Would you like a Thai massage, Miss? One hour? 120Baht? (Erm, yes please!)
Chiang Mai is simply great.

We arrived yesterday morning after our night on the train. The train moves at pretty much walking pace, so it took longer than the bus would have. Still, we got a fairly decent night's sleep and were raring to go when we got here yesterday. We had our first tuk-tuk ride through the streets of Chiang Mai to our hostel, Finlay's Cottage, just east of the old city. We went to get breakfast at an expat cafe and then checked in. Unfortunately, the weather was very un-Thai and it was cold and raining (which is continued to do all flipping day) so exploring the city was a little difficult. Howie wanted to do some work, so I decided to explore on my own. I didn't get very far to be honest, because after we'd sat in the lovliest cafe having delicious Thai food for lunch, I wasn't too keen on going out in the rain again. I did wander to a few temples and saw the monks and novices working in the temple grounds, which was great. Then, I gave up and went to have a Thai massage.

The place I went to, as it turns out, is part of a scheme run by a local lady for the women inmates of Chaing Mai prision. The ladies are helped to break their circle of crime by training to become massage therapists. You can get a massage done in the prison, but the place I went to employed the women after they had been released. It was a fantastic place, with lots of treatment rooms and I got a special cotton outfit to wear for my massage. I was in a big room with about 7 beds in, and there were other people in there having massages as well. I opted for a traditional Thai massage, which focusses on bending and stretching, rather than rubbing with oil. The best bit was when the lady sat behind me, pulled my arms around my neck, and twisted my spine round backwards. What with the cracks that came out of my back, it sounded like someone was tap dancing (my massage lady found it very funny). Afterwards, my back felt better than it has in months.

I met Howie then and we went to have a foot massage (well, it costs about 3 quid an hour, so it seems silly not to make the most of it). We ended up in someone's house having foot massages, and while they were excellent and cheaper than the place I went to before, it wasn't as slick an operation. The woman rubbing my feet kept burping, and the man rubbing Howie's answered his phone halfway through and carried on massaging Howie with one hand. No complaints though... After another delicious dinner at Peppermint Cafe, which really is quite something, we got back to the room and I was asleep by 9pm. Whether it was the two massages that did it, I don't know, but I slept and slept.

Today the weather has cleared up and it looks to be warm and sunny. We're planning on seeing some temples and going to the Night Bazaar tonight, which comes highly recommended by some people we met in our hostel.