Soooo,

Onto our final country and final few weeks of this trip. We were lucky to be joined by Bruces very good friend Jack for this part of our trip, and having a third person is always a nice way to keep things fun and interesting.

First stop in Thailand, a brief overnight stay in Bangkok on the famous Khaosan road. How do we describe this place?.... Well; crazy, in your face, ridiculous, audacious, loud, colourful, brash, unsubtle.... bascially any one of these words. Its a tiny little street in Bangkok filled to the rafters with tourists and bars and fake goods and all sorts. You can buy almost anything here, including a university degree (yes, seriously). The cooked spiders and bugs and other such things are pretty cool, but the constant harrassment to go and 'get smashed mate' by those trying to get you into the bars is very annoying. Loud music and utter chaos and thats Khaosan road for you! Not the biggest of fans, but an experience none the less. We did eat scorpion and smoke banana leaf cigars.... so you could say it was a success in that sense, but one night in this place is enough for the delicate old souls such as me and Bruce! We craved sleep by 11pm (.... 10)

From there we went up to Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is the largest northern city in Thailand sat beautifully within the mountainscape of the northland, and is a world away from the chaos of inner city Bangkok. A 1 hour flight across, and we were there, and all agreed immediately that this place is STUNNING.

We stayed near the centre of the city, which still showcases the old city boundary - a very large square of river and some remaining old city wall. Fountains and bridges dot the beautful river that creates this wonderful barrier to the old city side of Chiang Mai, and couple that with clean, open streets and easy on the eye homes and buildings (with some older and less cared for elements, as you come to respect and love in Asia) with stunning mountains in the background... and you can start to get a feel for this lovely city. You immediately feel at ease and the culture seems very laid back, the traffic isnt too crazy, and the people seem to generally just be very chilled indeed. We knew we were going to enjoy our time here... and we did... ALOT!

So, we stayed for 4 nights (officially) and then another 2 (major flight cock-up) and here are the best bits of our time here.

- Chiang Mai & the Food: As we say above, this place really is beautiful. I managed to get out for a run or two whilst here (and avoid both ankle breaks and death my moped... a miracle!) and whilst running and walking we got around a fair bit and all agreed that is really is such a beautiful city. I would venture that this is the most livable city we have visited so far in all of our time in Asia. The food and drink was immensely cheap, not to mention the mega Chang (local beer) tower we managed to get our beedy eyes on for a fiver... yep, we were a little loud walking home that night...

- Chiang Mai Zoo: Probably the best zoo in the world.... yep, it is the best zoo in the world. Anyone who loves animals MUST go here one day. We HAND FED: Leopards, Hippos and Giraffes (dont rub your eyes, you read that correctly). The zoo itself must be spread over several acres, and instead of the very vast array of animals being cages, they dig trenches between their part of the zoo and us... so its practically an open zoo which means you get VERY close to the animals, and with the open space around them it seems they get the best of environments you could hope for in a zoo. We also saw Panda's... two of them, just chilling. I mean, whens the last time you just saw a Panda in full cotch mode snacking away whilst we stood, jaw dropped, looking on!?! What a place this is. We also greatly benefited from running around in the sprinklers like 5 year old boys because it was that hot (....).

- Elephant Nature Park: Ok, so anyone who knows anything about the treatment of Elephants (especially the training methods) in the tourism industry, and especially Thailand, will know that it is a terrible crime and absolute animal cruelty. Alas, a very inspirational lady set up this Sanctuary... an absolute haven for rescued Elephants to wander and live in ACRES of open land right smack in the middle of the mountains. The day tours take you to their home; no riding, no tricks, just being with the rescued (and in many cases very injured, disabled, and blind) Elephants. This place is simply phenomenal, and a true triumph in the heart of the human spirit to look after this precious animal. We hand fed, walked with, bathed, and just spent time with these wonderful animals and left the part at the end of the day agreeing this this was right up with the shark dive as the best experience of the trip so far.

- Flight cock-up. Yeah, so were faired pretty well so far on this trip... no major hassle, errors, missed flights etc... queue booking the flight for March instead of February. Not the best of starts to the week. Jack had to head on down to Koh Samui whilst Bruce and I wallowed for a further two days in this place, £250 lighter to boot and very embarrassed indeed. Still, we did take a tuk-tuk ride to our new hotel with our huge back-packs.... every cloud and all that. What a couple of idiots!

- Chiang Mai markets & Street food: We spent one of our days mooching around Chiang Mai's famous market and street food stands. This market basically takes over the streets of the main part of the old city, and you can your hand on all sorts of local crafts and souvenirs. A couple of absolute bargains and some tasty treats later and we thoroughly enjoyed getting in and amongst it.

So, that was Chiang Mai.. just so relaxed, so easy on the eye, two of the best days of the whole trip, towers of local cheep beer and a totally wrong fllight made it a total experience and all in all some of the best days of our entire trip. The boys even managed to find the six nations which pleased Jack no end. British through and through i guess :D.

Next stop, Koh Samui... the last two weeks and beaches, sleep, food, repeat.

Big love

Bruce and Ash

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