Ancient Chiang Mai the cultural capital of the north was once the capital of the Lanna Kingdom. The food, traditional clothing and Wats are different from central and southern Thailand. Surrounded by mountains, it is for many the gateway to the north.

Having checked into the rather nice Decharme Hotel we wonder around the local vicinity to get our bearings. Although a large city it's buildings are on a much smaller scale than Bangkok, the air is clean, and at this time of year the temperature is comfortable.
Having visited Chiang Mai before and wanting some R&R we visit a few famous Wats, have a few 'doing a kirstin's' and relax by the pool.
While visiting one of the main Wats we see a sign saying 'chat with a monk', on enquiring, we are told that this is a two way opportunity; us to learn about their daily lives and them to practice their English. We decide to participate and are surprised when our chosen monk wants to talk about his favourite football team - Liverpool. After talking about players and transfers we manage to ask him a bit about his daily life as a monk and where he is from. On hearing he is from a Karen village we explain we have just returned from a 3 day trek. On leaving we delight him by saying Tab Bleu.

Having had interrupted sleep (train noise and farmyard animals) we look forward to a blissful nights slumber. However, this was not to be the case as on the first night the aircon made such a racket keeping us awake for most of the night that we changed rooms the next morning. The following night we hit the sack early (after testing the aircon - fine), as we have an early flight to Krabi changing planes at Bangkok. 2 am we are awoken by very loud and excited Asian guests checking into their rooms - are we ever going to get a good night kip??????????????? Managing to get back to sleep we are woken by the 4.45am alarm.

Since the beginning of this trip up until now we have slept in a different place every night, 8 nights in total, be it transport, guesthouse, hotel or hill tribe. We are REALLY looking forward to the next part of the holiday as we shall be staying on a small island off the coast of Krabi called Ko Yao Noi for 5 NIGHTS!!!!!.