Ok so after a difficult 16 hour bus ride up from Bangkok, difficult due to the fact I was severely sick and attempting not to projectile vomit over the highly annoying Russian boy sat on the seat in front who couldn't decide if he wanted his seat up or down and therefore kept banging my knees with every change of mind I made it to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand.I hadn't booked a hostel in advance and therefore spent 3 hours wondering around hoping I could find a cheap room which I did.After 2 days of eating dry toast, reading my book and eventually hitting a day market for some retail therapy I finally felt up to actually having some fun.I booked a trip for the following day to do jungle flight which is a little bit like "Go Ape" in England but higher and with more zip lines and less obstacle courses.I'm so glad I booked it because it was so much fun; you basically spend the day pretending to be a monkey, flying through the air on high wires, climbing up rocks and abseiling down trees.I had a wonderful day due to the instructors who looked after my group of 6, they made everything so fast, there was no waiting for everyone else to go you literally came off of one thing and got hooked straight onto the next.The instructors took pity on me as I was by myself and made sure that I had the best time possible by letting me go up side down, backwards and following me on the zip line with my camera to make a movie of me flying through the air.It was kinda cool to see the jungle the way the wild life does plus it was exhilarating, it was like being a kid going on "the big swing" for the first time, being a bit nervous but then when you finally let go and feel yourself fly through the air you are so happy that you did it.Now as most of you know im not the most graceful person in the world so imagine my clumsy self really high above the ground hanging from a harness as I fly through the trees - yeah you can laugh, I did look ridiculous, when everyone else did it forwards I overcourse managed to do it backwards, when everyone else came in and landed on the platform with ease I came flying in at top speed and slammed into the tree and when everyone else dropped gracefully whilst abseiling I managed to plumit towards the ground only just managing to stop a few feet away from sure death.It was really good fun though and well worth the money spent.

So apart from Jungle Flight and a trip to a local market that's all I really did in Chiang Mai but I was going to be coming back in a few days after a brief trip over to a place in the hills named Pai so I would be able to see some more of the town then.

I will say this now, I love Pai - who doesn't love Pai?! I would love to meet a traveler with negative views towards the little town and find out what the hell they managed to dislike about it.For travelers it's the perfect place for laid back living, you go you chill you leave - non travelers might think this sounds boring but believe me its not.I caught a quick 4 hour mini bus along one of the windeyest roads ever to get to Pai, after u-turn followed by u-turn the bus broke out of the mountains into a large stretch of flat land with the river snaking through the middle, this is where Pai lives.After saying goodbye to a girl I had been hanging out with I went to find a hostel and did in the form of Darling Guest House a lovely log cabin set on the side of the hill over looking town, the owner named "darling" was so friendly and introduced me straight away to all the other travelers staying there.I had arrived just in time for sunset and so enjoyed it from my hammock on the big shared balcony with everybody else before we all wondered down the hill, through the fields and across the bamboo bridge into town for some tea.What a lovely first evening and it set the tone for the rest of my stay.On my first full day I hired a moped with a couple of others and went to explore the nearby canyon, we climbed all the way down into it which wasn't easy but well worth it and did impressions of 127 hours in the thin craggy holes - an obvious past time considering the setting.The rest of our day was filled with chill out time, hammocks, pillows, beer, sunset, campfire, more beer, food, cocktail, bed - lovely!The following day and my guesthouse emptied of people leaving just me and my new Israeli friend who introduced me to his girl friend - his guitar - which he happily played in Hebrew and a few English songs as I read my book, then we had a new arrival into our family feeling guesthouse and the new arrival was steph an English event producer who provided some of the most passionate conversations ive had in a while, I love enthusiasm and steph oozes it in every way.We spent 2 more days in Pai exploring such sites as the hot water springs and "waterfall" on my awesome little moped, we drove around enjoying the sunny days and chatting away constantly.Speaking of sunny days that's one thing I should mention, Pai is so beautifully sunny during the day but as soon as the sun sets the ugly twin sister of heat arrives and its bloody freezing! I mean for someone like me who hasn't been cold at all in the 4 months I had been travelling it was a bit weird for my body to understand and I found it affected me more than others.One night me and steph went for dinner and then headed back to the hostel where I donned 2 jumpers, 1 hoody, ally babas and 2 pairs of socks and then we both jumped into hammocks, covered ourselves with thick duvets and spent the evening chatting about everything from work, family, boys, celebs and fashion etc it was lovely to be girly for a change, there always seems to be boys around who turn their noses up at such silly conversations but it was refreshing to be able to talk like that.

A highlight of Pai came in the form of Half Moon, now you all know about the full moon party on Koh Samui, well they also celebrate the half moon all over Thailand too and Pai was no exception.Me, the boys and Steph were all chilling around our camp fire at the hostel, drinking a few beers or in my case whiskey or in Steph's case weird sugary wine alcopop things when one of the lads came to tell us that there was a big party near the waterfall that night.After some debate we decided we would drive down on our mopeds and see what was going on, what a good decision that was because the party was amazing. Set quite far away from town it was down a farm track which led into a valley between the mountains, the path was lit by candles which lead the way and after picking up some people who were stupidly attempting to walk the 10 or so miles we arrived safe and sound into the parking lot crossed the little bamboo bridge and straight into the party.It was ridiculously cold that night and so everyone was well wrapped up which was kinda nice as there was no pressure to impress anyone or wear something nice, the only thing you had to think about was how much fun you were having.There was a big stage for the dj who was playing reggae to begin with followed by hard core drum and base tunes, 3 bars and toilets in the form of many many bushes up the hill.It was great fun dancing away making friends with absolutely everybody and having a few drinks by fire torch and strobe light, if the dancing didn't warm you up then the massive bonfire would.Oh what a brilliant night and a great addition to my Pai trip.

After being in Pai for the best part of a week it was time to head back to Chiang Mai and the start of what would turn out to be possibly the best 6 weeks of my trip! But that will all be told in the follow up blogs.