Chiang Mai:

We arrived in Chiang Mai at around 7am after a pretty awful overnight coach journey.We had planned (and was looking forward) to taking the overnight sleeper train, but tickets were already sold out for that night.We were told the overnight coach is even quicker, but were then mis-sold the coach seats, which we supposed to be reclining.Instead they were in the lower deck, with far less space, and massive sacks of rice in the aisles!Journey over, we checked into the 3 Sis guesthouse, which more then made up for the crap journey.We'd recommend this place to anyone staying in Chiang Mai.We spent the rest of the day walking around the city trying to get our bearings.One thing you instantly notice about Chiang Mai is the number of temples (Wats) scattered around.Most were in the old city, where we were staying.

The next morning, with Em wanting a bit of a lie in, I decided to go and explore many of the Wats we'd seen the previous night.I covered about eight in the space of three hours of walking.I met up with Em just after lunch and we headed out to the night bazaar (bit too touristy with the usual fake goods on offer) and then the riverside, which has a number of bars/restaurants.Having had enough of Chang beer, Em decided to move onto the thai whiskey (a bad idea!)

We were up early the next day having booked a cooking lesson. Em was experiencing a bit of dizziness, which we think was the thai whiskey (she's not touched it since…).Our host and teacher for the day was Max, who was so friendly and entertaining, but quite probably mad as well.He must have been in his late 30's (but looked about 21) and had a lot of funny saying/phrases (like OMB - oh my Buddha). Before heading to the cooking school (based on a farm), we went to the food market to buy our ingredients for the cooking lesson, and learned a lot about rice in particular!The cooking lesson then started and we made around six dishes (Tom Yum soup, Pad Thai, spring rolls, green/red curry, mango rice).Overall really nice food, and done far more simply than we would normally do back home.The Tum Yum was a particular favourite.By the end of the day we were completely stuffed, so went back for a nap.I stayed up to watch England beat France at in the 6 nations.Take that Sarkozy!

Sunday was all about the walking night market, which was huge and spanning most of the old city.It was so much better than the night bazaar, selling authentic Thai goods, without all the fakes and frog ladies (anyone that's been to Khao San Road will understand about that…).The market started around 5pm, but quickly got busy by about 7pm.We walked around for a few hours before stumbling upon a stall selling insects.Time to tick off one of our "30 things before we're 30".You can see from the photos it was not a pleasant experience.We tried silk worm, cricket (quite nice - tasted like pork scratchings), cicada, and the worst of the bunch - whirligig beetle.The outer shell was like eating plastic, and the inside was bitter.Whirligig - not recommended!Very proud of Em for eating the insects with me, she even had the biggest of the whirliwig beetles (having dropped the smallest on the floor by accident).

After walking around for 4 hours, we decided to get a foot massage, which was absolute heaven.Whilst laying down we saw a dog running past with a whole roast chicken in his mouth - so someone was going without dinner that night.We finished the night by heading to one of the local go-go bars (for the free pool, honest).Whilst there were asked on of the girls to sit and help us practice some Thai.She did exactly that, but in addition kept touching Em on the leg.Em's face was hilarious.

The next few days were spent lazing around Chiang Mai.We only planned to spend 3 days here, but desperately wanted to go to the Patara Elephant Farm, which had a couple of day waiting list.But it was worth the wait…see next blog...