Tuesday, November 8. 2022
The Beach at Del Mar

I am planning my tenth yoga-inspired visit to Chiang Mai, Thailand. After working through the extra steps last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the precautions required to travel to Thailand, this should be a fairly straightforward process. I’ll be leaving from Los Angeles late night Monday, December 5, 2022 to Bangkok via Incheon (Seoul’s airport). I’ll arrive in Bangkok on Wednesday, December 7 (December 6 will be lost as I cross the International Date Line).

I will be in Bangkok for only two nights, staying in the Novotel Ploen Chit on Sukhumvit Road in central Bangkok. I have stayed at this hotel in the past, and is right on the BTS, or Sky Train Sukhumvit line (what can be thought of as an elevated subway). The bonus is that I can take the Airport Rail Link train from Suvarnabhumi Airport (Bangkok’s main airport, also known as BKK) to the Playa Thai stop on the BTS Sukhumvit Line, then it is four stops on the BTS to Ploen Chit, right in front of the hotel.

There are several favorite places I like to see in Bangkok: Wat Arun, Wat Pho, Wat Phra Kaew. I missed those sights last year because I did not go into Bangkok at all, staying one-night at the Novotel Suvarnabhumi airport hotel that included the required COVID-19 PCR test. This year, I’ll go into Bangkok for a very short stay, and plan to see my favorite temples as well as go to a jazz bar I learned about called the Crimson Room, conveniently located about a 20 minutes walk from my hotel.

After a two nights in Bangkok, I’ll fly up to Chiang Mai, about an hour long flight. Once there, I’ll practice yoga daily at Wild Rose Yoga, eat good food, see friends, visit temples, update my blog when I have time. I say that because in past trips, I think I’ll have a good deal of free time, but I get busy, and the blog gets updated less frequently than I’d like. This year, however, I will not be working part-time as I have in past visits, so I am hoping to have additional free time.

Chiang Mai is in northern Thailand, in the foothills of a mountainous area north and west. I’ll be away from the ocean, and will miss my frequent early-morning walks at the beach, listening to the meditative sound of the waves as day breaks. So recently on one of those walks, I brought my camera to share the views. The Pacific Ocean was not as peaceful today. The waves were not dramatic, but larger than normal. Because of a recent great white shark sighting nearby, entering the water is prohibited, so there are no surfers.

Some of the waves were a little more intense, the sea was not as calm as it is normally.

I shall miss the beach. Being in Chiang Mai I will not see a beach for more than a month.

Next: Preparing for the two-month trip to Chiang Mai