Friday, March 30: We are on the airplane going back to Bangkok after our three night stay in northern Thailand. We considered not going at all because while on the Ginger we heard several horror stories about the air pollution in the whole Chiang Mai area as a result of some out of control fires. We had heard that the pollution index was over 300 where a safe level is 59 and 200 is considered dangerous. They said it was so bad you could see the particles in the air and they got into your eyes and mouth, not to mention that you couldn’t see any of the sights and that it was getting worse instead of better because of lack of rain or wind. We thought maybe as an alternative we could stay in Hanoi a bit longer or even fly to Singapore for a few days. But as you can imagine, changing our itinerary at such a late date would not be easy. So in the car on the way back to Hanoi, we used our trusty cell phone and called our connection in Bangkok to get the scoop. I was appointed spokesperson, and believe me you never know how much they understand not to mention the poor quality connection, but I spoke to “Kiki” who said she hadn’t heard any such thing but she promised to check and call us back. I told her we were all around 70 years old and we couldn’t risk the health problems we would be exposed to with such bad air. Two hours later, we were almost to Hanoi and still no call back so we called again. Kiki said she called their office in Chiang Mai and they said the air was no problem, military helicopters had sprayed water, the winds had come up and all was well. Of course they are going to tell you that because they don’t want to lose the business or have to deal with a change in plans. But based on her information, we decided to go as planned and hope for the best. We weren’t very optimistic though since even the internet had confirmed the bad air scenario, although that my have been somewhat dated news.
When we got to Chiang Mai, we were met at the airport by cute and bubbly Ruchi, our first female guide. After all the initial introductions had been made and we were loaded into the car with our truckload of luggage, Ruchi said she had to confess how pleasantly surprised she was to see us because she was expecting these old people to emerge from the plane and we were so young! I didn’t explain that I had exaggerated our ages just a wee bit so as to make my point with the agent in Bangkok. Anyway, I guess they understand more than we think we do.
As for the air, it was absolutely no problem. Ruchi said that it had indeed been terrible for a while but it was getting better daily and we would be able to see everything we came to see. You couldn’t see or smell pollution, in fact the city was the cleanest we’ve seen so far with no litter in the streets and in general seems more prosperous than Vietnam and certainly more so than Cambodia. I for one was glad we hadn’t canceled because I definitely wanted to see a bit of northern Thailand. She took us to the hotel, a lovely zen/feng shui compound where we would spend a couple of quiet days.
The next day we toured Chiang Mai, saw a couple of amazing temples, had a lovely lunch in a truly authentic local restaurant with no tourists, walked around the local market for an hour or so and then had an evening dinner and traditional dance performance at an all teak restaurant with hot and cold running participants including a two-manned yak. Oh, I forgot to mention, only Mary and I went to the dinner and dance--the gentlemen were wiped out and took to their beds. Now who is the weaker sex again?
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