I woke up early so that I didn't miss the girls before they left. I waved them off at the door then headed back to my room. I sat on my bed in silence and thought for a second. I suddenly had a moment of realisation... I was all alone! I felt a bit sad, what was I going to do! I sat and thought about it for a while then pulled myself together and told myself, I'm only in Chiang Mai for three days, just get ready and get out. So I did! First I had to get some more money out from the nearest ATM but the receptionist told me it was quite a walk away. She offered to take me to the nearest one on the back of her moped which was really nice. I hadn't been on the back of one as I had been too nervous to trust anyone else's driving, but I figured she probably drove it everyday so would be a competent moped driver, and I was right. After paying for three more nights stay at the hostel and arranging a day with the elephants the following day, I walked towards the main city which took me 25 minutes. The sun was beaming down but there was also a nice breeze which is something we haven't experienced before in Asia. It's usually very humid and sticky. The sun and breeze actually reminded me a bit of a summers day at home in the UK. Just walking around, I got a positive vibe from Chiang Mai, there was still a lot of Thai culture in the quieter streets that tourism hadn't had an effect on which was refreshing to see, however there was not a lot to do there so I looked on my map for the busy streets. I stopped and asked an old man for directions and he told me I'd be better off getting a taxi as it was too far away! He flagged a taxi down for me and told the guy to take me to Maya Mall as that was a busy area for tourists. The taxi driver said it would be 150 baht. The old man looked outraged and said in broken Thai/English that it should only be 80 baht. The old man really fought my corner which was really cute as he didn't know me from Adam but perhaps felt for me as I was on my own. The taxi driver wouldn't back down so I had no choice and thanked the old man for helping me. I grabbed a cup of tea with a croissant in a macaroon shop in the mall. The mall was amazing! It was really fancy for what I'd seen so far in Thailand. I heard my first Christmas song which was quite a poignant moment for me. It was sunny outside which was a tad weird though.
I had seen an advertisement for a shooting range somewhere in Chiang Mai. It was something I'd always wanted to do so thought I'd just do it! What else was I going to do. I grabbed a taxi and asked him to take me there. The guy didn't speak a word of English and I obviously don't know any Thai so we resorted to sign language. I made my hand like a gun and pretended to shoot it in the air which he understood so started driving. I was starting to get a little worried when he drove me out of the main city and down a beaten up dirt track towards a run down house at the end. This could be interesting! A little old woman came out and ushered me in. I tried to tell them I didn't have a licence to which they looked at me blankly, threw a book my way and opened it to reveal hundreds of different types of guns. I assumed at that point that no licence was actually needed... Righto! I chose a James Bond type gun and they walked me out to the range. It suddenly dawned on me that this wasn't a tourist range but that everyone were locals, and they were staring straight at me! One of the men showed me how to load it with real bullets and put a target up for me. I was literally shaking at this point! My hands were sweating and I was so nervous to even shoot it. I couldn't believe I was holding a real gun, it just felt like I had so much power but I didn't really like it in all honesty. I shot the first bullet and missed the target completely with grass flying everywhere. The recoil was just insane, and actually quite tough to handle. As a whole though, I had the most amazing experience and managed to get one bullet near bullseye! The taxi driver waited for me the entire time and filmed me on my GoPro. After, I asked him to take me back to the mall but he ended up taking me to a different one called Central World, which was actually tens time bigger and better. I bought myself a headstrap for my GoPro for £20 and a cup of tea. My hair was looking just terrible as the blonde on my ends had gone green from the sun and water. I went into a salon called 'Cut an Curl' and they died it dark with a little guidance from my sis who is an amazing hair colourist. They just didn't know what to do with it so I FaceTimed her and she gave them a procedure of how to do it. By the time they had finished, it looked amazing so she did good! On my way out to head back to the hostel, I saw a supermarket called Central Food Hall. I went in to have a little look and was blown away. They had proper food! Brands from all over the world were imported here and sold, brands I haven't seen for weeks! They even had a deli bar! I just hadn't seen anything like this in Asia at all, and I've missed it loads. I looked around the supermarket for a good 45 minutes, just in ore! After I got a tuk tuk back to the hostel and got ready for bed. Just as I was about to sleep, a friend I met on a skiing holiday in February called Crystal text me to say she was in Pai which was literally a drive away from Chiang Mai! Turns out I missed her by a few days! I was gutted as it would have been great to meet up. I had lots planned the following two days so hit the sack.