Saturday 2 June 2012

137 Pillars House

Sitting big, future altering exams is like being sucked dry by a vampire.  By the time you put your pen down and push your chair away from your desk, you barely have the energy to drag your depleted body home, turn on the t.v. and veg out for a month. 

To sleep, to sleep, perchance to dream

My parents dragged me to the airport and a few hours of comfortable (ha!) economy class travel later we arrived at Suvarnabhumi International Airport (Bangkok). Suvarnabhumi International Airport has the longest name and the longest terminals of any airport in the world.  We covered 12.4km to get to our connecting flight. By the time we arrived in Chiang Mai I was almost in liquid form.

In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans

137 Pillars House was the perfect hotel to get back into a solid form.  Surrounding an old colonial teak house, this small hotel (30 rooms) was beautifully and thoughtfully landscaped. The rooms were large and cozy.  I finally had the chance to veg out: which I did by the pool (with its green curtain of vegetation) and in the room with my dad listening to music during an afternoon rain.

Outdoor showers: sensuous experience or chance to get wet with bugs. Discuss.

After a hard day of doing nothing, you wake up as hungry as a horse.  Hotel breakfasts are usually not worth getting up before noon for.  In this case, the breakfast was worth getting up at 6:00am to devour the entire menu in one sitting.  For breakfast you have a choice of Asian, Western or healthy.  Not really understanding why you would choose granola over Eggs Benedict or Pad Thai for breakfast, I never chose anything from the healthy menu.

Breakfast in Teak

In addition the staff was amazing.  Thanks to Greg's (the concierge) advice  I spent a great afternoon shopping at some very trendy young thai fashion designers' in Bangkok.