Date: 21st May 2011

Place: Chiang Mai

Weather: sunny J

Aimee went to an Elephant camp today so since she had to get up early we decided to go with her. Apparently though when my alarm went off I just turned it off and went back to sleep. I must have been pretty tired that night because I also sat up in the middle of the night, turned on the TV and then turned over to go back to sleep. Siobhan asked me if I was watching the TV and I replied 'Nah, not anymore' as if I had been at all! Weird.

Well I got up pretty quickly when Carm came in because I wanted to get my last 100 lengths done in the pool before we left that day. I did it before having breakfast and we then head off to find the women's prison to get a massage. It's not your everyday place to go and get a massage but we thought it was for a good cause and since these women were not exactly really dangerous; they were in for things like drugs, then it would be good to help them out.

It was actually a really nice place to get it done. The setting was a lot better than most of the massage places on the side of the street and we got to wear cool pink outfits. The massage was really good, it was a Thai one so obviously included all of the clicking and cracking motions. We left feeling very chilled out.

We went to get some lunch then and actually found a place selling baked potatoes!! They were yummy. After that we decided we would head to the market to get some food to take on the bus later on. We unfortunately found a Starbucks on the way though, and since this would probably be the last one we would find it would be a crime not to go in! I had a cappuccino and shared a cake with Siobhan, it was lovely! And in Thailand they bring you round samples of other drinks and cakes, it's great!

After a long walk to the market, which burnt off our Starbucks hopefully, and a little cheeky stock up in Boots (our 2nd western splurge of the day), we decided we didn't like the market because it made us feel sick with the smell! So we head back to the guesthouse. All that walking for nothing, but it was good for us.

When we got back to the guesthouse we decided to get something to eat there rather than take it with us. The bus actually came early this time, that has never happened before they aren't normally even on time! We were still finishing our dinner so the driver said he would come back for us.

He came back for us, and our 'VIP' van turned out to be the most squashed mini van ever. I didn't even have much leg room. It was a painful journey, especially when my ipod decided it wanted to flick through all of my songs without stopping and playing any of them. And since there was no light in the bus and it was overnight there was nothing to do but sit and listen to guy talk from a group of lads in the back seats for 12 hours. Exciting. On the plus side I treated myself to a Cornetto when we stopped at a 7 Eleven. Little did I know that would be the last 7 Eleven I would come across for a while L.