Date: 15th May 2011

Place: On another bus

Weather: again…I was on a bus

Well I think I got some sleep because I kept noticing the songs had changed on my ipod. The bus arrived in Bangkok at around 5am and even before we stepped off we were bombarded with taxi drivers saying 'where you go?!'. It was a bit of a shock to the system after being in sleep mode for a while so I just pointed to Aimee and said following her!

We got a taxi in the end from a guy who took us to the Tourist information place where they had free coffee!!!! After checking our bags we knew they had been through them…it was dead easy to tell and I was so pleased Id known about it before otherwise it would have been a trip ruiner. The only thing thas was taken was $50 Carmen had left in there by accident.

We asked the guy in there about the next bus but he said it was about 900baht which was ridiculous! So instead we went to the train station to see if we could get a Thai bus rather than a tourist bus. It turned out they only had VIP seats left anyway so we had to pay around that much in the end.

The bus wasn't for another few hours so we had a lot of time to kill. Since we were so bored of travelling all we wanted to do was eat…and as soon as we spotted a KFC that was it! It didn't open for another half an hour or so, so we sat down for a while to wait. When it got to 7am we went to stand outside, but as Thai people do, it didn't open for another half an hour! But once we got in there it was lush.

We were taken from the train station to where the bus was by a taxi. The bus wasn't any different to the normal bus we had got even though it was VIP. If anything it was worse because there was less leg room and it was packed. There was also the most ridiculous lady boy who was our 'bus hostess'. She/He started off wearing trousers but then suddenly appeared in a tiny skirt with a slit up the side.

It was a long bus journey. The film was in Thai so we couldn't watch it, and it was super loud so we couldn't concentrate on anything else we wanted to do. The reason it was VIP was because they give you snacks and a meal halfway through. The snack was a super cheap cake from 7 eleven and the meal was the cheapest thing at a bus rest on plastic plates and a tiny portion. The best part of the journey was a 10baht coconut ice cream.

When we finally arrived in Chiang Mai at around 9pm the hotel came to pick us up. I knew instantly it was going to be a good place when there was a bunch of bananas on the back seat. What topped it off though was the fact the driver had a beer can with him and when we asked him how many he had had that night he said he couldn't remember. Perfect.

You would think that we would instantly crash out after that journey! 32 hours in total. But nope, we went out to the Sunday market J It was awesome. There was so much food to choose from that I didn't want to buy anything in case something better came about round the corner. Turned out that happened anyway when I did buy something. I ended up eating pad thai, a chicken scewer, sushi and sticky rice with melon. I only wanted to try a couple of bits of sushi to see if I liked it but because it was the end of the night they piled loads of free bits on as well. I was stuffed!

After a drink we attempted to head back in the direction that we thought we came in. What was meant to be a 5 minute walk turned into an hours hunt for the hotel. I did warn Aimee that whenever I get given a map it jinxes it!