Its boring here in Chiang Mai and I can't quite figure out why!
I've only ever heard positive remarks about Chiang Mai, Thailand's city of the North. The impression gained from fellow travelers is that overall the place is better than Bangkok - cleaner, greener and with less traffic.For someone living here, and plenty are, its a perfectly good, functional city. But for the average Joe like me on a short stay, life is just a little bit dull here in Chiang Mai. A combination of factors i suppose is playing with my mind on this - so, lets start at the beginning and try to figure out where its all not as good as it should be.
Arriving at the airport and being herded into a very small immigration hall - hopelessly inadequate for for 300 or so Chinese passengers who have just arrived behind me! Even so, my queue is about 20 deep and moving at a snails pace. Over an hour and I am face to face with an immigration officer, a rather stern faced, large lady. During the ensuing interrogation the lady is not pleased with me at all. I don't have an address to put on my landing card - this is one of those turn up and see which way the wind blows kind of visits. Eventually, after some frowning and sighing i'm allowed in - only after leaving her my email address!
Next, transportation downtown, not a taxi if I can possibly help it passing the fixed price coupon booth - £3 downtown. No public transport downtown according to the information desk, no bus, nothing - now i'm starting to get a headache. Options are, ride in the back of a pick up truck, grab a tuk tuk or of course there's the taxi, but definitely no public bus. Just a line of tour group coaches patiently waiting for those Chinese tourists - and hopefully they've learned not to spit everywhere. Its a tuktuk, ride, only £2 but the trouble is this driver seems not to understand 'Guesthouse' or 'Hotel'. So, off we go in the general direction of downtown and hopefully soon a guesthouse.
Incompetent, or perhaps just a scam....
I've only ever heard positive remarks about Chiang Mai, Thailand's city of the North. The impression gained from fellow travelers is that overall the place is better than Bangkok - cleaner, greener and with less traffic.For someone living here, and plenty are, its a perfectly good, functional city. But for the average Joe like me on a short stay, life is just a little bit dull here in Chiang Mai. A combination of factors i suppose is playing with my mind on this - so, lets start at the beginning and try to figure out where its all not as good as it should be.
Arriving at the airport and being herded into a very small immigration hall - hopelessly inadequate for for 300 or so Chinese passengers who have just arrived behind me! Even so, my queue is about 20 deep and moving at a snails pace. Over an hour and I am face to face with an immigration officer, a rather stern faced, large lady. During the ensuing interrogation the lady is not pleased with me at all. I don't have an address to put on my landing card - this is one of those turn up and see which way the wind blows kind of visits. Eventually, after some frowning and sighing i'm allowed in - only after leaving her my email address!
Next, transportation downtown, not a taxi if I can possibly help it passing the fixed price coupon booth - £3 downtown. No public transport downtown according to the information desk, no bus, nothing - now i'm starting to get a headache. Options are, ride in the back of a pick up truck, grab a tuk tuk or of course there's the taxi, but definitely no public bus. Just a line of tour group coaches patiently waiting for those Chinese tourists - and hopefully they've learned not to spit everywhere. Its a tuktuk, ride, only £2 but the trouble is this driver seems not to understand 'Guesthouse' or 'Hotel'. So, off we go in the general direction of downtown and hopefully soon a guesthouse.
Incompetent, or perhaps just a scam....
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