Chiang Mai, well, we ended up staying at Julei's Guest house, which luckly enough eneded up being the place to be :oD Rosie who we met in Bangkok had arrived there a few days before us so once we got there we easily made a whole bunch of friends. As yep you guessed it, drinking, drinking, DRUNK!!! Ha ha Love it! Chiang Mai is a pretty cool place, very different from the south, people seem nicer and not just after your money.

Luckly the guys we met at the guest house already knew their way around pretty well, which was great as the road system in and around Chiang Mai was a nightmare to figure out. We rented bikes again and headed off up into the hills where a saw the beautiful Temple on the hill and even further up parks and waterfalls. The weather turned pretty suddenly whilst we were out and we all ended up getting split up and waiting in diff places for nearly an hour for the rain to stop, oh god did it rain! Was brilliant to see but didnt make driving back down the hill very save....cooper might have had a slight insident with the brakes and a bend but he was fine.... i promise!

On our 3rd night in Chiang Mai we all headed out to the Thaphae Boxing Stadium, which was just a short walk for the hostel, 'VIP' tickets apparently not that it looked like our seats were any different from anyone elses :o) 400B though so not too bad. Ended up being a pretty funny night, Muay Thai to the front (which looked pretty hard core) lady boy bar to the back where we were treated to a lovely camp cabaret show 'YMCA' he he! Gotta love Thailand, add to that a few late night Tuk-Tuk spins from Club A) to B) to What time is it? You get the picture :oD

The hostel was pretty nice, it had a fab communual area and the staff were pretty friendly. There was one catch though, if you stayed there more than 3 nights and didnt booked a tour through the hostel they would fake a full house and ask you to leave.... ah ha, thats why the rooms are so cheap.... because the tours are SO expensive! Screw them, we managed to get the Gibbon experience for 8 of us about 400B cheaper at the tour office down the road.

The Gibbon Experience; High trees, Zip lines, Monkey Swings and Ab-sailing.... pretty cool, if your a monkey! Na, it was a pretty cool day, food included felt sorry for the one guy in the group who wasnt with us though he probebly didnt know what had hit him when he realsied we all knew each other.

On the Sunday before Songkran, after a pretty heavy night out (yes, drinking again) me, Maartje and Brian went on a day long cooking course.... note to self cooking food all day that you get to eat is too much! Only go on a 1/2 day course, your stuffed after lunch :oD Well, me and Maartje stayed the whole day, Brian had to bail before we had even finished the 1/2 day, something to do with a hang over i believe :oD We thought Songkran (Thai New Year) didnt start until the 13th but, well lets just say we got a little more that we were expecting on thew walk home!!

Water fight anyone?!? Chiang Mai is knows for holding the biggest Songkran Celebrations. Usually a 3 day festival in Chiang Mai its lasts for more like 5-6 days. Its was great fun! most bars, restaurants and cafes have big barrels of water or hose's where everyone or anyone can fill up thier water gun and buckets. The streets are lined with cars and trucks cruzing around with water barrels in the back and everyone generally gets very wet until sunset when the drinking continues :oD No body's save, not even the police! its was great fun but to be honest by the last day (or what we thought was the last day) we were all a little bit over it. We didnt even manage to keep dry a the zoo! Wore my poncho in the tuk-tuk all the way there, got into the Zoo, thought i was save and then got soaked by the staff once we were in there!!

Chiang Mai is a fab city, and im loving Northern Thailand but we've been here for 10days and i cant wait to get up to Pai! Heard great things and Frank (who we met in Bangkok) is up there so will be fab to meet everyone he knows. The Trio has fallen to Two as Kat has decided to give Pai a miss and is heading into Laos with Rosie and her friend, so its just Me, Coop and 5 of the crew from Chiang Mai.