Greetings. Well, it's been a nice trip north. I'm now in Chiang Mai and heading to Laos tomorrow.

Bangkok was a laugh. Did the usual touristy stuff like ride along the river and seeing the temples. Best by far and one of the best I've ever seen was Wat Pho(the one in the photo). It's a big(47mtr?), golden reclining buddha that, after having been told by 3 different tuk tuk drivers that the temple wasn't open today or that it was in the other direction, had massive relaxing effects. Definately worth a look. Another Bangkok tourist attraction has to be the ping pong show so, for the purposes of experience and remembering the red lights from 10years earlier, me and a pommie dude I met went to check one out. Weird. Also went to the massive weekend markets and that night donned the shirt I bought there 10 years ago.

Spent 3 days in Bangkok then got the night train up to Chiang Mai. Nice and comfortable bed with air-con had me sleeping like a buddha. Met a Sikh-English dude on the train who turned out to be rock solid and had 2 spare tickets on a trek into the jungles cause his mates had missed the flight. I graciously accepted and the next day headed out. Our tour had 11 dudes. The tour before and the tour after ours had 8 and 9 chicks each. Ridiculous. Something that was brought up often. But, we kept sane and all got on and had a sweet time. Walked through the bush, got attacked on dusk/twilight by a million bazillion moths which canceled our poker game, lit a fire, (edit), showered under a waterfall, had a few drinks of Sangson whiskey, played poker again, rode elephants and took a leisurely bamboo raft down river. Good stuff.

Not much has happened since getting back. Had to get my passport looked at cause it didn't get an entry stamp when I crossed the southern border. Went to Immigration at the airport and he said that this was my fault for not checking when I had passed through. I couldn't really accept that considering the guy's job is to stamp passports and everything got a little heated. Seems I may have offended the whole Thai immigration department when I blamed the guy for not doing his job so then the police started getting mentioned and me paying $800 and/or going to jail for 2years and never being allowed back into Thailand. I apologised and said it was all my fault and about 20mins later I had a stamp. Lucky me. Also went back up a mountain me and the Sikh - Sunny - went up before the trek to see the most famous temple in Chiang Mai that me and Sunny had driven straight past. Doi Suthep - nice. Took in some MuiThai fights with the guys from the trek that saw kids, women and men fighting well and me against an old Thai guy losing more bets than winning. Then went out to a rocking bar and fell alseep at a table. It's been raining for the past couple of days so haven't done much. Just preparing myself for Lao.

Laos tomorrow. Me and Olly(guy I taught with in Korea) are doing the Gibbon Experience. It's basically a conservation effort to save the rainforest. Tourists go and live in tree houses and move through the jungle on zip lines. Fkn sweet. Google it.

Thailand has been real nice but I haven't really talked to Thai people and experienced much of the day to day culture. Did witness a flurry of excitment when over the radio came the lottery results. Also got to stand in the train station at 6pm for the national anthem and the King - which also still happens before every movie at the theatre - why aren't we so patriotic?- I'd stand for Helen and the Queen! Those were nice but I think I'll be back. Definately for more diving and superb beaches in the south and for a better look at rural Thailand in winter(no rain) in the north.

All is well that ends well. I could have been sent to jail but I wasn't. Haha. The tour continues. To Laos and beyond!