train, walked down Sukhumvit Road for about half a block, turned down Soi 11, walked another block, and viola! there was our hotel!! Easy pleasy!!  A Soi is is a narrow lane that extends off of a main drag.  As an example, our hotel in Bangkok is on Sukhumvit Soi 11.  It makes it very easy to find locations!!

Our hotel is dated, like all the hotels we have stayed at, but the room is big, clean, a huge buffet breakfast is included, and the location is great!!  Down our Soi we have many, many small bars, and restaurants!!  I love it!!

We enjoyed our afternoon and evening in Bangkok!!  It's fantastically busy, noisy, full of street shops, bars, food stalls, restaurants, tailors, bums, high end shopping, and movie theaters!  We found a place for afternoon beers, and a nice little Mexican joint that served up some great Sangrias, and food!!

The next day we caught a flight to Chiang Mai.  Our original plan was to ride the night train to Chiang Mai, but all classes were full until March 15!!  We got to Chiang Mai a full day ahead of schedule, found our quaint hotel, checked in, snooped around old town, and booked a trip to the north of Thailand for the next day!

                                           This is the hotel we stayed at for only one night.
                                           It was a great little boutique hotel, but too far from the 
                                           Old City, and a bit pricey...$30/night!! lol!!  Coffee and
                                            toast for breakfast included!!