Bangkok - Chiang mai - Sukhothai - Ayuthaya

After an eventful flight out, we found our reasonably priced hotel out near the airport, and slept until the following lunch time. First impressions of Bangkok were really good, clean and friendly, not what I was expecting at all! Although the weather is very hot and sticky at all times of the day and night, air con is a bit of a necessity there and worth the extra couple of quid. We did opt for a place with a pool, but it was on the roof and more like a bath.

We spent a few nights in the main area, Ko san road, which is lively and full of tourists, not somewhere I'd recommend for those wanting a relaxing break. For a few nights its a good party, nearly every bar has live music doing some decent covers, but not so great for getting a good nights sleep. We had a couple of wild nights out there and discovered the 'siam bucket', which is the beginning of the end of your night, as we discovered. We met a few interesting characters there, one girl, who persuaded us to go to a ping pong show after watching the royal wedding, very appropriate! She'd been out the night before and lost all her belongings even her passport, and then got paralytic again the next night and fell down the stairs, so there are people worse off than me! Also met a girl I know from home, small world!

From there we headed north to Chiang mai on a very rickety old train that through us all over the place and most the seats weren't very stable! We really liked Chiang mai though, it was a much more chilled out city, well it felt more like a small town really. We spent a lot of the time on hired pedal bikes, which were cheap to hire and very easy to get around on as its flat, and the traffics fine if you stay of the main road. Theres some stunning temples to see there and lots of big gold Buddha's of course!

One of the first things we did there was a cooking course, whereby you get taken to a local market and shown around lots of local produce and explained to about whats used for various dishes. Then taken back to the farm and cook the menu you've selected, unlike the one we did in India where we sat on the chaps bedroom floor and watched him cook! Then the fun part of getting to eat it all, I have to say Al did a cracking yellow curry, best I've tasted in Thailand. I think he's becoming a better cook than me!

A good low cost activity is to take a bike ride out to a lake 12km out of town. It took us about 2hrs as we were constantly trying to figure out if we were on the right road or not which was difficult given that all the signs were in Thai. When we found it the weather was blazing so we were eager for a dip to cool off a bit. The lake and its surroundings were gorgeous and refreshingly cool, and the restaurants provide little huts around the edge for free as long as you buy something! Just after we'd dried off from the lake, we heard some almighty clashes of thunder and 10 minutes later, the heavens opened! We tried to make a mad dash for it during one interval but ended up getting caught in the worst of it while cycling back. We arrived back at our guest house knee deep in rain, and sopping wet, in need of a beer - which our guesthouse 'Diva' did very cheaply I should add! Top place to stay, the staff are so friendly and helpful, probably why we ended up staying so long.

Having spent more time then planned in Chiang mai, we considered the option of going north to Laos, but opted to go south through the historic towns of Sukhothai and Ayuthaya. These were quite similar places both with some extraordinary ruins, from the Rama period. Sukhothai was slightly better preserved and easier and cheaper to see, but I'd recommend them both, as a stop of between north and south Thailand, neither need more than a day to see really though. Lots of stupas and giant slim Buddha's to be seen, bicycle is a good cheap way of getting around, although hot and sweaty - but that can't really be avoided!