Had an early start on the morning of the 10th so that we could get across Bangkok to the bus station in good time for our coach up to Chiang Mai. Thanks to having proper roads, this 713km journey would take only an hour longer than a journey 5 times shorter in Nepal. Insane. Jo and I weren't really sure what to expect on the coach, seeing as our hostel had helped organise it, and we paid for it at a 7-eleven, but on producing the receipt I was promptly presented with two tickets which may or may not have said Chiang Mai on them, but all the writing was in Thai! The bus company we were travelling with (there are hundreds) turned out were actually very reputable according to our guide book, and had it's own terminal with gates where you dropped your luggage, very airport-esque and pretty efficient. Got on the bus on time at 10 to find it was air conditioned, had plently of leg room, vibrating massage seats(!) and a western toilet. There was also a trolley dolly who served us complimentary snacks and drinks, and lunch too.

Arrived in Chiang Mai bus station at about 6ish after a long and uneventful journey. We could tell straight away how much less humid it was than Bangkok which was a massive relief. Got a tuk tuk to our hostel and as we turned into the drive we thought it must be the wrong place as it was very picturesque and looked more like a 5-star resort as opposed to a £5 a night hostel. The hostel was nearly brand new and looked it. We were staying in a 4 person dorm room with Tom and Beth who we met there as they had had to fly from Bangkok after not being able to find a coach - much quicker, but a lot more expensive. The dorm room was really nice with two bunk beds, which were very comfortable, the room also came equipped with a tennis-racquet-like electrified mosquito killer which was fun to use as it cracked with a blue spark everytime you got one, but also got a lot of use cos there were lots of mozzies about. Had a little explore to the pool which was massive and looked really nice with plenty of sun loungers around it and even a table football and table tennis table too. There were communal bathrooms but even they were very nice and clean and comfortable, with individual shower cubicles and western loos. Walked to the Night Bazaar and found the food court where Jo and I had two portions of pad thai, 3 cans of drink and 2 bottles of water for about £2.50. Not bad at all! After a long day of travelling we all headed back to the hostel for an early night.

Actually managed to sleep under a quilt as the air con was on so low, but it made a nice change from sweating half to death under just a sheet. We consulted the guide book for places to eat and decided to go to a nice looking place called J.J.'s cafe which wasn't far away, but seemed much further in the midday sun! After we ate and went back into the outdoor heat it was decided that we should just chill by the pool all afternoon, which we did until about 4 when the heavens opened into a massive thunderstorm which lasted a couple of hours. Being Saturday, Tom and I insisted we find somewhere for dinner that was showing the football, so we went to the Red Lion English pub (of course!), which had the football showing on a projector screen and a large menu (including English classics such as fish and chips, and bangers and mash!). After the football, and the girls having wandered around the market, we hopped in a songthaew (shared taxi) back to the hostel.

After sleeping late (again) we thought it would be a good idea to actually do something today (12th April). We had seen a restaurant called Tiger Kingdom advertised extensively throughout Chiang Mai. It's unique selling point was that you could get photos taken whilst petting tigers and play with them... and also they did a buffet lunch so we were sold. Pretty unsuccessfully we haggled with a songthaew driver to get to the restaurant and back. When we got there it was so chock-full of tourists that we couldn't get the buffet lunch, and it also turned out that you had to pay from 350-1000 Baht to actually get near the tigers depending on how many you wanted to see/how long you wanted to be there! None of that was in the brochure! We had lunch and got a few pics of tigers from distance but they looked massively sedated and barely alive so we weren't too bothered about paying to get in a cage with them. Also we were planning on hitting the Chiang Mai Night Safari (as championed by ex-Thai PM and Man City owner, Thaksin Shinawatra), which would also have tigers but hopefully ones that looked more alive.

As the Night Safari was pretty expensive we decided to go super cheap on dinner again and headed to the night bazaar again to feed both of us for about two quid. Good value that! Got another songthaew to the Night Safari, and on the journey we saw the first signs of the immiment Songkran (Thai New Year) festival with people at the edge of the roads chucking buckets of water over passing cars, including our songthaew.

The Night Safari complex is all set in National Park land and the building is very modern. There were two tram rides to go on, each showing different animals, and a short walking route around 'Swan Lake' with more animals. We found out when the English language tours were and had a little while to wait so had a wander which is where we came across the 'photo spot' where for 250B we could all get our picture taken with either a tiger cub or a two lion cubs. The lion cubs were only 2 months old and exceptionally cute so we got to play with them for 5 mins and got a professional pic and the CD for that price - bargain.

The first tram tour was the 'Predator Prowl' where we saw lions and tigers (bengal and white), hyenas, bears and white rhinos (again!) which were all enclosed or behind moats for safety, while the herbivore animals, lots of types of deer and antelope, wild boar and goats, were allowed to roam pretty free in the park land around the road for the tram. Although it was night, the tram had floodlights so we could actually see the animals, though not with enough light to take photos unfortunately. After that tour came the 'Savannah Safari' tour which also had an English language guide and we saw zebras, giraffes, bison and hippos as you might expect from the name, but also kangaroos, emus, ostriches and yet more varieties of deer and antelope! Saw more elephants, but they were old hack having ridden one in Nepal! After the tour we saw the Swan Lake 'musican fountain' which was a very Disney-esque laser show over the lake, before walking the Jaguar trail which had smaller enclosures for animals such as lemir, porcupines, tamir, jaguar, cougar and other smaller 'big' cats, some no bigger than a domestic cat. We did manage to get some decent pics of white tigers here too.

Afterwards we headed back to our songthaew to get back to the hostel to get a good nights sleep before Songkran.

13th April - 1st day of Songkran!

Woke late again, excited, having heard that Chiang Mai was THE place to celebrate Thain New Year. The Thai people celebrate by having a mass waterfight in the streets, soaking anyone and everyone with water from hoses, water pistols, saucepans, buckets or anything else they could get their hands on. Everybody is in very high spirits and all tourists are more than encouraged to get involved in this aquatic warfare! So we were excited! Decided to eat lunch at the hostel so we didn't have to find somewhere in town which would be largely shut for the holiday. Unfortunately right after lunch Jo started to feel very unwell and decided to stay at the hostel and get some sleep to feel better, so Tom, Beth and I filled up our decent sized water pistols in preparation for the fight. We left the hostel and it was only a few hundred feet before we came across the first people with water. Up to this point I hadn't realised how seriously the Thai people took soaking people but it quickly became apparent with 4 or 5 buckets being hurled in our direction and getting us pretty wet, although they did target Beth more than Tom or I which was a pattern that repeated itself throughout the day. By the time we reached the main road we were all pretty much soaked from head to toe. On the plus side though, all the locals were massively friendly and let us use their water to refill our water pistols so we were never unarmed for long. The whole of the main road was completely lined with people all wielding water hurling devices, although the greatest danger came from drive-by soakings from the back of all the pick up trucks! The closer to the centre of town we got, the more manic the scene got and the more soaked we got. It was strange to think that just two weeks earlier we had been in India and Nepal, two countries desperate for water, and here we were now, just chucking it over people for fun. The celebrations were centred on the canal area by the old city walls and around a massive parade that runs along the main road we were on. All of the floats have some depiction of BIddha with the people throw water over, which is presumably how all the tradition of soaking people began. We stayed on the streets walking up and down, drenching and getting drenched in unequal measure, but great fun nonetheless, except for when the people with ice water managed to get you! Saw a lot of the parade and sprayed the Buddhas for some good karma, also saw some ladyboys on one float (big hands & feet and square jaws!) as well as a water tanker with a high pressure pump spraying lots of people at once. At about 4 we decided we were as wet as physically possible and to head back to the hostel to shower and then finally get dry. Jo was feeling a bit better by dinner time and in order to avoid getting soaked again we went to a nice Thai restaurant two minutes from the hostel. It looked very fancy, but was actually pretty inexpensive. Jo stuck to steamed rice (and banana for dessert) and I tried the local 'Spicy Chiang Mai sausage' which was damn tasty. Headed back to the hostel pretty early in preparation for more Songkran antics tomorrow.

14th April - 2nd day of Songkran

Thankfully Jo was feeling well enough in the morning so that she could come into town and see all the water-based shenanigans for herself. We wandered into town about noonish to try and go to a cafe we had read about in our guide book but it was closed for Songkran, so we found a small Thai cafe on the main road. Coming into the air conditioned restaurant was nice at first, but as we had already all been drenched during the walk from the hostel it soon became too cold and we ate quickly so we could get back out into the warmth (and wet!). Spent a little while walking up and down the streets with our water pistols and although there were fewer people than the day before, it was still a lot of fun with a lot of water getting thrown about. After a few hours we decided to head back to the hostel and make use of the pool and nice sunshine one last time before we left Chiang Mai the next day to go back to Bangkok (where thankfully it looked like all of the protests had disbanded!). Chilled out in the afternoon by the pool before going into town for dinner (in a songthaew to stay dry). None of us were feeling too adventurous for dinner so we ended up in Burger King before heading back for our last night at the hostel. Had to get a pretty early night in as our coach left Chiang Mai bus station at 7:20am and we wanted to be there in plenty of time.

Chiang Mai was a lovely city - much smaller and calmer than Bangkok and proved a very fun place to spend Songkran, although if it hadn't been for that festival we might have been more cultural and seen temples etc. but knowing we had joined in one of the biggest festivals of the year seemed cultural enough!