Imperial Mae Ping Chiang Mai

... garbage cans, none even at the Sky Train stations! Language: unfortunately I haven't picked up anymore Thai, but now that we're in the north Ken's Thai has improved exponentially – apparently the Bangkok and Chiang Mai dialects are very different.

... a couple of other elementary words were all we could come up with).   After about 30 minutes we stopped at the Chiang Mai Spa.  Thermal hot springs that had the typical sulfur smell and were made into two small pools and a fountain.  ...

... yummy lobster cocktail and lobster thermidor.  (So roughing it!).  The hotel was really cute.   It is a bit modern and the beds were harder than the hotel in Chiang Mai, but still softer than the plywood we slept on in Bangkok. 

We meet and sign the waiver. Charles and Ann from Minneapolis, James and Crista from Melbourne with Ant, our guide, Jump, his intern assistant and Pansit, our driver. good quality Trek bikes. We did a 25 km flat cycle just to test us out. everyone seemed ...