Heading north

Just a quick one - will add to this later.

Been in Chiang Mai for a few days and get the bus further north to Chiang Rai today.

P.S. It's damn hot.

ADDED ENTRY

On Thursday 20th we caught the overnight train from Bangkok's Hualamphong station to Chiang Mai. A different set up again; you sit in your allocated seats until around 9pm when the guard starts coming around to turn your seat into either a top or a bottom bunk. Matt and I had a top bunk each with 2 Thai ladies underneath us. I awoke the next morning to use the toilet. The window was fully open in the toilet and the view of the sun rising over the passing Thai villages was lovely and more than made up for the view of my immediate location.

We disembarked around 9.30am and negotiated a tuk-tuk to take us to our hotel. A perfectly fine hotel for £12 a night (for the 2 of us).

The weather is pretty hot and humid here and it is fast approaching the hot season where temperatures can reach 40 degrees or so; hence, in terms of tourists it's fairly quiet. We have spent the days visiting temples and keeping hydrated. Fortunately we both actually love visiting these Buddhist temples; they tend to be very well maintained and can be extremely ornate. There's often a very serene atmosphere which we both like.

We also met up with our friends from New Zealand - Ron and Joy - on the Saturday. We didn't anticipate seeing them again so soon but they are spending a month in Chiang Mai and so we thought we would look them up. We did a bit of sightseeing, had a foot massage and ate dinner at a nice riverside restaurant with them. Who knows when or where we'll meet up with them again - but I'm sure we will.

We ended up staying here a little longer than anticipated as Matt pulled his neck but we eventually left today. On our final night we treated ourselves to another foot massage (how can you not at £2.30 per hour??). This included a head, neck and shoulder massage. However the technique is a little different to what I am accustomed to at home I realised as one guy was plunging his thumbs into my eye sockets while the other was trying to make Matt's head touch his shoulders. Anyway, I think they seem to know what they're doing as we've had a few of these now and have no injuries to date.