It's Good To Be Back

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We arrive back in Chiang Mai after a lovely delay at Bangkok Airport. Some wonderful tourists (Birgit's Mates!) hold up our plane by 30 minutes. After spending the better part of 11 hours on a plane with no air conditioning and a stag party as company we really didn't need this. I spend most of the journey asleep and awake grouchy and stiff. As usual the seatbelts are off and every one is up before the plane comes to a stop. The couple that cause the hold up seem to be quite desperate to get off the plane, I'm in their way. This really isn't a good thing. After shoving me sideways to get past, I block the husband, drag my luggage from the over head compartment and lamp the bitch in the face with a large bag of duty free, she's not impressed! It's a shame I can't say sorry in German, in fact, I'm not sure this word exists!

We get to immigration and I can see my suitcase doing the rounds on the baggage carousel, I manage to grab it just before it exits, never to be seen again. We leave the international arrivals and look for our hotel transport. It seems that every taxi driver in the world wants our business tonight, but after walking to the domestic arrivals we find our lovely driver. He jokes that the car is parked 1km from the airport! This turns out to be about 100 yards!

The (R)Laming Lodge is located in a busy part of town, surrounded by 'girlie' bars. It's surprisingly quiet and clean, we dump our bags and head out for a much needed walk, my ankles are the size of melons and I really need a drink.

We're heading for the mobile bar (great Gin Fizzes) when I'm accosted by a shrieking small Thai woman. Roong has been sitting in a bar waiting for us. It's great to see her again and she's accompanied by a very tanned man. The drinks start to flow, we talk about home and how much we've missed Chiang Mai, but it's often difficult to get a word in edgeways. The tanned man is 'Crazy' Dave. He's American, gay and very loud. Roong has been teaching him vegetable carving, at the cookery school. He's travelling around South East Asia before heading back to the US, lucky for him he can go back when he likes.

After too many mojitos we stumble back to the Raming Lodge for a well needed rest. Tomorrow is the Flower Festival parade and we've been told not to miss it.

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