WTF? There's a chandelier in my room!

Okay, so this is completely out of order but I am blown away and must write about it. I arrived at Chiang Mai airport caught a taxi for only 150 baht to my hotel, which was close, 4km so about 2.5 miles. There was a little confusion since there is only an "Empress Hotel" but the address seemed the same. We got there and I confirmed it was the right place, apparently this is the "Premier Wing" which should have been my first clue. They checked me in and presented me with a "goodie bag" which is really a giant shopping bag that is filled with great snacks. That was my second clue that this was not an ordinary hotel.

...A chandelier, really?

Then I go up to the room and am blown away. It was only $71/night for a 5-star hotel through a hotels.com special so I figured I'd go for it, but I had completely forgotten it was 5-star...until I walked in. This is by far the nicest $71 room I have ever had...there's a frickin' chandelier over a table with fresh fruit for me. The bathroom is gorgeous. There's even a scale (in beautiful glossy black) so I can see how much weight I've gained in Thailand. I may never leave this room the whole time I'm here. I feel like a Queen! A queen dressed in a math t-shirt and cargo shorts. Wow, they must have been expecting a very different person to arrive, like someone elegant or something. With my backpack having things hanging off of it, I looked like I belonged in a hostel.

my gorgeous room

nice bathroom

marble and glass shower

pretty tub which I won't use

They gave me a huge assortment of snacks

Yes, they put a fruit plate out for me!

glossy black scale. When I tried it, at first I thought I'd lost weight, but then it settled on way too low a number and I realized it must be in kg

My baggage makes me look like a backpacker who got lost on the way to the hostel

I just started in on the fruit plate. The banana was good, but what the heck is this green thing? It's crispy like an apple but has no taste. I kept eating it because it tasted...healthy? refreshing?

Fruit plate up close

Oksy after several here there are a few annoying things. First of all the toilet has an automatic flush sensor and would flush every time i turned off the bathroom light, which was fine until one night it flushed every couple of hours and it was LOUD even with the bathroom door closed. I told them the next day on my way to see the elephants and it was fixed before I returned. The motion sensor even worked correctly letting me flush with a wave of my hand. The second annoying thing were tiny ants swarming on open food or juice but I just made sure to rinse out my glass after drinking the delicious orange juice they gave me and kept other stuff sealed. Lastly, there was a mosquito in the bathroom! How did he get up on the 12th floor with no open windows? He was quick and hard to hit, but the second time I saw him I just sprayed him with DEET. Problem solved.