So we have made it to chiang mai in one piece!

We left on our boat from koh ao to chumporn which took around three hours. We waited there a couple of hours grabbed some food and boarded our bus. The bus was really clean and the seat reclined right back with comfy soft seats. The bus took around 10 hours and was much better than expected. We stopped a couple of hours in, for food and then both of us slept the whole way, which we were so happy about.

We arrived In koh San road at around 4am, we sat in maccies for a bit As it is 24 hours then got a taxi to the station. We got the bus to the embassy waited until it opened at half past eight and handed our passports in for our vietnam visas which we picked up later that day!.

We then went to the train station to see if we could book a sleeper train to chiang mai rather than by bus, even though many agency had told us they were fully booked, fortunately we managed to it, and then headed to our hotel.

We stayed in a guesthouse called loft 77 which was lovely and in central bangkok. It was really nice to see a different part of bangkok to the area we had stayed before. We saw the much more developed business side, we visited a lovely shopping mall absolutely massive called Siam paragon and siam square and the nana area.

We paid for late check out in our room so we had our room until four the next day as our train wasn't leaving until half past six. It was lovely just to chill in our room rather than lugging our rucksacks around all day.

The train was great fun. So happy we got tickets, we went to the restaurant had a meal, played some cards then slept most of the way until the morning when we arrived in chiang mai at 8am.

It was really comfy and we had lots of room, much better than the bus!

We are now in our guesthouse and it is lovely we are so happy with it! It is called funky monkey and its 10 pound a night. The rom is massive one double bed and one single a lounge area with a sofa, massive fridge and tv. Such a bargain. The owners are lovely they sat down with us this morning with a map highlighting the best places to eat the must sees and gave us a real insight into the city.

We are here for three nights as unfortunately it is fully booked and then we move to another place green tullip for three nights. We wish we could stay here the whole time, you even get complimentary water, fruit shakes, fruit juice, sweets and fruit!

We then get a sleeper train back to bangkok for the third time on the night of the 15th and fly to hanoi vietnam in the afternoon of the 16th.

We have lots planned for chiang mai, today we are going to explore the old city by foot on a walking tour, there are lots of markets, temples and a night bazaar, tomorrow we are doing the elephants which we are so excited for and we hope to also visit tiger kingdom.

We can't wait to tell you all about it and get lots of lovely pictures!

Speak soon

Xxxxxxx