One Country Down, 12 to Go.

We’re off to the Land of Smiles (except for those protesters in a few public squares in downtown Bangkok – c’mon Thais, turn those frowns upside down – the Boltwoods are coming !!)

Yes, that’s a.m. Good lord, that’s early !! Off to the airport for our flight to Bangkok.

Bright eyed and bushy tailed – at this point anyway.

This is only leg #1 - there’s a 4 hour flight, a 3 hour layover in the Bangkok Airport, and finally another 90 minute flight before we’re finally in Chiang Mai.

I’ve been reading about some civil unrest in Thailand recently – let’s see if the Immigration guys have a sense of humour, shall we?

Embarrassing confession.......I like airplane food.

I was very impressed with my choice today. The chicken salad was exquisite – there was just enough mayonnaise, and the tender chicken was perfectly balanced with the crispiness of the celery. I have to say the raisins were a nice touch, and not too chewy.

For the main, I selected another chicken dish – normally I wouldn’t double up on my proteins, but today I was feeling adventurous. Again, very nicely prepared – the rice was that perfect stickiness that you expect from a fine restaurant, and the medley of vegetables were unexpectedly crunchy. The chicken itself, though a touch on the dry side, had been sprinkled with a generous amount of roasted garlic chips – fantastic!!

Although the bun would normally be an afterthought, I was still on the peckish side and was treated to a marvelous contrast of a crispy exterior with a fluffy and warm inside. I had wisely placed my pad of real butter inside the bun at the beginning of the meal, and it was perfectly melted by the time it came to tuck into it. Yummy!

How could this meal get any better, you ask? How about fruit and cake!! Yes, you read that correctly – fruit AND cake. Have you ever eaten fruit on a plane, and somehow each variety in that mixture of fruit chunks tastes exactly the same as the next one? Not today folks. “Apple, meet orange. Orange, meet apple”. It was like they were total strangers!!

And that cake – I know it doesn’t look like much, but looks can deceive. I think I’ll name it “Trojan Horse Chocolate Square”– I bit into it and out popped hundreds of well-trained flavour soldiers, armed to the hilt and ready for battle.

Top marks to EVA – 4 Hello Kitty’s out of 5.

I think I got my $1,200 worth.

I knew that face of his would be appreciated somewhere in this world - there's a future for him here if that whole school thing doesn't work out.

And finally, over 12 hours later, we arrive at the Chiang Mai airport - still in surprisingly good spirits. I think my kids are awesome.

Daddy, on the other hand, almost blew it. I forgot to print out the name and directions (in Thai) of our guesthouse before we arrived here, and with no phone or data, I was in a bit of a jam if we wanted to have any hope of directing a taxi to our final destination. At last I found a free internet terminal in the airport and managed to Google map the hotel and then took a photo of the screen with my camera to show the cab driver...well played Daddy.

With kids quickly fading, we checked into our hotel and then found a perfect little noodle stand for a quick meal before bedtime. Total dinner bill = $3.10 CAD. 

And straight to sleep. We'll be spending the next 5 weeks in Thailand, and I have a feeling it's going to be great. Stay tuned.....