A worthwhile early start today as we had booked a trekking trip around a few of the sights in Chiang Mai. We were picked up at about 8:30 in a minibus by our guide for the day, Nom, and her trainee assistant Pai. She explained the timetable for the day or the 'programme' as they like to call it here!), beginning with a 1 hour drive to Phutawan Elephant Camp where we would go for an elephant ride through the forest! There were about 11 of us in our group, includ...

Our free tuk-tuk transfer took us to a different hotel to where we were staying, for us to hand over our voucher for our day trek tomorrow which we'd booked in Bangkok. The agent Sam had wanted us to stay here (they must get commission) but we'd already booked somewhere else. Chris went in to give in our voucher and the lady tried to sell us another tour for today - we just want to sleep! Back in the tuk-tuk we were taken to our hotel, Chang Puak, which means w...

Our last day in Bangkok…for now! We've had some great times over the last few days and it's been a definite improvement on KL. Yet we'll still be glad to get out of the heat, humidity, noise and craziness for the next few days. In the morning we decided to walk to Chinatown after collecting our tickets and dropping our bags off with the travel agent ready for the bus tonight. They guy who works there and is always hanging around by the door to show people in...

Today was our third full day in Bangkok, so we decided to actually do some touristy things for once! We caught a taxi to The Grand Palace (after the first taxi driver we asked didn't seem to know where it was!) and read the strict regulations about what you could and couldn't wear. Dave and Chris were OK as they had worn long trousers, but I thought my shorts weren't long enough so queued up to hire a sarang which you can do for free. But when I got to the fron...

After last night's exploits, we all slept until late and didn't make it out of the hotel until early afternoon! Our first stop was the main train station to arrange our transport to and from Chaing Mai. We also needed to sort out how we would get to the island of Koh Phangan next week for the infamous Full Moon Party! Outside the station, we were stopped by a very helpful lady with an official looking government ID on who explained to us all of the options in v...