Woke up early this fine morning; about 9ish. Oli, Gavin and I arranged last night to rent some bikes to go on a mooch up to the top of the mountain, poi-something, you can see in the backdrop of the city. I have only ever riden three bikes before and two I have crashed, so I was slightly apprehensive. Well, f*ck apprehension. I rented out a bike, rev and go beauty, and before I knew it I was flying in and out of traffic something reminscent of star wars. We drove...

When I awoke this morning, and the bus had finally stopped, at about 6.00 a.m., everybody was bundled into the back of pick-up trucks for the drive into the city of Chiang Mai. During the drive I caught my first glimpse of Northern Thailand: lush verdant landscape and rudamentary wooden shacks dotted around - paradise. The trees were something I had never seen before, big mushroom like giants, twenty metres across, and tall skinny bonzai-like trees with reapers d...

This is entry for the 16 June - Bangkok Due the late awakening yesterday, I was doing my journal to seven a.m.; proper writer's cramp. I had a hamburger and fries for breakfast (not McDonalds) and at midday headed up to Denin zoo (i think I have the name correct) to see what creatures there were to be seen. I was going to go a bit further afield, but most of the trains out of the city, to decent attractions, left well early in the morning and I had been to l...

Last night was......different. Shortly after writing my last entry I headed out to a recommended bar - Gulliver's Travellers (boll*cks, I know) where I met a load of other travellers. Most of them were from Jersey but they had acquired all sorts of breeds along the way (they had been travelling around India prior to arriving in Bangkok). They were all nutters, so we got along fine. A few bottles of Sam Song (highly potent chemical spirit) later, after the ba...

Mmm, so here it starts.... Well, Yesterday was both a long and short day: Long in the sense of being couped up on planes, flying all day, and short in that my whole day has consisted of only twelve hours (Manchester to Bangkok had taken twelve hours including transfers, but I arrived today at nearly same time i'd taken off [I asked for the time back at the airport, so they gave me a receipt to cash-in on my return journey]). Although, I can say that Etihad ...