will i am's delayed diary

Day three at Chiang Mai was designated for temple-hopping. The city really has no shortage of wat s. We took a morning walk to the Old City, the heart of the Chiang Mai which is still enclosed by old walls. Around the walls are also canals that very clean, without any visible rubbish. Made a horrible mistake of having breakfast at SAFE HOUSE Court 's cafe. The waitress got our order wrongs and the food was lousy. 'Nuff said. We were so fussy about what to have for breakfast that we ultimately made a bad choice. Ugh. Our first temple for the day was Wat Pan Ping. It has the typical temple layout with viharn and chedi . What caught my eye was the pair of makara guardians. There were also murals on the walls and quotes nailed on trees. Just one temple and we were ready to sit down for coffee. LOL. Hunted down Ponganes Espresso because of the good reviews and we weren't disappointed. Tried the Australian style latte and double shot afogatto ( excellent kick ).

Woke up at 6:00 AM... who wakes up at 6:00 AM when on holiday! KH had booked a day trip to Chiang Rai, so we were supposed to be picked up at 7:00 AM. The van came by at Chang Moi Road and we were greeted by a pair of gentlemen who introduced themselves as Steve and Yoat. Steve was the guide and Yoat was the driver. Naturally Steve spoke better English, but he does sound like a Thai Nanny Fine. He has a super slitty-eyed look and a wispy moustache, giving him a super Cina look. When he speaks, he starts each sentence "How do you say..." and ends with "Ahaaaa...". Five stops later we picked up an Indonesian couple, a Vietnamese couple, two Spanish couples and a girl of unknown nationality. The drive to Chiang Rai took 3.5 hours, with a twenty minute stop at a shitty hot spring. Basically a hot spring fountain with a sign surrounded by lots and lots of souvenir shops. And right outside the public toilet ( THB5 per use of course ), one could soak one's legs in a

Unlike your garden variety 'pious' gay lou, I don't make a yearly pilgrimage to Thailand. Truth be told, my last trip there was in 2008 with the BFF. SK, Apollo, Lifebook and QueerRanter-D planned a trip to Bangkok during the Malaysia Day weekend while KH and I did Chiang Mai. I didn't feel like going to BKK again. Might as well visit a different part of the country. But I think after seven years, the capital should be pretty different from what I remembered. Our flight was at 2:50 PM departing from KLIA2. Lunched at CBTL , Gateway @ KLIA2. Thrilled that I could use my Citibank B1F1 privileges there since technically it's not an airport branch. The flight was smooth and we reached CNX on schedule. At the arrival hall was surprised that all the men were required to fill up an extra form. No idea why. KH and I didn't take a taxi out of the airport but he hailed a somtheaw ( covered pickup truck ) from the roadside! That only cost us THB50 per person. Panda