Hello to all!
Apologies for the delay in the official blog christening, this is due to the lack of reliable Internet in my last hostel.

I am writing to you from Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, which does of course mean I made my first flight! This however proved to be more challenging than first imagined, taking aside the complete stand still on the m1 there was also the breaking news about Osama. This led to severe flight warnings from India, not ideal at the best of times but when you are sat at the gate for your flight from Mumbai (my stop over on route) it could put a dampener on things. It didn't though as I remained in a state of unbreakable unbelievable giddiness!

My first day started, lets say interestingly. I set out to find the infamous khoasan road, the mekha of Bangkok for backpackers, I was however intercepted on route by a tuk tuk driver who promised to show me the sights, although I was dubious of his motives I agreed to go for it....kidnapping is definitely an over exaggeration but I'm not sure by how much! I was for the next couple of hours taken to 3 very lovely temples but also a tailor shop where I was harassed to buy a suit, a boat company and a tourist information centre all of whom just wanted to steal my money. I resisted however and finally got rid of him at a temple. The temple was the standing budha, which was very nice and is where I got talking to a Canadian girl. This sociable encounter however led to me getting in her bloody tuk tuk! we then went on to the grand palace which was nothing short of amazing, 20-30 of the largest, most impressive temples and monuments I have seen to date. The evening took me to some Muay Thai boxing, again with the Canadian girl Zorica, and then the Khoasan experience happened and I got a little bit merry with Zorica and Dan, a lad from London we met along the way.

Day 1 over, all in all I couldn't have asked for a better one, I do think the kidnapping was probably the highlight though!

Since then I have found my way to Chiang Mai, this happened on an overnight train. The train turned out to be a brilliant night, I befriended some rowdy Canadian students, some New Zealanders and a couple of Brits. The events that followed included an Irish Jedi, drinking with the train staff and some silly drinking games!

The two Brits I met, Cheryl a scot & Dale a southerner ended up diving in a taxi with me and staying in my hostel. Both also travelling solo, we joined forces, formed a dream team and have been inseparable ever since!

Chiang Mai has been silly good, daytime activities have included zip lining around the jungle, an unbelievable experience involving some serious heights, slack safety rules and officially the funniest man in the world, our ranger woody.

Day 2 in Chiang Mai brought about an adventure package where riding elephants was the name of the game. A surreal experience which I still haven't got my head around. We road them through the jungle to a river where we had a watertight with them....they won! Our transport back through the jungle was a cheeky raft, as there had been bursts of severe torrential rain over the last few days, this was adrenaline filled to say the least!

Sorry to have waffled on for so long but re-living the crazy things I have done has brought out the author in me, albeit a grammatically incorrect one. The weather has been a standard 40 degrees with a daily half an hour downpour that have brought much needed relief from the heat.

My evenings, which have entailed endless shenanigans, have been just as good as my day time activities. Most of them spent trying to complete my list of travelling tasks I have been set courtesy of Mr Scholey. I wont go into the finer details as I would never end this blog but I'm sure the photos I upload, when I get the chance, will go some way into giving you an incite.

The plan for the future is still very much a fluid concept but Pai may be the next destination. I would love to tell you something about it but I really don't know anything.

Cheryl is flying to Oz soon so won't be joining us for the next leg of the adventure, she will be sorely missed but Dale is doing 3 months in South East Asia as well so he's going to soldier on with me potentially for the duration.

Love to all, I will sign off simply "touch my waffle". X