Today would likely be our last in Chiang Mai for the time being, as we would likely head up north to Pai tomorrow. We decided to go ahead with our plan to use the next door hotel pool for sunbathing and a dip. Luckily it was very cheap at 100 baht and so we wasted no time in snagging two of the loungers surrounding the pool. The hotel offered a buffet breakfast which on inspection, looked pretty dire and overpriced. I headed to one of the cheap restaurants for a ...

I woke up at 10am to the fan seemingly on overdrive. Down the road was a noodle bar that I popped into for breakfast whilst Laura was still dosing. I must of been half a sleep but it was eerily quiet on the streets, like a ghost town. I suspected like yesterday everyone was hungover and it would likely kick off again later. I returned to Laura who I welcomed back to the land of the living. We spent the morning chatting, reading our novels and deciding what our ...

We both slept for over 10 hours last night which showed how exhausted we were after the massive water fight yesterday. By the time we rolled out of bed it had gone well past 11am. Our fan was whirling in our room but you could feel the temperature ever increasing. Luckily for as our room window faces north so we never get the full force of the sun shining in. Our first port of call was the cheap restaurant down the road for a spot of brunch! I had the rice soup...

After an indifferent night sleep, mainly due to the room being really stuffy we got ourselves up with a slight hangover. Kratos (our friend from Burma) had emailed and suggested meeting up in town at around 1pm. Laura was feeling groggy but I decided to head to the bar we visited last night for some breakfast. I had some rice soup which is perfect for a hangover and I explained to the owners me and Laura were both suffering. During our wait for the 1pm meet up,...

Saturday, the first official day of the Songkran New year celebrations and we were guaranteed carnage! The origins of this so called 'water festival' have much more calm and traditional roots. It was originally about people offering their respects to Buddha and their elders then washing the buddhas with water to cleanse themselves from sins. In present day Thailand however this has now turned into one massive water fight with Bangkok and Chiang Mai being the epic...