I'm completely and utterly in love with Thailand. All it took was one week and one night market and I feel my heart may just be lost forever. On Saturday night (after a rather slow day at the office - we are looking after teenagers, who mostly like to be left to their own devices!) myself and three other volunteers ventured out onto the streets of Chiang Rai in a bid for freedom and in search of some good Thai food (finally!).

I know many of you reading this (if anyone is actually reading this...) will be thinking that anything that doesn't come with carbs and a large sideorder of cheese would be rejected vehemently by myself, but quite the contrary I'll have you know. Embracing my adventurous side and helped by my Chinese friends, I started slowly, before finally giving in and pretty much trying everything in sight. Still no idea what half of it was, and I mean NO idea. Probably testicle or something. Anyway here are some things I learnt:

- Things that look like blackcurrant jelly aren't. They're some weird fruit that you'll get served in a drink topped off with sugar/cinnamon - we're still not sure.

- Pink noodles are coconut flavor.

- Thai ice-cream is no small affair. I pointed to any old flavour, and got served two scoops in coconut milk with coconut shavings, some little flakes that looked and tasted a bit like sesame seeds, little sweets that went chewy after a while. All in a coconut. (Think the icecream was vanilla - it was rather overshadowed)

- Sticky rice and mango - Best. Thing. Ever.

- Ketchup is acceptable - they gave me a sachet with my chicken without even asking! Not too much of a fraud... :)

- Pea flower juice is real good.

On TOP of this amazing food, the market itself was bloody magical. We found the massage street and indulged in a half hour foot massage when all our perusing was done...ticklish toes were an issue here. And THEN we found the dancing, around what looked like a maypole - hundreds of people walking round in a circle, and each time the song changed, they all changed dance move in unison and proceeded to all move together for each song. It was like a scene from a really basic musical. Of course we joined in, and caused chaos in the circle by following the one woman who liked to be individual and add in an extra twirl or two here and there.

Back in the working week, after doing my tasks Monday morning I ventured off for an explore. I managed to make it to our local temple, which is a magnificent affair - to reach it you have to climb a good number of steps through jungle, the steps decorated elaborately as a long multicoloured snake. However, this was no easy feat - first I had to battle my way through 2 lots of crazy dogs. Now I know running from dogs is the worst idea ever, but there was no f***ing way I was gonna fight this one out. So screaming like a madwoman off I went, until a Thai woman came to my rescue with a simple stern word. I've now taken to walking around with a large stick, just in case. Everyone laughs at me, but I'm not getting rabies, so jokes on them.