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Hey Guys, so we checked out of our hotel yesterday morning and decided to go to the MBK Mall in Bangkok before our train to Chiang Mai, we must have asked about 15 tuk tuk drivers, none of whom would take us as they said its too far or wanted stupid money or to take us to a shop where they try and and sell us a suit or something else the we don't want and the tuk tuk drivers get free petrol vouchers for taking tourists! Not wanting to pay the ridiculous money the tuk tuk drivers that were willing to take us were asking for, and not knowing how the sky train works or where to go we decided to go to the grand palace, it was very impressive but we were under the impression that it was free and that a shawl to cover your shoulders would be enough (so did a Dutch girl we met and got a tuk tuk there with) but alas when we got there it was 400baht each (about £8ish) and you had to have long pants (which we did in our bag) and a top covering your shoulders and a shawl or scarf etc wasn't acceptable, luckily I had my town shirt in my bag so I wore that and Adam (& Martha) had to queue up and hire a shirt. All in all, as impressive as it was the hassle it turned out to be I would have rather have gone for a massage! I didn't know what any of the buildings in the palace ground meant so I could only appreciate them aesthetically and they were meaningless to us! It looked like it was going to start raining so we got a tuk tuk back to our hotel and picked our bags up, grabbed a bite to eat and got a tuk tuk to the train station for our overnight train to Chiang Mai. The train set off about 6pm and was comfy enough, it had seats which then converted in to a bed and an upper bunk which pulled down, I was paranoid that someone was going to steal from our bags so tied mine to the luggage rack so that I would wake up of anyone tried to get in it lol!! We played cards for a while then having not had a proper nights sleep since we got here decide to have a relatively early night, about 10pm, we had bought some sleeping tablets from Boots earlier in the day but we felt so tired and hadn't napped during the day for the first time that we didn't think we'd need them, big mistake! Adam woke up at 3am and didn't go back to sleep, and I woke up at 4.30am, we thought that the food cart opened at 5am so at 5.20 we headed down for breakfast to find it didn't actually open until 6. When we went for breakfast, we had toast, fried eggs, ham, frankfurter sausage and apple, it was pretty poor but filled a hole. After breakfast we went back to our bunks and mine had been cleared away and with still nearly 4 hours on the train I sulked, I have paid money for a bed and I wanted my bed!! Being as lovely as he is, Adam kindly remade my bed with fresh bedding supposed to be for the next journey, we reattached my curtain and I went back to bed, read my book for a while and managed to get another hours sleep. Adam just watched the passing scenery and listened to his iPod. We arrived in Chiang Mai about 10.30 and got picked up from the train station by a guy from our hotel, there was about 12 of us from the train all going to our hotel and on the trek. We checked in and put our bags in our room (which is as hot as the fiery furnace of hell) the aircon is garbage and after much fiddling around with it I thought that Adam was going to go and ask for another room!! We went to find a cash machine and then got some lunch, we both had chicken with cashew nuts and rice and it was lovely for both meals and drinks it cost about £3! We then went to the pool for about half an hour before Adam got bored so we went for a walk in to town, we thought there was a market but was informed that it is actually a night market and doesn't open until about 5pm so we just went for a wander in the direction of a temple that the lady had circled on a map for us. We're not sure if we made it to the temple she circled but we saw a couple of temples, we stopped off for a drink at a cafe/restaurant and there was some tuk tuks outside so we asked how much for one to drive us about for half an hour to see some of Chiang Mai, we paid him about £2 and he took us around, it was nice to have the breeze too! We thought that it was reasonable until we got back to the hotel and found that we could hire a scooter for a full day for about £4! So when we get back from trekking that's what we're going to do. Adam asked if we needed our licences and the lady just said 'no we'll give you a helmet!' lol!! By this time Adam was shattered and wanted a nap so I read for a while and ended up falling asleep too in our sauna of a room! We had a meeting at 6pm about our trekking and what we need to take etc and there is 11 of us going, we set of at 9am tomorrow morning. It should be awesome (as long as there is no leeches - a girl from Canada who is coming on the trek kept asking Simon, our guide, if he had salt for leeches and he just said don't worry, I am the jungle king!) Anyway we are getting an early night tonight and taking a sleeping tablet so that we are fully refreshed for tomorrow. Will update you all when back from the jungle!! Love xxx
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