Hi everyone You're lucky, another blog entry already!! We're now in Chang Mai in northern Thailand, only one hours' flight from Bangkok. The alternative was a 12 hour train journey or 10 hours on the bus! Neither of these really appealed! Chang Mai is just as hot as Bangkok but a lot less crazy! We're staying in a very nice guesthouse - Mountain View - centrally located. We get around by tuk tuk or Songthaew. Eating, travelling and accommodation costs are very low which is very helpful at this stage of our trip!

On Friday we took a barge down the Mae Ping River where apparently they have many snakes! Thankfully for Chris we didn't see any! We stopped off at a herb garden and were given lemongrass juice which was decidedly questionable in taste! The watermelon however was very gratefully received!

Yesterday we had a fab day - an early start for us! We went to Maesa Elephant Camp, about 45 minutes out of Chang Mai into the countryside. We got to see elephant bath time and then a great show including the elephants playing football (they can really kick - one ball nearly got us in the crowd!), painting and dancing! We then went on an elephant ride which was a great experience. Our elephant, Maynoy was 2 months pregnant! Hopefully we'll get some pictures up soon.

We also visited Tiger Kingdom and had a relaxing lunch watching the tigers play in and around the pool. Afterwards we went to an orchid farm where Kate got a bit excited with the camera - there were so many shapes, sizes and colours of beautiful orchids.

We've made several visits to the night bazaar and street markets where you can buy loads of local products, Thai silk, wooden carvings, clothes etc.

As you'd expect we've tried lots of different foods - burgers are harder to come by! One night we had giant King Prawns and Lobster in garlic for a treat - amazing!!!!! Kate tried the traditional dish Pad Thai and was defeated by the amount - Chris gave a helping hand! We've both had hot spicy dishes that have left us gasping for water however we've found that cucumber provides instant relief. We've even been able to satisfy chocolate cravings by finding a shop with Kit Kat Chunky's!

Today we are having a lazier day before our journey on to Phuket in the south. We're looking forward to enjoying some good beaches and swimming before we head home.

Hope you're all well and having good weather!

Lots of love Chris and Kate xxx