Well, this is the first installment of our 3 month trip to Thailand and a bit more of South East Asia. We arrived in Bangkok on Thursday night (11th October) after roughly 29 hours of Traveling. We flew from Toronto to Chicago, then to Tokyo and onto Bangkok. We arrived in Thailand not having slept much to find that our backpaks had made it all the way with us! I was very supprised and extremely happy about that! After a 30 minute taxi ride we arrive at our pre booked hotel just off the kohsan road at around 12.00 am. Our original plan was to get straight to bed but the hustle and bustle draws us out for a look around. It has not changed much in the 7 years since I was last here, so we head down the main tourist street for some food. We decide on padthai (fried noodles) which costs us $1.25 each. After a beer we wander back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. Our Air conditioned room with onsuite bathroom has cost us $24 per night which is expensive for this country, but its nice to have for the first couple of nights while we get settled.

Friday morning we wake up fairly early because our body clocks have been flipped by 12 hours. We decide to visit the Grand Palace and sleeping Buddha. There is a free guided tour once we get inside the Grand Palace which turns out to be very informative and fun. After that we make our way to the sleeping buddha to have alook and take some pictures. That afternoon after all our walking we decide that we should treat ourselves to a half hour foot massage, costing a whopping total of $4 each and immediately agree that we should have massages as often as needed! Now very relaxed, we have an afternoon nap and wake up in time for a spot of dinner. Bangkok is fairly expensive for food and drink, dinner costs about $5 each for some of the best Thai food we have eaten. We stop at a bar where a live band is playing and order a bucket of vodka and 7up. This later proves to be a mistake... There is a welsh couple sitting next to us(dan and rachel) so we start chatting and getting to know one another. 4 buckets later we have decided that we are all going to travel north together the next day and head to chaing Mai. We wake up on Saturday morning, and I put it down to the dehydration, but I am suffering from a pounding headache! We are due to meet dan and Rachel at 4pm to go to the train station so have a lazy day.

We book our tickets for the sleeper train and end up with a cabin of sorts for 4 people. There is a curtian that wraps around each bunk and its airconditioned. Sammy is our steward and he takes our dinner and breakfast orders. After a few card games and dinner we settle in for a nights sleep which is not the best but its 1000% better than being on an overnight bus.

We arrive in Chaing Mai 3 hours late but we are not clock watching so its fine. A guy at the station convinces us that his guest house is the best so we jump in the back of his pickup truck and head to SK II guest house. Our fan room is super and is only $15 per night. The food in the hotels restaurand is fantastic and costs $2 per meal.

We relax in Chang Mai that afternoon and also the next day, wandering about and enjoying the chilled out atmosphere compared to the craziness of Bangkok. One of the 'must do' things is a jungle trek, so we book a 2 day, 1 night trek to leave the next morning. We are to walk in the jungle the first day, sleep in a village that night, then ride elephants and bamboo raft our way back!

More to follow!!