Last day in Hanoi we slept in the movie room in the hostel and watched some films before going for a wander and trying to find Lydia this red Vietnam t-shirt she wanted so it was not a busy day which was quite nice, its nice to have decent weather again! Then first thing the next morning we got a transfer to the airport to fly to Bangkok where I bought my baby! Shes a pink sony cybershot tx5 and i love her! Shes waterproof, shockproof, dustproof, temperature proof, in short ME PROOF! Now I just have to make sure she doesn't get pinched! But so far so good, we arrived in Chiang Mai and headed to a hostel that Jo from our last tour had recommended called SpicyThai, it was awesome! Best place we've stayed in so far! It's set a bit out the town but its still walkable and taxi's are dead cheap to get around. But that 1st night all we did was go get food cus we were knackered from so many early mornings, and the next day was the derby match and Halloween! Again, our first real day in Chiang Mai, me and Lyd just sort of pottered around the town, booked this elephant day for Tuesday and this jungle zip wire thing called Flight of the Gibbon for Monday. There's so much we want to do in CM, we just wish we'd come here straight away and not bothered with miserable Sapa. It's so sunny here not a spot of rain! While we were wandering the town though we met a couple of oddjobs.. we think they were just being friendly but it was just a bit strange to be invited on a day out for free witha total stranger who was showing us the pictures of his family and said he was on holiday.. blah blah.. but when we said no he was still really helpful about where to book stuff etc. Then there was some guy who tried to make a bet with us about the Newcastle match.. not sure why or how hw thought that was going to work but never mind. At 5 we were back at the hostel for a history of Chiang Mai that Pong had organised, before we went to the Sunday market and ate some street food for dinner, it was actually really good! I know.. aren't I getting brave! We were back in time for the Newcastle - Sunderland match.. poor Lydia, shes handled it well though even if she had to watch it with 3 geordies and then got jipped for the rest of the night! People made costumes out of random stuff (not me.. but I did have a cat on my cheek which is kinda.. sort of making an effort), it was a really good night out, some of the photos had no explanation though but at least we managed to fit all 15 or so people in Pong's truck thing without anyone falling out! That was an experience! And it wasn't fun the next morning when me and Lyds had to get up to go to Flight of the Gibbon. It s zip wire type thing in the trees in the hills near Chiang Mai, I think it would've been better if I hadn't felt so rough! Zip wires and hangover don't mix that well. Tuesday was another early one, off to the Patara elephant farm, totally awesome day and I would totally recommend it to anyone. You get given your own elephant to look after for the day (can't remember my ones name but it was a 35 year old girl one) and you basically feed them, clean them, and wash them. Then you ride them to waterfalls and can swim with a few, my toe had a bit of a close shave with and elephants foot but still managed to get it out of the way in time! Also in the afternoon you go and see baby elephants, the whole day is a bit on the pricey side but I'm only going to be here once and it was a great day, totally worth it! In the evening everyone from the hostel went bowling, its so much cheaper than at home, it worked out at less than £1 a game each, and for a couple of games I actually got good! 168.. I thought that was a pretty sweet score! Still didnt win though, but it seemed to work out at the more beer I drank the better I got at bowling.
Wednesday was my last day in Chiang Mai and Lydias last day in Thailand.. I booked flights first thing from Bangkok to Samui.. BIG mistake.. but I learnt to ALWAYS check the weather before booking. Turns out the airport in Samui closed 30 mins after I booked my flight because of rain and floods! What a stupid thing to do, but hopefully I've now learnt my lesson! Anyway before we left in the afternoon, we went to Tiger Kingdom where you go in with tigers.. there's smallest, small, medium and large. Me and Lyd did the smallest baby cubs and the largest. I didnt find it half as scary as I thought I would. The baby ones are just like big kittens really playful and bouncy.. until they got sleepy. But they're just so cute and only 6 weeks old! The bigger ones probably would have been scarier if they had been walking around but we had just seen them swimming and they were sleepy to when we got in, I don' thtink they were drugged though but they're really beautiful creatures, you're just not allowed to touch their heads or approach them from the front in case they think you want to play!! Another thing totally worth doing! I could easily have spent another week in Chiang Mai, and I should never have booked those flight to Samui!
Once I left Lyd at Bangkok airport I flew to Samui.. only to arrive in rain at 11.30pm, where the airport lady said I couldn't get to the hostel I'd booked becasue it was flooded and taxis couldn't get through. Then once I got to Chaweng, we were told to just find somewhere to stay. Luckily there were quite a few people in the same situation and I ended up sharing a room with this random woman who was there for a detox hotel that she couldn't get to. She was nice though and at least I got to stay somewhere nice for a night! The first thing next morning I looked at getting a flight out, but the stupid airline wouldn't let me book so close to departure so I had to stay another night in flooded Samui. At least it wasn't raining and I managed to sit on the beach for a while, its still quite warm everywhere even though its all overcast and cloudy! I managed to find another hostel down the road.. except they were out of running water and no electricity so they were closed. I was not a happy bunny in Samui and just ended upmoving over the road into a cheapish hotel. Now I learnt another valuable lesson.. ALWAYS see the room before you pay! Stupid ant things and just it just looked like prison cell. Not nice! So I spent the afternoon in an internet cafe before braving the night in the prison. I was so happy to get to the airport especially when they had free danish pastries! And so I flew to Krabi to meet Jo.