Well, here I am in Chiang Mai, sitting outside my hostel with a jumper on and a cup of cofee as the others play cards wrapped up in blankets! Its frrreeeeeeeezing here and pouring with rain! That however will not stop me from going to the elephant sanctuary tomorrow and playing in the stream with the heffelumps!

Jumped on an overnight bus with fellow intern Eimear (based in Kalasin) on saturday night. An eleven hour journey from the north east for just 500 baht (about a tenner) and while we hadnt asked for the vip bus and were consequently expecting a rather crappy old bus we ended up travelling in more luxury than we have so far in Thailand. Loads f leg room, the seats reclined back almost fully and whislt exploring the many buttons at the side of the seats we were delighted to find the seat backs had electric massagers in them! hehe.

We rocked into chiang Mai around 7am sunday morning and headed straight for a hostel we head read about in the rough guide that is run by an irish lady and her thai husband. We were delighted to find they had enough rooms for us and the others who were planning on joining us at various points and even better it was only 120 baht a night each (around 2.50).

The hostel is pretty basic but clean and comfy and they have a lovely garden area where everyone spends time chilling out and chatting to fellow travellers. Weve met a couple from Bristol who are teachers and decided to sack theyre jobs in and travel asia for 9 months together. They're really lovely and pretty interesting so weve all been sharing bottles of rum and heading to the live music bars together of an evening. theres quite a few interns here now too, Patrick, fiona and Lauren have joined me and eimear and there are more on the way I think.

On Monday after Patrick and fiona arrived and we all rented motorbikes (well them three did and I jumped on the back of patricks) and we headed up into the mountains to one of the many beautiful and famous mountain temples. The ride was pretty good fun, lots of windy roads and some beautiful views. After the temple we passed the zoo and popped into say hello to the pandas. I dont think ive ever seen a panda before and I couldnt quite get over, as he sat there eating his bambo, that he might just be a man in a costume, he looked so like a giant teddy bear!

Yesterday I was gonna do a cooking course but decided to save some money and just bought a second hand book and a cheapy thai massage before joining the others for a wander and food. another evening spent drinking sang som in the garden and then we headed to a bar where the band were playing lots of beatles music and some other excellent tunes!

Was planning to go to tiger kind=gdom today but the rain and slight hangover put an end to that, the others were going trekking but cancelled so weve all just been eating the awesome food here in the hostel and playing cards. Tomorrow Lauren and I have a day at the elephant sanctuary booked where we'll get to adopt an elephant for the day and learn how theyre rescued and looked after and then tae them to the stream for a bath!

cant wait! I love travelling!

hope everyone at homes well!