Well, not exactly home, but certainly familiar enough. We order our taxi at the airport taxi counter then wait in line for our ride into town. As we pull out of the airport, it is like deja vu. We know exactly where we are, everything is so familiar. Except that at the last minute we turn off into the old city inside the moat. We have not stayed inside the moat since our first visit in 2008. Making this trip a wholly different experience for us.

The location of the house we have rented is on one of the sois running off Prapokklao lane. We thought it might be hard to find, but the taxi driver knows exactly where it is and Micky, our host, has given us excellent directions and landmarks to know where to enter the house. Micky is there to greet us and take us through to show us the house.

It is the last house in a 5 house block, with a gate we can lock off the front patio where we enter directly into the huge living/dining area on the first floor. We knew it was big – but oh wow! Ed has totally outdone himself with this one. 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, plus a front patio and 2 balconies. It is far bigger than we’d ever need, but perfect to spread out in and centrally located so that we can walk anywhere in the city. Micky is wonderful, explaining everything, showing us around. She’s even provided us with a supply of spring water in the fridge – although she also has filtered water for drinking in the kitchen. This will be a great place to spend a week!

First order of business: Pictures. It is hard to really capture the whole place, but we tried here.

Second order of business: Supplies. It is a little after 1 and we know we have to rush to the store to buy beer before the 2pm – 5pm curfew on alcohol sales. So, off we go up the street to one of the many 7-11’s close by to pick up a few 4-packs of beer and some snacks. Then it is back to the house to organize and unpack. The place is so big though, you have to really think about where you are putting things. As it turns out, we keep everything confined to the 2nd floor so that we stand a better chance of not forgetting something when it is time to leave. No really a hardship – heck one floor of this place is almost as big as our entire house at home! Unpacking handled, it’s time for a beer on the 3rd floor patio….

…then we’re quickly out and wandering around our old town neighborhood. First stop, wandering through the Chiang Mai Gate market, which is mostly closed at this time of the day, but at least we can get a feel for what is there in the mornings. This is the closest market to us, and will more than likely be our go to place for food, veggies and miscellaneous. We stop by the Lotus Fresh grocery store – again our closest grocery store, but not as extensive as Rimping where we will go tomorrow – for more essentials, like eggs, toilet paper, etc. Successfully filling our coffers for the next couple of days, we meander our way back up to the house perusing restaurant menus as we go, then stopping at Wat Muen Tum, the Wat right across the street from our soi.

The rest of the afternoon is spent organizing more and trying not to fall asleep as we need to want to push the envelop to help get over our jet lag. Dinner time finally rolls around and we head to Dash’s Teak House, one of most favorite places in Chiang Mai. We are lucky enough to arrive early and grab a table, settling in for Dash and his mom’s great food. While Dash doesn’t exactly remember us – I mean, really, it’s been a long 4 years, he is still his normal welcoming and sarcastically funny self and we feel right at home here once more. We order a wonderful cheeseburger gyoza – seriously tasting like a cheeseburger in a dumpling wrapper – and rice covered fried shrimp (think non-sweet rice crispies coating on shrimp that is then fried) and cashew chicken to share. Excellent first dinner, just enough to satisfy, but not enough to make us stuffed and miserable.

Walking home, we pass Wat Muen Tum again and see that the New Year’s lanterns decorating the courtyard are all lit up. Awesome! We can’t resist visiting for some photos, then retiring to our 2nd floor balcony for the rest of an excellent first day in Chiang Mai.