In Chiang Rai

On Thursday we travelled to Chiang Mai bus station and bought tickets for the 3 hour journey further north to Chiang Rai. We ate our cheapest meal yet (in fact our cheapest meal ever) at the bus station - pad thai for 10 baht each (approx. 15p!!). The stall may not have passed any strict (or even un-strict for that matter) health and hygiene regulations but the vendor did keep the flies at bay with a plastic bag tied to the end of a stick and 4 days on we're absolutely fine.

The bus journey was a little sweaty but good - we have travelled on a few public buses around Asia now and here's what never ceases to amaze us; the uncanny ability of each and every local passenger to fall immediately to sleep as soon as the bus is in motion. On arrival in Chiang Rai there were a small number of tuk-tuk drivers vying for our attention but they were no way near as persistent as some we have encountered. On the whole, so far, we are having a much better experience of northern Thailand than we did in the south.

Chiang Rai is a small city; it is fairly laid back and is quite pleasant to potter around. More temples, more traipsing (for Matt) and strolling (for me) around night markets and more lovely Thai food. One amusing sight we have seen is in the outdoor food stall area of the night market. Most of the food stalls don't have English menu boards, however there are a few that have tried to provide some information in English as to the nature of their culinary offerings and one in particular deserved a photograph. Due to the bizarre and cryptic nature of the menu items ('the moustache is tiny squid roasts', 'the demon moustache squid roasts', 'the ark shell scalds / burns', 'the shrimp burns' and 'the meatballs fries, every the wood') we're not sure if it is some kind of code language used by spies; this particular unassuming and innocent looking food stall being the epicentre of meeting places for spies in Thailand or just a case of someone using a dictionary to translate word for word and getting it very wrong.

We leave tomorrow and head for Sukhothai - Thailand's first capital. Another bus journey of around 8 hours.