Day 15: Travel to Chiang Mai via Bangkok

We did a light spot of shopping in the morning to get a tshirt and some flipflops, then got the minibus taxi to the airport at 11am...but it was more like 11.30 - Thai time they call it. Took about 45 mins and then checked in straight away after netting up our bags. we took our new bags as handluggage...it was amusing watching hazel trying to put it in the overhead compartments. 3 people ended up helping haha. that took up most of the compartment so mine had to go in a different one which only just fitted in! The flight was about 1.5 hours and got a weird sausage roll which had a chicken sausage in it but still tasted like a frankfurter, and a carton of green tea which was weird and strong. When we arrived at Bangkok we found 2 girls from Israel who wanted to go to Koh Sang Road too, so we shared a taxi and could only just fit us in amoungst all of the bags as they were backpacking too! we went to the Wild Orchid hotel again to put our bags in storage for the day so we didnt have to carry them around, and had lunch at the ouside cafe thing around the corner which was a chocolate and banana pancake and a fruit shake. then we went to the internet for nearly 2 hours where we saw Chris again..Its his airport pickup day for his 2nd solo group. It started pouring wth rain as soon as we left..typical! We hid under an umbrella for a bit and helped cover the sclothes with a plastic liner then ran into a shop with a roof for about 10 mins. When it rains here...it RAINS, we pretty much ran down the road getting soaked until we got to the restaurant and we were seated inside. It then started thundering and lightening with massive forks in the sky. was pretty cool. We were sat wating for our food and a massive cockroach ran across the table next to us and the woman screamed sooo loud! everyone was a bit jumpy after that checking all around them haha. after food we collected our backpacks and went to get a taxi from the main road, however they were all taken so we got a tuktuk...luckily it had stopped raining then but the seats and floor were still a bit wet and we were getting dripped on the whole way. We managed to dodge all the traffic though as he just drove around it on the other side of the road! Sat at the station for 1.5 hours and had to pay to use the toilet...2 baht which is the same as 0.04p....whats the point? aha they didnt even have tissue...lucky we took some with us! Got on the train at 9.30 and they were already setting up all the beds with the curtains. this train was nicer than the last...it had airconditioning instead of fans and a curtain and closed windows instead of shutters which nearly chop your head off. Was a good nights sleep in comparison...no worries about bugs. but to be honest the amount of bug spray we used it wouldnt suprise me if they didnt come within a mile of the train! Went to sleep pretty much as soon as we got on the train as it was pretty quiet.

Day 16: First day in Chiang Mai
Arrived in Chiang Mai at about 1.30 and had a sign at the station for our taxi reading "Bryong Dique" ha. took that as my name so we got in that and it was a mini bus just for us two! got to the hotel and it looks pretty nice and has an indoor pool...but we're not sure if u can actually use it as there are no steps or anything and havent seen anyone use it. Our room is pretty basic but has air conditioning and a tv again...not that we watch the tv. the Drama out is is pretty funny...they cant act atall aha its sooo cheesy! Hazel went into Mozzie killing mode with the spray and i tried attacking them with a glass. was pretty successful but now there are loads of dead flies around our room! We got our stuff ready that we're taking on our trek from the list we were given then went out to explore the town a bit. its pretty big so didnt see much of it but we booked the flight of the gibbons day which is ziplining 50m high in the jungle for 6 hours which is apparently amazing. So we will be doing that on the 31st as we have a final free day then. Bought some things from the market stalls..a realy cool hand made elephant carving from cow hide and hazel bought a bikini. Its quite fun bartering with the locals. Had some food and headed back to the hotel and came on the internet whilst randomly attacking the air to get rid of mozzies. Think we will probably get eaten alive this week! Have been very lucky so far in terms of bites though...only had a few so far!