This morning we woke up refreshed by the nights sleep on the sleeper train from Bangkok (at least I was - Shaun didn't find the rocking of the train as soothing). In Chiangmai it was drizzling and we were met at the train station by our guide from The Elephant Nature Park - Mee (that is her name).

We were taken to our hotel to check in. After the glamorous hotel back in Bangkok we were brought back to earth by the simple 'bare bones' of The Star Hotel. After freshening up Mee offered to take us our for lunch at a traditional northern Thai restaraunt. We headed to the eatery which was street food style with many small stalls and plastic stools to sit on. The choices were limited once you removed the pork options but Mee still found us something. I had a red curry coconut chicken noodle dish and Shaun had a coconut rice and chicken dish. We also had some yummy green papaya salad (we've been eating alot of it). I was completely outdone by Mee in the chili department as the piled chili onto her dish and I was struggling to keep the tears away with the chili already in mine.

The morning was a 'traditional crafts' tour of Chiangmai. We were pretty skeptical when we read this on the itinerary and our suspicions turned out to be correct as it turned out to be a souvenir shopping tour thinly disguised as a crafts tour. A bit disheartened we were dropped back to the hotel.

When we were picked up for dinner for a cultural northern dinner and show "which used to be performed for northern royalty" our hopes weren't high. Fortunately it turned out to be really nice - we met a really nice American couple and chatted away as we ate a huge Thai style sharing plate while sitting on cushions on the floor an watching traditional Thai dance (the kind with the long nail things and glittery costumes).

It was getting pretty late by the time we got back but the night market was on so we headed on down to look at the stuff for sale. I bought a fake Casio watch for about a 100 Baht (when bartering in a night market you can slash the price by at least a quarter and bargain from there). Then we headed on back to the hotel to rest up before the elephant safari the next day.