Arrived in Chiang Mai this morning and have fallen in love with the place already. Firstly because I actually managed to book a hotel that's not in the middle of nowhere! Secondly it's a lot more rural and laid back than Bangkok.
It's about 30c and we are currently sitting in a bar (this is not all we do by the way...sometimes we sleep). I actually decided not to have a beer so went for a Thai ice tea - error! It's a nuclear orange coloured milky drink that tastes like condensed milk - I'm making robin drink it so they don't think I'm rude (he owes me!). I tried ordering sparkling water but after saying 'sparkling water? fizzy water? soda water? tonic water?' with various accompanying hand gestures I went with ice tea. I'm going to have a crack at offering regular water in a min and if that doesn't work, beer it is (they may think this is all the Brits drink? After our last few meetings with fellow Brits out here, thats pretty accurate).
As you will see from the pic we had a bit of a wander around and visited some beautiful Wats (temples) this morning. Think we'll stick around here for a week or two and do some cookery classes and trekking into the mountains with the effalumps :)