Day 20

Hopped on a local bus to Ayuthaya today or as they say in Thai 'Ayuthaaaayaaaaa' which used to be Thailands ancient capital and is littered with temple remains from so many years ago. It was pretty cool to be walking through the old ruins and we got to see the famous buddha head which has tree roots grown all around it (photos to follow soon!) we didnt see all the ruins as we are also going to Sukothai further up north which is similar but has many more intact ruins. In the evening we headed to Bangkok train station to make the long journey up to Chiang Mai. Our train was delayed for two hours and when we got on the board suddenly our train in Vietnam seemed like luxury. This train didnt have seperate compartments they just had bunk beds with dirty fans blowing dust about and a little curtain you could draw by your bed..and the best part of all not sure if it was the lady boy wannanbee called 'Fronk' who was the trolley dolley on board or the craploads of cockroaches crawling about, YUCK YUCK YUCK! On the way up there were two monks opposite us and in the morning the waitress (not Fronk!) asked Sven to make their coffee for them as they cant take anything from a women, so Sven made their coffee and some friends! the monks in return gave us each a little token as a gift which was so cute and Sven had made some new friends! I stayed away so as not to brush by them accidently, a big no no in the buddhist monks world apparanty! 15 hours later and 'Fronk' informed us 'the train dont go to Chiang Mai anymore you get off and take bus' so off all us backpackers got and jumped onto a coach for a further 2 hours until eventually arriving in Chiang Mai! Luckily we had met a great couple in Halong Bay, Vietnam (thanks Lizeh and Ryan) and they recommended a great place to stay in Chiang Mai for only 450baht (about £5 pppn) with a swimming pool! yay so we jumped on a tuk tuk and arrived at Thapae guest house and scrubbed up in the shower for agges, felt soo dirty after that train! In the evening we checked out Chiang Mai's night market and bought one or two things (im a sucker but am becoming very good at haggling!) and the pretty things will look nice in our house in SA so all for a good cause!

Day 21

Aaah a good nights sleep in a clean bed what bliss!! and a nice sleep in too! We both needed it! Today we decided was for temple spotting, so we walked around Chiang Mai old town and popped into the major Wats (temples) Today was also the King of Thailands birthday so lots of celebrations happening in Thailand :) outside the one Wat some Thai people had these small birds in cages and so we bought them to let them free for good luck (but mainly because we felt sorry for them!) so the birds were once again free yay! After being watted out we found an amazing smoothie place (they have some great fruits in Thailand) and then headed back to swim at our hotel. Off again in the evening to yet another street market, this time the Sunday walking market and yes once again more haggling for bargains!! hope we can get it all home!