Wow, so much has happened since my last post. We've had a bit of a whirlwind sightseeing tour of Thailand and we've arrived today in Chiang Mai where we're planning to spend Roxy's last week in Thailand (well, sort of, we're planning on doing a 3 day trek from Chiang Mai into the surrounding highlands, so we're not technically spending the whole time here).

We were absolutely shattered after the first night in Krabi and decided to head down to the night market for some food before calling it a night. We tried some wierd dish called Hoy Thawt, which is basically mussels fried in pancake batter, all mushed up and served with bean sprouts. It's very greasy and very yummy. The next day we went on our tour of Ao Phang-nga including the Jame Bond Island. When we docked on the small island it was absolutely swarming with tourists and tacky stalls, there were some points where you almost had to fight for a place where you could keep your feet dry! It was a pretty spectacular view though. On the way back, our longtail boat drove us though a cave called Lom Tod, where there were some really odd looking stalagmites and stalagtites. And then we went for lunch at a floating fishing viallage that was attached to the island of Koh Panyee. It was really nice there, they had a hairdressers, a school and even a big mosque built on the panelled decking, even though at some points you felt like you could easily fall through. Finally, after wandering the streets of the village and being invited to look at one woman's home, our boat left to take us to dry land and the golden cave temple. I think the animals here were almost a bigger attraction than the temple itself as there were hundreds of bats inside the cave and even more monkeys outside. Roxy decided to get some peanuts to feed them, but the monkeys had other ideas about feeding themselves and climbed up her legs to grab the bag off her.

The next day we met up with one of the other girls we'd been teaching with, Kirsty, and went to where she was staying on Railey beach. It was absolutely stunning. Although very very pricey for rooms, food and drinks, so I'm quite glad we were staying in our cheap but cute place in Krabi town. We stayed at the beach all day, wondering down to Princess beach to see the cave there and also a camera crew (but we couldn't see anybody famous). Finally we watched the sunset before getting a longboat back over to Krabi and spending the rest of the evening 'The Old West' bar in the town centre, playing connect 4 with the locals.

The next day was mostly spent milling around Krabi town until we had to go and catch the overnight bu to Bangkok. The journey went ok, although it was really hard to sleep on the speeding bus as it kept breaking unexpectedly. Which meant we were absolutely shattered by the time we arrived in Kanchanaburi (after swapping buses in Bangkok). We managed to find a really cheap place to stay there though, called the Jolly Frog and it really wasn't bad for the money (150 baht a night for a double room - about 1 pound 50 each per night!). The food there was really cheap and nice and once we dumped out bags, we decided to ask about a trip to the tiger temple in the area that afternoon. When we'd booked it all up, the man arranging the trips asked us what we were going to be doing the next day (clearly trying to sell us another trip) and when we said we were going to hire pedal cycles and explore around the bridge and museums he offered to give us a free lift to the bridge there and then so we could do it all that morning. The bridge itself was a bit boring and ugly (which was to be expected) but what was quite unexpected was the scenery around it and how nice Kanchanaburi actually was.

The tiger temple in the afternoon was quite an experience also. We'd heard mixed reviews of the place, rumours that the tigers were drugged, treated badly, the monks used all the money to buy excesses they aren;t supposed to have blah blah blah, but it actually wasn't too bad. You went in through the wildlife park and got to see deer, wild boar, cows and horses walking around freely before going down to 'Tiger canyon'. Here there were loads of tigers, all on longish chains, and you were taken by the hand by one of the volunteers at the temple and led to each tiger, whilst another volunteer had your camera to take pictures for you. It was all rather rushed and hurried, but you could go round as many times as you wanted, so the second time we were able to take it all in a bit more and realise we were actually touching a tiger. The tigers themselves didn't seem like the were drugged or anything, just used to being heavily petted all day everyday. In the taxi back, we got talking to a couple of danish girls and it came about that they had been staying on the resort next to ours for a week on Koh Phangan when we were there! It was all very coincidental (but it gets even stranger later on...)

The next morning we got up nice and early to go to the floating market. We were driven round in a motorised boat and there were loads of sellers floating on their own boats or on stalls at the side of the canals. It was really cool, although again very touristy. We didn't buy much as the prices were pretty high compared to what you'd pay on dry land! Once we got back to Kanchanburi, we decided to explore the other sights we had missed the previous day, and went to the Thai-Burma Railway musuem. This was actually really good, and gave us a lot of background info on the death railway and the bridge (something that was lacking somewhat the day before!). Then we walked round one of the allied soldiers cemetaries that had many of the POW who died building the death railway buried there. In the evening, we ended up having dinner on one of the floating restaurants along the river. When we walked in we thought it was going to be amazingly expensive, it was all silver service and had live music and an ideal view of the river. But it was actually very very reasonable and we were the only 'farang' in there, so it was nice to eat like a local for a change rather than just at the resort resturants.

The next day, we had a leisurely morning before checking out at midday to catch the bus to Bangkok. When we were sitting there eating breakfast, waiting for the bus to turn up we had a surprise guest at our table...Erng, one of the ladies looking after us on Koh Phangan. It was very wierd, we knew that she had been planning on a holiday, but she'd said probably krabi or Phuket. And she was there staying at the jolly frog and about to head off to the tiger temple.

Once we caught our bus to Khao San Road, and managed to find ourselves a semi-decent place to stay, we decided to head out to the cinema at the huge, posh shopping centre called the Siam Paragon. The cinema here was immense, you really can't describe how huge and grand it was. We watched 'The Reader' (after lots of horror movie adverts and having to stand for the national anthem at the beginning). Then we decided to go for a few drinks along Khoa San Road. After watching an accoustic set in a roof top bar, we decided to move on to our favourite irish bar from when we were in Bangkok before, when who should we bump into but the Danish girls from Kanchanaburi. They'd also spent the day exploring the Paragon centre. After a nice night out, we got ourselves a snack on Phad Thai and went back to our room with the hot shower but saggy mattresses to sleep off some of the alcohol.

Next day we speant the morning exploring Chinatown, despite warnings that today wasn't the best day to visit because many of the stalls wouldn't be up. It was still absolutely heaving down there, and there was plenty to explore and look at, mostly wholesale boxes of keyrings and shoes. For lunch, we'd heard about a restaurant called 'Cabbages and Condoms' that was supposed to serve really nice food in aid of raising money for promoting safe sex and HIV awareness in rural Thailand. After an epic tuk tuk ride, we eventually managed to find the place and it was worth the effort. The decor was mostly made from condoms, although it was actually rather tastefully done, with colourful lamps and 'condom blossoms' and boquets. After dinner they gave you a condom instead of an after dinner mint. Very odd but the food was really tasty!

After that, we just about had time to browse the stalls down khao san road and get supplies for another mammouth bus journey overnight. This time to Chiang Mai. I found it much easier to sleep on this trip and we arrived early-ish this morning. We're now waiting to check into our cheap room at Julie's Guesthouse before sorting out and booking our trek for a couple of days time.

Missing you all at home xxxxxxx