tl;dr Landed in Chiang Mai without a hotel reservation and massages are cheap!
Activity 1 – Where is my Hotel Reservation:
I land in Chiang Mai in the late afternoon and hop a cab to my hotel, which is situated right outside of the old city. The day before I had used my Citi Prestige card 4th night free benefit (any 4 night hotel reservation I make through Citi Concierge (now bookable online as well) will give me the 4th night free of charge).
When I get to the front desk to check-in, I learn that my reservation does not exist in the system and that the room I had originally booked is no longer available. Additionally, the price of the available rooms has increased. I am quite frustrated. I go online and find a much MUCH cheaper rate online and book it through Agoda. Even with the 4th night free (at the hotel’s quoted rate) it would still cost more than going through Agoda. I am going to follow-up with Citi to figure out why my reservation did not exist and if they can still grant me the 4th night free benefit (the reservation technically cannot be booked through any service other than Citi).
Activity 2 – Dinner:
I’m hungry and cranky so I explore a bit of the old city before finding a place to settle down and have some dinner. Drunken noodles – sooo good.
Activity 3 – Thai Massage:
Massages are so cheap in Chiang Mai. I paid 250THB, which is about $8, for a 1hr massage. For those that don’t know, a Thai massage is not your relaxing oil massage, rather it is more of a stretching/pressure massage. Still extremely enjoyable though.
I call it a night after the massage (10pm already) since I have a big day with elephants tomorrow.
Andrew's Activities 