Our border crossing into Tailand was the most painless yet. We simply went to the office on the riverside in Laos to be stamped out, and for the first time we did not have to pay a fee/tip. We then took a very small, thin boat for about 5 minutes across the Mekong River over to Thailand, where we went to another little office to be stamped into Thailand, which again cost us nothing. We then had a very comfortable 5 hour mini bus ride to Chiang Mai.

We decided to stay in Chiang Mai for the next 5 days, as we were ready to relax a little and did not want any more bus journeys and unpacking and packing again! So, we checked into a nice hotel with a swimming pool and spent much time in it.

We spent some of our days exploring the city and booked a few activities for other days. In the city we went walking and saw many temples (Chiang Mai has the most temples in Thailand, so there's one on nearly every corner) and we saw the oldest temple in the city which has lots of stone sculpted elephants around the stupa. We also went to some markets, including the night market. This was great, as it's much cheaper in northern Thailand than it was in the south, and sellers are willing to haggle, so we bought a few things. There was also some traditional dancing at the market so we watched that for a while. There were several shops selling guitars, so Graham bought a black one with a black leather case for just over 40.00GBP. So, now I'm going to hear London Bridge is Falling Down every night, as it's the only thing he can play at the moment!

The first activity we booked to do was white water rafting. There were 6 of us. We were in a raft with a Scottish/Irish couple and there was an American father/ daughter in the other raft. The water level was quite low, but we still had fun racing the 2 rafts and trying to soak each other. There were a few tense moments when we spun around and went down rapids backwards, but we all amnaged to stay in the raft. The other group however, did not a s the American guy fell overboard. It then took quite a while for the tiny Thai guide to pull him in, as he was quite a big guy! We also git to see lots of elephants on the way, including some calfs, as the Americans had paid extra to do an elephant ride.

Oue next activity was Zorbing at the Xtreme Sports Centre. We each had a go at being strapped into a giant hamster ball and being rolled 100 metres do9wn a hill into a lake. We then unstrapped ourselves and ran like a hamster inside the ball. This proved to be quite difficult and exhausting, particularly as it was like a greenhouse inside. Graham was much more successful at this than I was, but his Zorb ball turned on its side so he ended up in the water! We thought about doing some other activities there, but thought we should save some things for the rest of our travels.

The final thing we did was to go and see the Muay Thai boxing (like kick boxing) on our last night. We booked VIP ringside tickets, so we had a fantastic view. There were 7 matches, starting with kids, then an International ladies fight between a Thai and a Dane (the Thai won). Each match lasted 5 rounds but one match was less than a minute as the guy forfitted.

The last 3 matches were mens international: Thai versus Israeli (Thai won) and Thai versus Dane (Dane won). Both these matches were close and there were several times when they ended up falling out of the ring. The last match had a big cash prize and I think a lot of people had bets on it as the crowd got very excited.

The best match however was Match 5 the Special Match. They brought on 3 fighters and blind folded them. The ref tried to guide/push them towards each other but he ended up getting in the way and getting hit a lot! This was hilarious and much better than the serious fights!

Maggie x