Date: 14th May 2011

Place: a bus

Weather: no idea I was on a bus…but the bus was freezing cold

Woke up early because I had a lot to re pack for the journey. Neils came down to say goodbye which was super sad, don't know if we will be seeing him again. Aimee and Carmen cried Im just heartless with emotion like that. We wrote him a letter on facebook though which he should find in a few days. It says 'Neilsio! The tears are flowing now you're going. We had a little cry, see you in Chiang Mai. Haha got a little rhymy there. Aimess gossip pregnancy turned out to be a false alarm. These swans are sick! Peace out x' We will miss him.

After having breakfast we sat with Simon in the hotel lobby waiting for a bus whilst he spoke to his friend on the phone. He was telling him about the funny things that had happened so far on the trip like the tuk tuk and me falling off the bike (it is quite funny now looking back). It was so nice hearing it all and thinking what an awesome time weve had so far.

When the bus finally came (half an hour late which is normal for Thai people, I think Dad would fit in perfectly over here) it was really fancy inside, like a little limo. We spoke to a French guy called Jordan (not a very French name!) and two guys from Sheffield, Tom and Josh. The journey there took ages, about 5 hours I think. The bus drivers here, well everybody really, are so laid back. He would just get out of the bus and go to a 7 eleven or drop his friend off at his house.

When we got to the first drop off in Chiang Mai a man asked us where we were going. We hadn't booked any onward travel yet because we thought it might be cheaper to book parts as we go. The guy offered us tickets on a bus to Bangkok which rang bells because so many people have been robbed on the busses. It says in the lonely planet not to get a bus to or from Kho San Road because they are pure tourist buses so the guys running them go through your bags. So we decided to carry on to

see how much the train was.

At the tourist information place that we got dropped off at we went inside to see about prices. It turned out the train was way to expensive so we decided to get the bus from them. We had a good look through our bags and took all of the valuables out. We then got a tuk tuk ride to where the bus was leaving from and it turned out it was at the mans place from before! When he saw us he kept mocking us going 'No we go by train!'

We decided to go to find some food before the journey so walked down the road about 1km. At first we went into a sort of food court but just couldn't work out how it worked, or even if it was actually a food court or just a giant family gathering! That plan was abandoned straight away and we head to a 7 eleven instead to stock up on some snacks. It went dark all of a sudden whilst we were in there, and when we came out the flies were absolutely crazy! There were millions of them all flying around you, we had to leg it through them.

When we finally got on the bus it was really nice. We got two seats each and there was loads of leg room. We placed ourselves right in front of the TV because they said there was a film on there. When we set off they put on a weird thai film of people falling out of a tree, then they stopped it and the beginning parts of a film started so Aimee and I sat with our fingers crossed saying 'please please be english'. It turned out to be Road Trip Beer Pong which was perfectly fine with me, light hearted and English!

Turned out they stopped it just before the end and then they started it from the beginning again! When it finally got around to the point it stopped at again it went a little bit further and then froze. So I basically watched a film twice and never saw the ending! We stopped a little later than that at a big food place and I got some noodle soup which was lovely, I put a little too much chilli in it though. When we got back on I just tried to sleep with my ipod in but it was hard work getting comfy.