Lovely Chiang Mai

After spending about 2 months total here over the last 5 years, both Kim and I feel pretty familiar and comfortable with the city of Chiang Mai. This time we decided to stay within the moated center of the city. After an extensive search online we ended up choosing "The Garden" due to the advertisement for live music every Sunday of Jump/Jive/Swing. We arrived and checked in to this 3 room guest house. Tim is an ex-pat from England and his lovely Thai wife Thong is a great cook.
To see where we were and where we hang out every Sunday night listening to blues/folk music(swing guitarist being out of commission) go to: http://www.thegardenchiangmai.com/

Well it turned out that because the King's sister had recently passed away there was no music or alcohol being served that week and then the main guitarist broke his wrist. So we had a very nice and quiet couple of days there pretty much having the place to ourselves after dark. During those first few days we spent much of our time walking around town and checking into "long-stay" rates at different hotels until we settled on the one we are in now.

We are staying at The Queen Victoria Inn and Pub. We have a large room overlooking a temple (Watt) with French doors onto a small balcony. Having a really comfortable bed as well as our own bathroom en-suite and free wi-fi cinched the deal. So we booked in for 2 months. It does seem a little odd to be in Thailand staying in a British pub, this one run by an ex-pat from Geneva Switzerland. His name is Pascal and he speaks with a thick French accent.
For pictures and an idea of what our place is like go to http://www.queenvictoria-chiangmai.com/

As we scoured the center of town for our new digs we also went to every bike shop in the area looking for a few decent used bikes for the two of us. By the time we had walked to all of them and looked at the meager offerings we realized "this town is just too small to need bikes" and now we just walk everywhere. If we had bikes we'd spend more time unlocking and locking them to things than it would take to get anywhere.
It takes us less than 30 minutes to walk from one gate all the way across to the other, so nothing is very far.