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 would get our bus to Bangkok (and then from Bangkok to Chiang Mai).

The boat was fine, fairly uneventful; I think we were still so relaxed we wouldn't have noticed if there had been some action on board.Our arrival at Chumphon was as expected, a small area with plastic seats and a café serving the trusty Pad Thai.After a polystyrene tray full each we set about killing time with some cards during which Liz broke her month long loosing streak and showed me who was boss at a game or two of Rummy.

As the bus arrived we boarded for a journey that would get us into Bangkok at a scheduled time of 6am.We figured that 6am wasn't too bad and that we could easily drop our bags off at the office where we would be getting the next bus from, get some breakfast and see the sights of Bangkok in the 12 hours we had there.The bus however, collected us an hour and a half early and drove like the clappers getting us to Bangkok at 4.15am meaning we had 14 hours to kill.Everyone on the bus had been sleeping and as the bus reached Bangkok all the lights came on and all we could hear was the swarm of Tuk Tuk drivers shouting "hey my friend, where you go?".In a dazed and confused state we managed to adopt a young English girl heading our way and jumped on a Tuk Tuk for the 10 minute hair raising ride to the Kao San Road.

Our plan to just hang around was scuppered as we had arrived so early and we were dumped on the road side, charged 300 baht between the 3 of us for the drive and then realised we were surrounded by rubbish, cats that looked like Mr Biggleworth from Austin Powers and very drunk westerners.Plan B quickly arose and we scouted out a very cheap room for a few hours - strange how the Kao San Road rents so many rooms by the hour not just the night…..hmmmm!With out adoptee still in tow we got a room for 3 down some back alley and got our heads down before we had to check out at 12pm.Worked pretty well though as we felt slightly more rested and able to take on the craziness of the street.

To Lizzy's and my surprise it didn't seem as hectic as we had assumed - perhaps living in Kilburn helps you prepare for such an ordeal.The 3 of us (we found out our adopted English girl was called Tess) set about looking at all the stalls along the road selling very cheap clothes.Liz picked up a bargain couple of items before we headed down a quieter street for a refreshing beverage and some food.

After that we headed back to the bus stop and boarded our bus to Chiang Mai.12 hours later and a much cheaper Tuk Tuk ride we arrived at our guesthouse that we are both very impressed with for £5.50 a night.It's a great little spot,in a more residential area but only 10 minutes from the more touristy sights.We have had both breakfast and lunch from the locals market and although we don't have much idea what we ate for lunch (nothing is in English) the atmosphere is bustling.We also get to see the other more travelled areas of the city by foot.

As I finish this blog, I am still sitting here on the comfy bed, I am looking forward to sleeping in tonight and Liz has just finished having the first hot shower in over 2 weeks!Tonight we will head to the night market up the road for some cheap spicy grub.

Day 1 in Chiang Mai: so far so good.

Sam