Mae Rim Marriott?

Well, it looks like it would have been a nice one. Curved lines, every room with a balcony and a gorgeous view. What's not to like? Maybe doors, windows, a roof, and things like that, but we shouldn't be so picky. Just wait until you see the view...

Interestingly enough, they stopped at the 13th floor. :) For the record, since some have asked, I do not know who was building this hotel or why they stopped. I just used "Marriott" for alliteration (and as a plug for my home-town hotel chain that really does do things the right way. )

The foyer still needs a little work, but like all grand entrances, it has that open feeling.

In the background I would suspect are the restaurants, health spa, and the like. That portion is only 3 floors high.

The elevator was not working yet, so I took the stairs.

On the lower few floors, work had progressed to the point where the walls were filled in (they are not structural), parged, and even had tile in the baths.

Each unit has a balcony and two rooms (both open to the balcony). This picture is taken in the living area and the doorway goes to the bedroom. Each room had its own bath. This was going to be a high-class place.

Up to the 9th floor or so, the interior and exterior walls were filled in, as you can see here around the doorway.

The rooms are accessible from a hallway on the outside. All the balconies face to the west, where the mountains are closest and highest, where the golf course is, and where the sun sets, of course [it is the same over here :) ]

Notice that the walls are built. As you can see below, they start out as sloppily laid brick, which is then stuccoed over.

Here is an inside wall before the stuccoing.

If you want to stay on the 12th floor, you will have to do without walls and privacy...but the view is better.

Some people might like the open-air feel of the 13th floor, but the lack of a ceiling would be a negative thing during the rainy season.

Actually the elevator WAS working...but only going down. I didn't try it.

The entire area is bounded by mountains, except a valley toward the south in which the Ping River flows down to Chiang Mai and eventually into the Chao Phraya to Bangkok. Unfortunately, Sunday was hazy, and I could only get good pics of the mountains that were close (to the west).

This picture is looking to the northwest.

I took this picture (and the one above) from one of the intermediate floors. This range to the west includes Thailand's tallest mountain, which is a little bit southwest of the city of Chiang Mai.

From the top, looking across the golf course to the west. This is the tallest mountain nearby, and often has a few clouds around.

A view to the southwest. The small road goes up to the monks and the road to the farm. To the left in the foreground is a bit of a compost/trash dump.

Notice the wall to the right of the road...to make sure that the patrons of the Green Valley Chiang Mai Country Club do not have to see how the rest of us live :)

Some of those patrons at play. It appears that the caddies all wear a blue outfit. Pretty much everyone uses a caddy over here. In general, labor is VERY MUCH less expensive than in the West. Sometimes you see something and wonder "why do they do it this way, it takes so long..." and then you realize that time is money here, too...just much much less money.








Another view to the northwest, from higher up this time.

To the north-northwest. The road you see in this picture is not the same one- this one is actually inside the golf course property.

A view to the north. You can see some rather large flooded rice patties.

Looking to the east, we can see the stream bed of the pseudo-Ping I mentioned before. (It is to the right) However, from up here, I could see that it does not connect all the way around during the dry season. The water that flows past Legacy right now is coming from the stream to the left of the picture.

Looking south toward Chiang Mai. If you look carefully you can see some tall buildings. On a clear day, it is easy to see them. there are no mountains in this direction.

This is a close-up of the south branch of the pseudo-Ping.

This view is looking toward the Legacy Farm, which would be to the right (south) of the stream bed in the picture, a little downstream from the open area. A small part of the bridge to nowhere is barely visible between trees.

I would imagine that this whole bed is filled with water during the rainy season. To find out for sure, I'll have to come back again :)