Well, after a 16 hour train journey from Bangkok we arrived in Chiang Mai! The sleeper trains aren't too bad, you dont get much sleep but its cheaper than flying! and more fun! I found it very amusing that when you go to the toilet, you have to squat over a hole which drops straight onto the train track! nice eh? its difficult for a girl to keep her balance.The scenery was beautiful on the way upto Chiang Mai, and the train goes that slow you get to take it all in.

When we eventually arrived in Chiang Mai, we had no accomodation, but we were pounced on by every man and his dog, just like in Bangkok, so we had no problem with finding a room. It was also my Birthday, (21st of course)so a few drinks were deffinately on the menu for that evening! By the time we arrived at our hostel we were melting, Chiang Mai is a very warm and humid place, and everywhere is open air with no aircon! Needless to say we only lasted two nights in our fan room, before we moved on to an air con room. Aircon really is the way forward over here!

Chiang Mai is very nice, so different from Bangkok (but we loved Bangkok still) very relaxed and clean, they have some great nightmarkets, and some fab eateries. We spent most of our time in one particular Restaurant purely because it had Aircon!

The main reason to come to Chiang Mai is for the Elephant Trekking, & Bamboo Rafting. This is such a good day! Sean wasnt overly impressed with the Elephant Trekking as he ended up crippled by the end of the trek! The seats aren't really made for people with no bum, but i was fine, i have plenty more padding than Sean! ;-) He was bruised from head to toe! It was so funny! They take you into the water on the Elephants, where they love to fill thier trunks up and cover you in water and snot! getting a nice mouthful of it too!

Then you go onto the Bamboo Rafting, this was brill! We didnt have our Camera on us at the time so we dont have any piccys to show you, There was Me, Helena the guy at the front and Sean got given a big Bamboo stick and told to get on with it! He really did think he was Indiana Jones at the back of the raft! It was hard work too, Me and Helana sat and watched the world go by as Sean Scrambled to stay on the raft and stop us from crashing into large boulders, he had a right sweat on him! I really was scared at some points as there are huge water spiders that jump all over you! I hated this!!!!!! Its great to watch all the children swimming and playing along the river, they seem to have nothing yet they really are so happy.

We then get told we are going on a little trek to the waterfalls, great, but thier idea of a little trek isnt the same as ours! I found it really hard, (I always have my ankle as an excuse)! Whats yours Sean????He He. Alot of up hill walking and steps, but when we got to the falls it was well worth it, so cool and refreshing, with a little hut in the hillside which served cold cans of beer! just what we needed.

After this we went for lunch, We were very hungry by this time. We sat down and the Thai people just kept bringing out plates and plates of food. I just stuck to the rice as i really havent taken to the soups and meats. Sean on the otherhand devoured the whole table! which proved to be a really bad idea. I ended up nursing Sean for two days as he got food poisoning, second time in 12 months! He was showing the contents of his stomach for two days! (well it makes the story sound better with more detail).

Once I (sean) was feeling much better, I decide it was time for a haircut, it was time it all came off. A number three all over. tell you what the barbers over here are a little different from the ones back home to say the least. It was a back street place, three dentist chairs one of which was occupied by a little old lady getting some shut eye, two men were in the other chairs, one getting his hair cut as you would expect the other was getting his ears cleaned ( lovely). my turn came, I was approached by a small man who looked like the proffesor out the burbs so I climbed into the chair and he took about half hour to cut my hair which cost about one pound so i thought id have a shave aswell, hhmmm bad idea, cut me to ribbons he did.

The next night we went to the night bizarre which is this huge market with all different stalls selling all different thing, we purchased a couple of unique lamps which we sent home the next morning by air mail. Here is where we found a pub called the Black sheep were i thought id try a John Smiths, not the best and certainly not as good as yours Glenn.

Our time in Chiang Mai was coming to an end and Laos was our next port of call. We arrangerd a bus journey to Chiang Khong which is on the border. It was a five hour journey on which me met a great group of people who we travelled on through Laos with.

See you all soon for our next blog in Laos xxxxxxxxx