After a fabulous few days in Khlong Wang it was time to head to the North of Thailand to Chiang Mai with Michael and David. We had chosen to fly the distance with Air Asia, fist from Krabi to Bangkok, then Bangkok to Chiang Mai. After getting over the fact that it was a little 'chilly' in the North, well compared to the islands at any rate we got to our accommodation called 'Mini Cost, another that had come highly recommended by the boys, very lovely guest house along a little soi (small side road) off the main road.

We got there on the best day, as being a sunday the main road is turned into a 'Walking Street' market! Off we went to sample all that the market has to offer, hundreds of stalls selling anything and everything (and yes, I did want to buy anything and everything), food stalls selling things that I am not brave enough to eat but looked amazing and musicians everywhere playing traditional music! Amazing! After a LOT of shopping we went for a lovely dinner to plan our next 4 days in Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is a bit of a tortuous place to go if you have little luggage space as the main theme of the trip was shopping, a lot of shopping! Silk, wooden things, a few too many scarf's, needless to say I am now carrying around an extra bag of goodies!

On the second day we hired a car from a strange woman who had a slight fixation with my pink skirt, kept patting it, and me, very odd! After inspecting the car (very new but curiously, full of little dents) we nipped along to Bo Sang where the women make ornate parasols in every colour and with such gorgeous decoration, it took us some time to choose just one each! After that we wandered along the street some more before heading to Lunch via the Mandarin Oriental hotel, you have never seen something so stupidly over the top, or to quite David 'outrageous' more like a palace! Incredible! After lunch we went on an antiques hunt to Hang Dong to buy some pretty boxes, more indecision on all of our parts before heading to a temple on top of a large hill called Wat Pra That Doi. Absolutely stunning and very quiet and calm, I loved it!

Chiang Mai old town is surrounded by a moat and within the old town there are so many stunning temples, we made it around the majority of them and enjoyed seeing the subtle differences in design from one to another.

The rest of the time was spent having lovely drinks and food with the boys and having a really good chatter. Thanks boys for making our trip into the North of Thailand so memorable, wish we could have stayed longer but we will see you when you come to live in Chiang Mai I am sure :)

Now onto Bangkok for half a day then onto Cambodia :) X