After the trek we were both exhausted so spent our next day in Chaing Mai recovering and getting some rest! We did venture to the local bar, which was named 'Thai One On' - hilarious... The bar had a great big Rottweiler which would parade around the pub and surrounding roads and bark until any other dog left its territory, quite entertaining.

We spent a day venturing around the many temples in the old quarter of Chaing Mai. It's a really spiritual place which is one of the reasons tourism took off in the area, evident in the temples around every corner! Luckily the weather was really good so we got around quite a lot of them - some far more impressive than others - but all of them intrinsically decorated and colourful. After a while we were a bit templed out so we called it a day and headed to a cafe for some cake and to chill out.

We also spent a day going to some of the malls in Chaing Mai. The shopping malls turned out to be one of the weirdest experiences we'd had in Asia! They were full of electrical stores selling the same thing, and displays of vibrate exercise boards which was fun to try, as well as men dressed up in massive fancy dress gimmick outfits, Japanese stores, tattoo parlours displaying elderly men with their brand new tattoos and a 'Stars War' arcade. They were also laid out in maze like fashions which made it even more bizarre and tricky to leave. A better shopping experience was provided by the markets in Chaing Mai, which had loads of locally produced crafts and some really nice stuff which Mike kept dragging me away from due to my already overfilled backpack!

One of my highlights of Chaing Mai was the Thai Secret Garden Cookery Course. I was going to go alone but Mike decided he might as well join in. (Think he just wanted an excuse to eat a lot!) We were picked up by May - the lady running the course - in the morning who took us to the local market. She was the friendliest person we'd met in all of Thailand and chatted away about Thailand and food non-stop. At the market she bought us some Thai spicy sausage with sticky rice to try which was really good and showed us the different fresh ingredients we would need. We then had a look around on our own and came across some bizarre things like a bunch of pig heads and chicken parts. We then set off to her home which was quite far out in the countryside surrounded by rice paddies. When we got there she really welcomed us all in to her home and made us feel comfortable, then set us out to pick some vegetables for the cooking in her garden. We had loads of dishes to choose from to cook, and it was great to learn how to cook all our fav dishes. A bit scary to learn how much fat/oil/sugar went in to a lot of it though! At the end of the course she gave us all a cookery book which will come in handy back home. While we had a break she also showed us her pet beetles which she had rescued. They were giant things, and she said the locals collect them to fight during this season. Apparently they can be worth a lot of money when they're at their prime and the farmers will bet over the beetles and take it all very seriously. On the way back she took us via a 'scary temple' as it was Halloween. We all assumed it was a temple in a dark place or surrounded by trees. However when we got there it was actually a Buddhist replica of hell on earth to scare people away from bad deeds. It was horrific and incredibly graphic. There were huge statues of gruesome figures with their guts hanging out and different forms of torture which was horrifying.

One evening we went along to 'Monk Chat' at one of the many temples. They hold it in temples across Chaing Mai. It's a few hours when you can go along and chat to a monk about anything you like which was pretty cool. We were joined by a couple of Danish women half way through who were certain the monk was some kind of alien and were absolutely amazed by anything he said and didn't understand his jokes which was also pretty entertaining. After we went along to their meditation service, assuming it would be a bit of a talk that you could come and go from as you pleased. However 5 minutes in the door was closed and there was no way out. So we were sat in a room of about 30 people who were taking the meditating very seriously with their legs crossed properly etc, while Mike and I struggled to get our feet in the right way and couldn't look at each other without giggling like school children. It got worse as the monk started to chant before every action. So before every movement, such as the walking meditation, he would repeat 'intention to walk, intention to walk, intention to walk' before every step....

On our last day we took a tuktuk up the hill from Chaing Mai to see the bigger temple as everyone had said it couldn't be missed. We'd put it off as the weather had been pretty bad, and when we got up their it wasn't amazing as it was over cast so you couldn't see Chaing Mai. It would definitely be worth it on a clear day though which was a shame. It was also ridiculously touristy, which hoards of people and stalls selling stuff everywhere you turn.

Our highlight of Chaing Mai though was definitely the guesthouse we stayed at which was so homely. It was called Libra guesthouse and was a family run place. They were extremely welcoming, and would advise us every morning on the best place to go/things to do. They also helped us sort out problems with our next hotel, and sorted out our taxi to the airport when we left. We loved staying there and were sad to say goodbye!