The bus dropped me off in Chiang Mai, having no idea where we were, or where to go as my phone had run out of battery, so I could not get hold of Hannah and the rest of the girls. I tagged along with three French people, one of whom had a charger, so I was able to find out where to go. I got to the hostel, with the girls getting ready for a trip with some Elephants, which involved riding them and cleaning then, in process getting very dirty. I however was in no state to do this, so just slept until twelve and not really leaving the room.

This would be the same the next day, with my illness meaning the girls would doing a Thai cooking course without me. It wasn't all bad though because i was able to do it the next day, so packed full of Imodium, I cooked food packed equally full of chili. You were allowed to pick five dishes, and stir fry: which I picked chicken a cashew nuts, an appetizer: papaya salad, a soup: Tom Yum, a curry: Red Thai Curry, and a pudding: Mango and Sticky Rice. To me, Thai food either has to either taste hot, sweet or sour, and they don't seem to trust the natural taste of an ingredient. So whilst I try to eat and taste all the Thai food I can, it's sometimes nice to just take it easy with a burger or a sandwich every so often, or if you're lucky to be on an island paradise like Koh Tao, some grilled fresh fish.

The next day, depending on how I felt, I would either do a two day jungle trek with Eva or head back to Bangkok with Hannah and Katie, to see Katie off. Despite feeling better, and nowhere near as lethargic as before, I decided that if my body wasn't absorbing energy the way it should, a trek probably wouldn't be a good idea. So we said bye to Eva again; hopefully to meet in Vietnam, and got on our night bus to Bangkok.

Katie's flight left the same day we arrived, so spent the day around the Khoasan road, meeting up with Jack and Harry again who just so happen to be getting a flight the same day as Katie. We said our goodbyes, which is rather strange as you'd got used to seeing them every day. I loved travelling with Katie, entertaining me constantly with her ridiculous outbursts of worries, "I'm just going to get off the bus in Bangkok and all my bags are going to get stolen." (They could try steel that bag, but they wouldn't get far as by the end of the trip it weighed 30 bloody kilos), or her hilarious stories, accents and all, about her previous travels, home, or absolutely nothing. It's good to hear she's back at home with everyone: you just hang on in there 'kiddo'.

The day we got a tour of Bangkok, in a tuk-tuk, which are extortionate by the way, but very thrilling also. We went to the Standing Buddha, and two extravagant Marble temples. We wanted to see the grand palace but unfortunately it was closed for the day as it was the day Buddha was born, so religious ceremonies were going on. The tuk-tuk driver then took us to a suit tailor, on part of this tour, (I think we got done a bit here), and they were talking about the suits and what I could get and how much it would cost, and I thought, "why not, a tailor made suit would be very cool!" Anyway I got measured up and went and got the money (190pounds for a tailored jacket and three tailored shirts). I got back into the shop, and there was a very angry French couple. The shop owner whisked me into the backroom, but just before he could close the door the Frenchmen stuck his head in and yelled, "IT"S A SCAM, IT'S A SCAM". The salesmen immediately went quiet and rather timid, and you could say I was a little dubious about the operation. Deciding against the suit, i left the shop with Hannah, rather upset that I wouldn't be getting a suit.

The tuk-tuk driver, who seemed rather keen that I would get a suit, then took us to another tailor, but I was having none of it this time. I wasn't going to get a suit, but looking around there was many more people and the salesman didn't seem so pushy, so I asked Han, "would you get a suit from here, bearing in mind what just happened?" She said yes, and trusting Hans judgment in situations like this, and really wanting a suit, i got a full suit this time with three shirts for 150 pounds. I went to the fitting the next day after going to the giant weekend market I wrote about last blog, and got the suit that night. So in less than 48 hours i had a very well finished, tailored suit! I mailed it home the next day along with some gifts that should be arriving within the next week or two.

On the 29th we got another night bus down to Koh Samui, where we would meet up with Jack and Adam coming from New Zealand. We are currently on Koh Tao at the moment, and Hannah, Adam and I have just started our PADI open water diving course, with Jack already being qualified and doing his own dives. We've just come from Koh Phangan were there was a full moon party, but all this shall be in the next blog. Thank you.