Hello again! Just so you know, my international sim isn't working - Isabel and I have local sims to get ahold of each other but they don't work internationally. Sorry if any of you have been trying to get in touch!

So last week we spent a few days in Bangkok. I hired a boat to take me down the Chao Praya river to see the temples and palace - as we were sailing peacefully along a guy latched onto my boat and I thought I was getting hijacked. He then proceeds to whip out a box of tacky souvenirs and tries to get me to buy a beer for 200 baht (4 pounds). In Thailand you can't escape the vendors, even on the river.

From there we flew up to Chiang Mai in the mountains - with the blue sky, dense green jungle and gold temples it's like the whole country operates on a different colour palette. The old town in the city centre is surrounded by a moat so it's very picturesque, and there are more temples than even I can take. Thai temples are pretty tacky looking sometimes - not a patch on Angkor Wat.

On Sunday most of the old town was closed off for the Sunday Walking Market - it is HUGE. We walked around it for three hours and still didn't see everything. I wish I could just buy a suitcase and fill it with everything they sell here - it's super cheap and amazing. Loads of the jewellery and clothes are made by the Karenn hill tribes from the nearby mountains (the ones with their necks elongated by metal coils). A lot of people in our hostel take tours to go and see them but I'm not into people tourism - it feels a bit off. Same goes for the elephant and tiger tours - I've heard too much from people about how badly they're treated to fancy it. There's too much else to do.

The live music here has been great. On Monday we went to the open mic night at this blues bar up above the night bazaar - the bands were brilliant and there were plenty of middle-aged expats dancing to keep us entertained. On Tuesday we went to a jazz bar where the music was even better - the bar was so packed people were spilling out into the street and standing in the road just to hear.

We also found a brilliant pool in the middle of a botanic gardens just outside the city - sadly it was too hot to work on my still-very-pale tan for long but I worked off all the pad thai and fish ball soups with a few laps. The food here is amazing; I'm learning to love the spice - who cares if it's so hot it makes my face sweat? Every other part of me is sweating anyway.

I'm currently back in Bangkok for the night on our way to Mandalay - we've checked into a nice hotel near the airport since our flight is early tomorrow. It's such a luxury to have our own room after a week in a dorm with six guys. I'm currently sitting out on the porch writing this - I'm being slowly surrounded by stray cats so I have to go. I'll update again in a week from Myanmar!