The Hill Tribe Homestay! During our time in Chiang Mai we had seen a lot of adverts about visiting villages around Chiang Mai on day trips where you go as a group and observe the village tribes.We however decide to go and stay with a hill tribe in the very rural area of Soppong about four and a half hours from Chiang Mai to truly experience the real thing.Not really knowing what to expect we booked in for 2 nights and planned our journey. We were picked up ...

I heart Chiang-Mai Somehow nearly a week has passed since we came to Chiang-Mai and settled into a routine of temple admiring and market shopping.With so many different local and tourist markets (some good clothes bargains and enough food to keep us happy here for months) our time and stomachs have been filled just wandering around.The best market has been the Sunday walking market, which was enormous.Chiang Mai is a very relaxed city and easy to walk around - e...

Koh Tao to Chiang Mai and The Bangkok 14 I am currently sitting here in a great little room with a large fan on the ceiling on a very comfortable bed at The Goodwill Guest House here in Chiang Mai. Two days ago Lizzy and I decided enough was enough and we should start exploring again and agreed that with the trouble of the protests quietening down we would head to Chiang Mai.We set off from Koh Tao and boarded our boat for the 3 hours to Chumphon where we ...

Super chilled Koh Tao We are whiling away the morning before the boat takes us from Koh Tao back to the mainland (Chumphon).We've stayed here longer than anywhere else and 10 days have whizzed by not doing too much apart from eating looking over Chalok Baan Kao Bay where we are staying, sunbathing and reading.In a few moments of activity we walked to neighbouring Shark Bay for a pristine white sand beach and spent a lot of time wandering around the village de...

Koh Pha Ngan's a Knockout We boarded the train in Penang and took our seats on in the 2nd class sleeper carriage - this train continued all the way to Bangkok so most on the train were headed there.Not us, we were headed to Surat Thani, a small town where you get the ferries over to the islands on the east side of Thailand.As we were waiting on the platform there was a big Aussie guy around 50 waiting to get on, he was chatting to all the westerners about all ...