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We arrived at our hotel in Chiang Mai's old city just before midnight last Wednesday and we've been running ever since, both figuratively and literally!
Our primary goal once we hit the ground was to scout out the city for the neighborhood where we'd like to spend the next four months, and then find a condo to rent that would suit our needs. We walked mile upon mile, exploring the city in bright sunshine and 32 degree temperatures. We visited several buildings, some of which were interesting, but none offering everything we were looking for.
Brenda bought a local SIM card for her cell phone so we could call prospective landlords. In our wanderings we came across a young real estate agent, Isaac, who drove us around to several apartments, but the most interesting ones were too far out of the city center. He suggested they would be easily accessible by scooter, but by that time we'd already decided we would remain pedestrians while we're here. When he left us, Isaac said he'd pick us up tomorrow at 2:00 to look at more properties. Back at our hotel, Brenda scoured the internet and emailed a number of property managers for information on more available condos.
Neither of us slept very well on Thursday night, partly due to the anxiety of trying to find a place to stay by Monday, when our hotel booking expired, and partly due to the ant infestation in our hotel room.
Friday morning we visited 3 units in the Hillside 4 condo building with another agent. They were all small studios and none of them were particularly well partitioned. Afterwards, we ended up lazing around while we waited for Isaac to pick us up at 2:00. Brenda's phone rang at 2:30. It was Isaac telling us he'd scheduled one viewing at 4:00 PM.
Earlier, Brenda had been in touch with Lee, the owner of a renovated condo in Hillside 4, but with Isaac's 2:00 visit, we couldn't agree on a viewing time before Monday. After Isaac postponed us, I called Lee and asked if we could visit his unit at around 3:00 and he fortunately made himself available. His studio was set up exactly as we wanted and came with almost all the extra charges included and a pretty nice view of the mountains. We agreed on rent until March 1 and officially found our home for the next four months. We walked back to our ant infested hotel room, packed our Farpoint 40's and unceremoniously checked out.
We taxied back to our new home, unpacked our bags one last time and settled in for a good night's sleep.
....there's no place like home.
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