Our final day in chiang mai was a pretty relaxed one. We went up to chiang mai zoo where we saw pandas, white tigers and elephants among lots of other animals. We were a little worried as not all of them were as taken care of as you would expect in the west but in such a poor country what could you expect. We then fitted in a quick manicure and lunch before heading off to the train station for a long journey. The following day we had time to kill in Bangkok so wh...

So second time lucky we ended up at the cooking school. Before that however we were given a tour around a local market where we were shown local herbs, spices, vegetables and fruits I had never seen before. We also saw the different types of curry pastes that could be bought. Much to Adam's disbelief we saw a bag of saffron for 400B about £8 which would have cost £5000 to a chef in Britain!!! Once at the school we were given a menu and given the choice of whi...

Today was the first full day in Chiang Mai and we spent it up in the mountains but unfortunately this means rain rain and more rain. Our first activity was mountain biking. It was a pretty tough ride as it was through muddy jungle roads, made even muddier by the rain. The rain however was quite handy as it kept us cool and made getting muddy more enjoyable. The second activity was the one I was looking forward to the most. Riding an Elephant. We went out in a ...

Arrived in Chiang Mai today and have just checked into the hotel and it's absolutely lovely! We got a great deal on it because we booked a whole load of things such as cooking, elephants and white water rafting at the same time. Spent yesterday on a tour to Kanchanaburi. Went to the floating market in the morning on a wee paddle boat going around the stalls, everybody sells the same things which means you can get quite a good deal. I bought a little fan because...