Hi folks....time for the next installment!

I left you in Hau Hin in Thailand where I spent two nights. I arrived in Hau Hin on the night train from Surat Thani at around midnight.I'd already called ahead and booked a Lonely Planet recommended hotel so took a suong thaew (pick up truck with two wooden benches in the back) to the already closed hotel. The driver was insistent that it was closed and tried to take me somewhere else but after lots of door knocking I roused the owner, paid the driver and she let me in with a smile and showed me to my room. No working shower in the morning so decided to move on to another LP recommended guest house which was very nice and also cheaper! I spent the day exploring but there wasn't much to hold me so decided to move on the next day and head for Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. I visited the night market that evening and had a nice meal right in amongst the action watching the world go by and then headed to a couple of bars. Once again it was really tough to walk into a bar alone and not get set upon by several 'bar girls' offering me allsorts! I know it probably sounds great but after a while the reality is bloody annoying when all you want is a quiet beer or two.Anyway, I found a quiet bar, had a beer and the girl behind the bar challenged me to a game of pool. I accepted fully aware that I'd most likely lose again but it was only for fun I guess! Several frames later and I had indeed been beaten heavily but we'd also been joined by more bar girls. I made my excuses and left around midnight much to the annoyance of the girls in the bar as I think they thought I was easy game!

Up early the next day for the 3 hour bus journey to Bangkok and then I planned to take the night train up to Chiang Mai. The journey to Bangkok was great and very smooth but I was dropped at the opposite side of town to the train station I needed. The heat and humidity was stifling again and I eventually found the bus to the train station after being given a dozen different sets of directions by a dozen different people! Bangkok traffic is horrendous and it took two and a half hours to cross town rendering my plan to have a bite to eat and a relax at the train station useless. I literally stepped off the bus, bought a ticket and stepped straight on the train 15 minutes before my planned departure time. Sadly what I thought was great timing was blown away by a 2 hour delay due to a train crash further up the line!

The two week mark of my trip started with my arrival in Chiang Mai at 9.30am the next day. I got chatting to an English couple on the train and not having anywhere booked, I shared a tuk-tuk to their hotel when we got off the train. They said it came highly recommended and I wasn't to be disappointed. The guest house was spotless and the staff were very friendly so I decided to check in for 3 nights. I settled in and then headed out for a wander to discover that much like the other places I'd visited, everywhere was very quiet with few tourists around. Great in some ways but it's always odd walking in to a bar or restaurant when you're the only customer. The next day was my birthday so I decided to do something a little different and booked up for an elephant training day. I ventured out that evening to see the famous Chiang Mai night market which was certainly very big and bustling but much of the stuff on offer is simply cheap tat or fake designer clothes and shoes so I returned home empty handed. I did see a section of street artists who were painting from photos they'd been given and I must say they were the best drawings/pictures I have ever seen. I had to look really closely to work out if they were hand drawn or actual photos as the quality was amazing!

Up early the next day for elephant training and it turned out to be a brilliant day. There were only two of us on the trip (me and a German girl called Juliane) so we were assured of a little personal attention. The guide asked me where I came from so I answered with the usual 'England.....near London' response. He pushed and asked which city and to my surprise he came back with 'Aaahhhh......the Canaries.....yellow and green......very good team!' He's clearly a little out of touch but it was nice to finally find someone who'd heard of Norwich. The day flew by and we learnt all the commands a real mahout (elephant trainer) would use such as left,right, lay down. leg up. higher and most importantly stop! We then practised with the elephants,fed them and rode them bareback through the valley for about an hour. A brief stop for lunch and we then rode the elephants down to a river where we jumped in with them and scrubbed and washed them. Great fun and the elephants seemed to love it too! Bizarrely we then walked them down to another part of the valley where they had a mud bath and covered themselves in sticky mud. Back to the village for more feeding (these things are eating and shi**ing machines!) and then it was time to take off our very fetching mahout outfits and head home. Juliane and I decided to meet up that evening to swap photos and get some dinner. We had a nice meal and ended up in a lively bar where I was once again thrashed at pool by the locals and also lost heavily at Connect 4 to an 8 year old girl! I put it down to the beer! The evening ended with the whole bar singing me happy birthday led by a local guy with a guitar and a Chinese guy who looked very much like Mr Miyagi from Karate Kid! All in all this was a great birthday and one to remember for many years to come.

Juliane was off to Vietnam the next day to meet a Canadian friend and invited me along. I thought why not and set the wheels in motion to get myself a visa. A normal visa application should take 3-5 days and involve a visit to an embassy but I didn't want to wait that long so the staff at the guest house suggested I ordered it online through a particular website (not sure how legal this was but what the hell!). I hit the site and went for a one working day turnaround for the visa. It took ages to arrange and I headed out that afternoon to view the many temples in Chiang Mai to make sure I didn't waste a whole day in front of a PC. I got chatting to a local at a temple and he offered to drive me around the best ones and take me to a few shopping sites close to town. I knew this would be likely to involve looking at lots more tat but had no other plans so decided to go for it. 3 hours later and I'd seen lots of temples and bought a couple of gifts so it all worked out very well.

Next day saw my visa arrive into my email inbox so I booked my hotel and flights for the next day and started to get excited at the prospect of going to Vietnam. It was made all the better with the knowledge that for the first time I would arrive somewhere knowing that I wouldn't be totally alone from the start. I wandered out to have a look at the China Town area of Chiang Mai and bumped into a local girl as I was crossing the road. Her name was Aoy (pronounced Oi which would be easy to remember!) and the usual suspicion of what her motives were quickly disappeared as it turned out she was the owner of one of the factories that I visited on my taxi ride the day before! She took me around China Town and explained what lots of the bizarre produce on offer was before surprising me even further by suggesting we go for coffee in the mountains. I was still a little dubious and made a joke about her kidnapping me which didn't go down well but we headed into the hills and had coffee at a lovely restaurant and we arranged to meet for dinner that evening. All the time I was thinking this was all very weird but decided to go with it......what's the worst that could happen?

Aoy picked me up and she drove me to the other side of Chiang Mai to a lovely restaurant overlooking the river. She asked if I'd tried Thai food and when I said only very little she ordered a wide selection of dishes that turned out to be fabulous. We had a great meal with Tom Yum soup, snake head fish and lots of weird and wonderful vegetables and fruit. The motive for her kindness started to come out as we took several photos during the meal (at her suggestion) as apparently it would help with any visa application she made to the US or Australia if she could prove she had contacts in those countries. It all started to make sense! Aoy had other things to do so dropped me off home straight after the meal and offered to drive me to the airport the next day.

Aoy was right on time and dropped me at the airport in plenty of time for my flight back to Bangkok where I would then take another flight to Hanoi in Vietnam. After more photos at the airport, I said a very polite goodbye to Aoy and thanked her for her kindness.

Chiang Mai was fabulous and I met some great people around town and at the guest house. Having travelled alone for two weeks I started to realise that I needed to be a little more forward in meeting people and initiating conversation. Chiang Mai was the first place I'd tried my new approach and it made a huge difference to the quality of the time I spent there. Valuable lesson learnt, the next leg of the journey was about to begin........