Hiya!

Chris and I are currently in Chiang Mai, North Thailand but before i update you and what's been going on here i will fill you in on our last couple of days in Bangkok.

The day after our Koh San Road visit it was officially Chinese New Year so we had decided we would head towards the centre of the celebrations in China Town. We had been trying to find out if there was a schedule of activities for the day from tourist information but it didn't appear that was the case. It seemed as though the best plan of action was to make our way to the right area of town and just wait to see what was going to happen. When we arrived in China Town it was packed full of people and filled with hundreds of market stalls, mostly selling food and drink. :) We ended up eating deep fried fish / squid balls with a spicy sauce, pork with crackling and Pepsi in a bag..Chris's new favourite beverage! The street's got busier and busier and people began lining the roads as if waiting for something to happen. We think there was going to be some kind of a parade but after a couple of hours exploring, we had to make our way back to Central Bangkok as we had planned to watch the sunset at the highest sky bar in Thailand!

We made our way to the Sky Bar, which was called Vertigo and based at the top of a very posh 5* hotel. We enjoyed pretending we were residents for an hour or so, although only being able to afford 1 Mai Tai and Pina Colada probably gave our game away. Check out the pics for the amazing view.

Now, we are currently in Chiang Mai after arriving this morning (6am) from a very noisy, cold and lengthy bus ride from Bangkok. We arrived late and after some confusion around taxi pick up's we arrived at Joy's House which is as good, if not better than we had hoped.

So far we have had a lounge around the pool, utter bliss after the oppresive heat of Bangkok, and taken the hotel bikes for a ride around the village. We stopped to have bbq chicken and beer at a local bar where we appeared to be of much interest to the locals. Joy's house is a hostel run by a local childrens foudation which supports tribal village children with disabilities to build self esteem and gain a good education. There are many children learning travel and tourism skills at the hostel and we are starting to pick up some sign language to able to communicate with them. So far it seems in the absence of communication channels, a smile goes a very long way.

We have an exciting week planned which promises to take us just a little over budget :) We have booked a spa day tommorow morning followed by a Thai cookery class where we will bike to the local market and cook up our own dinner. On Saturday we are visiting the childrens foundation farm where we will get to spend time with the children learning about organic farming and if there is time will get to visit a local hot springs. On Sunday we are going to Patara Elephant farm where we will learn how to be a mahout (elephant keeper) for the day.

We have just finished our first dinner at Joy's house which was great but we had 2 dishes of everthing as there appeared to be some confusion surrounding me being a vegetarian!?! More food for us... I think it will be a couple of beers for us and then bed as Chris barely slept on the bus last night.

Until next time...

Becci xx