Happy New Year!

Last time I wrote I think I was in the midst of Hogmanay Celebrations in Edinburgh… New Years was good but the exciting thing is that I'm in Thailand!!! yay!!! And I'm not kidding when I say there is literally an elephant walking past the window of the internet café!

I arrived in Bangkok absolutely shattered after no sleep on NYE, then a train that was supposed to get me to London at about 9:45 which arrived after 1am (because we had to change to another train, a bus and another train), and then the jet lag from the 7 hour time difference. Bangkok was big and busy, as expected. I did a lot of the sites including Siam Square but the temples were closed because the sister of the king died or something… so I'll have to do them on the way back. I met up with Andrew, an Aussie backpacking around Asia and we checked out the river, Lumpin Park and the weekend market which was absolutely insane...

I got the overnight train to Chang Mai - the 15 hour trip made bearable by the beds onboard. I expected it to be very hot but as the night went on it cooled down and I reached for my jumper and the provided blanket. On board I met 2 Canadian girls, Stephanie and Jessica (I think her name was). We decided to get a taxi to town together but as soon as we got off we were engulfed by a lady wanting us to go to her guest house. We decided it looked ok and she had a free mini van so we jumped on with a few other people from the train. The guest house - The Royal Guesthouse, is right near the backpacker area and a short walk to the Night Bizarre. It also has a swimming pool with a waterfall thing happening. I'm on the 7th floor - 114 steps to my room (not paces, stairs) but because of this I'm only paying 150BAHT per night… which is like $4 Aussie… I checked out some of the local Wats around Chang Mai and went on a handicraft tour thing organized by the guesthouse - where I was the only person with a whole minivan to myself. We went to Bo Sang, a nearby village where they make umbrellas and saw them making jewellery and silk garments.

Today I went on a 1 day 'trek'. We went on a 2 hour walk to a waterfall, had lunch then went on an elephant 'safari'. My elephant Madi was a baby - 7 years old and was a bit mischievious!!! But very fun! Apparently he likes walking on 2 legs sometimes, unfortunately I didn't get to experience this but he did seam to find the most interesting way of moving and not just following the path. After that we went Bamboo rafting. I gave into the fact I wasn't going to stay dry and then our raft guy, bobby, decided to show us the 'crocodile' and drenched us all' - we got him back so that was ok.

I had the BEST food last night - It was a curry with egg noodles in a soup thing with crispy noodles on top… It was SOOOO delicious and apparently a region specialty. I'm seriously going to try and make it when I get home but somehow I don't think it will be quite the same.

Tomorrow I'm going rock climbing for the day which should be fun. I stubbed my toe yesterday and somehow managed to lift about 25% of the skin on my little toe and lift the nail right back (yep… I'm sure you needed to know that) so I'm hoping my toe will be ok for climbing tomorrow… ah well… it will have to be…

The following day I'm heading into Laos (hopefully) which takes a long time I'm told on 'Slow boat' like 2 days! I'm really excited about Laos and everyone keeps telling me how amazing it is…

Keep in touch guys, I want to here what you're all up to back home and in your own travels…