It's been a while since my last update so thought I was due one (warning - this may go on for some time)

Thailand is a totally different kettle of fish to India, was thinking about skipping Thailand in the fear that it would be too much like India. Thankfully it's totally different, on arrival at the airport I was amazed by how clean and new the airport was, in stark contrast to what I experienced in India.

Everywhere you go it's generally clean and tidy, and the food stalls selling the street food are clean and don't look like they will give you a bit of the Delhi belly! Initially I was a bit mis-trusting of people though I think that was my bad. It's wrong of me to compare Indian to Thailand, but as that was my last country I can't help it! The Taxi's here actually use meters! So no more haggling with bloody scamming taxi drivers! On my first full day here I was offered a tour by Tuc-Tuc of some of the sights for 20B (less than 50p) this was a common scam in India where before you got to see any sights you would have to go into 5 shops so the driver gets some commission. I was very sceptable of this, though it appears that the government will give the drivers extra fuel if they do this and it helps to promote positive tourism.

The people are so friendly and happy all the time, it makes it so fun out here.

I can't remember all the temples that I visited in Bangkok, and missed out on some of the good sites.

Bangkok was mainly spent partying! Though I had a great time partying after the first day of sightseeing, was great, great fun but the after effects of to many buckets of booze was not great! Really i slept most of the day and partied all night! Though would not change anything about this period.

The food is absolutely amazing out here, I'm so enjoying it, and its so cheap :-) The street food is probably the best I've ever tasted and sooo cheap.

Whilst in Bangkok I booked a tour to head north and see some of the sites, though the south and beeches would have been awesome, I think I made the right decision!

Ayuthaya - only spent 1 night here so had to fill the sighseeing in quite quickly. This was the former Siamese capital and world heritage site. The ruins are scattered around the city and are truely amazing (please see the pictures)

From here I headed up to Sukhothai, again the sites in the old city are truely amazing! I was only due to stay here for 1 night before heading off to Chaing-Mai. Though I ended up staying for some of Songkran and glad I did. Every year for Songkran they have a beauty contest and included in this is one for the tourists. The nice Romanian girl I've been travelling around with for a bit was entered, so I stayed an extra few days for some moral support! She finally finished 3rd runner up which was a good feat as some of the ladies were very lovely! The final winner was a really sweet thai/dutch girl from the hotel so was pleased the hotel won for the 2nd consecutive year.

The new year celebrations here were amazing, water fights really take me back to the old days of Purton carnivals and water fights. The only downside was we saw our first piece of violence in Thailand when there was a massive street fight (hammers/bottles the works) but fair play to the local cops they came in and did there job with little violence (not sure English bobbies would have been so tolerant)

Chaing Mai - headed up for the last day of Songkran, again what a great party! Can see myself coming back for this again thats for sure!

Trekking - after little sleep and a big hangover trekking seemed like a bad idea! Though it started off with an elephant ride. Very touristy and over quick quickly, but the animals appeared to be well treated and I could not have lasted much longer as very uncomftable with the safty bar (not built for 6'3 big englishman). The the trekking started, I think the first day was the hardest, and walking in 40C heat is never going to be that much fun! When we finally arrived at camp we were staying in some bamboo huts, and man, i slept well!

The following day started with more trekking (though easier going) and nothings better after a long trek than to cool off in the many waterfalls! Our guide for the day captured a massive spider which we then BBQ'd! I just had to try it, and to be fair it tasted a little bit like smoky chicken (why does everything taste of chicken??). On our lunch stop off (another great waterfall!) our guide got out the rice wine (and enjoyed a loy himself) so we had food, music & rice win - good old days :-)

Though our guide managed to fall over a few times on the way back to our next camp (large communal hut) though we did get to have a camp fire (i like fire...)

The following day was a leisurely trek to the bamboo rafting, and was a great chilled out way to end the trek! Though I had a shock as checked my shoes and had a spider the size of my hand chilling out in there (justice for eating his cousin i think!) after screaming like a girl (not really) the guide sorted it out.

So after Chang-Mai i've headed future north to Chaing-Rai and no up in the mountains to Mae Salong (very chinese and mountains & tea plantations).

From here current plan (subject to change) is to chill out here for a while before heading accross the border into Myanmar (Burma) for around a week (visa restrictions) and then onto Chaing Saen (where Murma, Thailand and Laos meet borders) and then across to Chaing Khong where I can cross over into Laos.

The last couple of weeks have been so great, just what I needed!

Anyway, think I've more than made up for lack of post's recently :-)

Love to everyone back in the UK, enjoy the sun and the long weekends while they last :-)