{"id":482,"date":"2025-02-16T16:36:16","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T15:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/?p=482"},"modified":"2025-02-16T16:36:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T15:36:16","slug":"day-28-bye-bye-laos-hello-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/16\/day-28-bye-bye-laos-hello-thailand\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 28: Bye-bye Laos, Hello Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nearly forgot to write a post today (<em>oh no<\/em>, I hear all zero of my readers say). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ll be brief anyway, since it\u2019s mostly a travelling day. Laos is over (\ud83d\ude2a) and I\u2019m in Thailand (Chiang Mai) for a few days. The flight was a few minutes over one hour, on a tiny turboprop. Second-best thing was being given a little extra legroom by the check-in clerk. First-best thing was the in-flight snack: <em>cake<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Take <em>that<\/em>, all other airlines with your poxy snack crackers or half a sandwich. <strong>Lao Airlines<\/strong> serves <em>cake<\/em> and you are all on notice to up your game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"577\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/img_3529-577x1024.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-481\" srcset=\"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/img_3529-577x1024.jpg 577w, https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/img_3529-169x300.jpg 169w, https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/img_3529-768x1364.jpg 768w, https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/img_3529-865x1536.jpg 865w, https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/img_3529.jpg 1126w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 577px) 100vw, 577px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Cake. Yes I started eating it Neanderthals-style before realising there was a knife to cut it into civilised slices. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Chiang Mai<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Third time here. I really like this city, even though on approach I had some concern that the annual burning season had started early (it is rumoured to have done so in the south of the country). But the haze turned out to be just \u201cnormal\u201d pollution and at ground level it\u2019s standard sunshine and heat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It being a Sunday, the huge Sunday \u201cwalking street\u201d market is on. Actually this is one of the good ones, the side streets have most of the food offerings, and the main street is a little higher quality fare than usual. Absolutely no sign of knock-off branded products which is a real surprise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Absolutely no sign of rubbery fish cakes at any food stall which is also a surprise and not a welcome one \ud83d\ude21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, my dusty clothes are at the laundry, along with my dusty Nikes, which will either never come back, come back smaller, come back ruined or (\ud83e\udd1e\ud83c\udffc) come back looking like new, for the princely sum of 200THB (\u20ac5.60).  <\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div><p id=\"pvc_stats_482\" class=\"pvc_stats total_only  \" data-element-id=\"482\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"chart-bar\" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-chart-bar fa-w-16 fa-2x\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M396.8 352h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V108.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v230.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm-192 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V140.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v198.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm96 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V204.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v134.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zM496 400H48V80c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16H16C7.16 64 0 71.16 0 80v336c0 17.67 14.33 32 32 32h464c8.84 0 16-7.16 16-16v-16c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16zm-387.2-48h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8v-70.4c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v70.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8z\" class=\"\"><\/path><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p><div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nearly forgot to write a post today (oh no, I hear all zero of my readers say). I\u2019ll be brief anyway, since it\u2019s mostly a travelling day. Laos is over (\ud83d\ude2a) and I\u2019m in Thailand (Chiang Mai) for a few days. The flight was a few minutes over one hour, on a tiny turboprop. Second-best [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_482\" class=\"pvc_stats total_only  \" data-element-id=\"482\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"chart-bar\" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-chart-bar fa-w-16 fa-2x\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M396.8 352h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V108.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v230.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm-192 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V140.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v198.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm96 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V204.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v134.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zM496 400H48V80c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16H16C7.16 64 0 71.16 0 80v336c0 17.67 14.33 32 32 32h464c8.84 0 16-7.16 16-16v-16c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16zm-387.2-48h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8v-70.4c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v70.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8z\" class=\"\"><\/path><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0","_share_on_mastodon_status":"%title% %permalink%"},"categories":[5,19,9,1],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia","category-laos","category-thailand","category-world","tag-diary"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":7,"today_views":0},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/toottoot.eu\/@thatmanmatt\/114014443679593451","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":483,"href":"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions\/483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.thatmanmatt.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}