Hey Again!!

So we arrived in Chiang Mai after a very long bus journey!! It was quite an old bus that had clearly crashed a few times!! There was only 4 of us so we all spread out, they played 2 movies then everyone tried to sleep, i managed a kip here and there but mike didnt really sleep. We both needed the loo which was an experience to say the least, lol. Lighting up this small cupboard with my phone light whilst hanging on tryin to pee!! (Good job we didnt need a number 2, as the bucket and sponge provided looked like it had been used many a time before, nice!!)

So once we arrived we were put into an open top truck and driven about 15 mins to a hostel, as me and mike were so tired as it was 6am, we stayed here and got a few hours kip. We then got up at about lunchtime and went for a very long walk around Chiang Mai and the city, it is very different from Bangkok, more fresh air and less pollution although there is still so much traffic. And after being down Khao Sahn Road with so many other travellers, in bars drinking and chatting, it wasnt what we expected. We walked around the Warorot Market which is massive and sells so much random stuff, but it was so hot and stuffy. We are loving the food here tho, all fresh noodles and rice with so many different flavours and so so cheap.

We came back to our hostel and showered then headed back out and walked to the walls of the old city and mun muang Road which was much busier at night and more like Khoa San Road so was better, we had a good night.

CHANGE OF AUTHOR

It seemed strange here as so many people rave about chang mai but i just couldnt see it myself. We've realised that travellers dont really come for chang mai, they come to do excursions outside of the city. Through the day it is very quiet, but on a night it does pick up if your in the right place.

We were booked on to a Thai Cooking course tonight but turns out we were the only 2 doing, little boring so we actually came back to our hostel, from this we've learnt that when booking activities it is important to check numbers on the course.

Earlier we went to a pool to cool down, was so good. the company there was a lttle strange though as it was full of single white guys only looking for thai b****es, even when amy got naked they didnt bat an eye lid!

So tonight i'm going to trade amy in at the night market and buy an elephant! hoping to buy some vests at the market, i know........................GAY! but wearing a tshirt here is like wearng a coat.

Right we're off for tea, full meal for about 2 quid.

will update again after we've been to see the elephants and had a bare chested wrestle with a tiger!

April 4th 2009

On Friday night we went to the night market, its amazing, so many stalls and it goes on forever! It sells so much diff stuff and some very random things, lol, its all lit up by fairy lights and looks really nice. Me and mike wandered round all the stalls for a while, Mike bought some board shirts and i got a couple of braclets. We ate from a tiny stall for 25 baht each, so 50p, was really nice but very spicy!! We then sat and watched some live music while having some beers, and they randomly sang 'puff the magic dragon' haha, i found it very amusing due to the fact i was already drunk on one beer and i swear it was a song i use to listen to as a kid!?

We got up early doors on saturday as had to meet downstairs at 8 for our lift for the day we were with 3 guys from bristol and another 2 others from london. Our first stop was the butterfly orchid, was very pretty but only saw about 3 butterflys so not too impressive, lol. After this we headed to the elephant park, this was AMAZING!! There were about 10 of them, alot chained to trees which is very sad and one little one just there rocking, which to be honest if i were chained to a tree think i would lose it slightly! We first took a ride on the elephants, mine and mikes was very well behaved and did as told, but our seat had no bar on to stop us from falling out and we went down some studpidly steep hills and right along the edges of really steep drops so was laughing nervously the whole way round! We went through a river a few times but managed to stay clear of the water! After this, we went on a bamboo raft down the river for about 5k, it was very relaxing and good to chill in the sun for a while, mike had a go and punting and luckily didnt fall in, the water had elephant dung and all sorts in! We then headed back to camp for a buffet lunch, it was really nice thai food again, rice, noodles, spring rolls etc. After lunch we randomly got an ox kart ride for like 5 mins up the road to a tribe, the most random thing we have done since being here but it was all amusing. We ended up at a lush waterfall, fresh springs water. We jumped straight in after being so hot all day, it was so nice. We have taken loads of pics from today, so hopefully they have all uploaded for you guys to see.

Mike's Final thought - Hi Folks. The water fall was amazing like ames said, it was tough getting good pics here due to some chubby hairy foreign woman thinking she was on Americas Next Top Model, it was painful to watch shamui pulling these attempts of sexy poses in the water fall. Me on the otherhand was like Peter Andre in his Mysterious Girl video (see pics!).

Last night we went back to the night market to buy mike his THIRD pair of sunglasses as he has managed to leave 2 pairs in 5 days and forget to pick them up!! This is why Amy carrys the passports and money!!! On our way back after 2 days of trying to use our phone card, we realised we were putting the card in the wrong way up, lol. We ended back to our hostel and played our usual games (word assocation guys, nothing rude!) before going to sleep!

April 5th 2009

We had a nice lye in again today as still not got a great sleep pattern and the sun is so tiring! We re-packed our backpacks, and have already thrown a fair bit away so they are slightly lighter, although i struggle to even get it on me! We grabbed some food then went to the Tiger Kingdom. We paid 320 baht each to spend 15 mins in a cage with 4 big tigers where we were allowed to take loads of pics and sit near then and stroke them etc. They have to be pretty drugged up tho as they were all really sleepy and didnt move much, the inclosures were all pretty small too but was an awesom experience to be so close to them.

We are now waiting to get on our 1 of 2 11hr coach trips down south, we stop in Bangkok for the day so will upload our pics from Chiang Mai then while we wait for our second coach!!

Hope everyone is good. xxx