Alarm going off at 6.30am, three in succession to make sure I have more chance of getting up, like back home having to do a weekend in Liverpool. It took me a good half hour to get up.

Walked to the shop, got a s*** bacon butty but a good coffee. A bit of stodge so I wouldn't feel s*** after a malaria tablet.

I was picked up around 7.30am by a short dude with massive receders. Got into a minibus at the top of the street, that had tried to be slightly pimped up had a glance round hoping to be another English person on the trip. There was a girl sat on her own, all the rest were blatantly foreign, so I asked if she was English, she was, real do! She was called Laura from Plymouth so I got chatting to her.

Now for a 2-3 hour bus ride up to Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle via a Wat and a hot spring on the way! First stop was the hot spring which we couldn't go in! Shame! Not really though after finding out it was 90 degrees and it wreaked of rotten eggs from the sulphur!

Then there was the Wat after that, which was just pure white like it had just bin snowed on, it was blinding in the sun it was that white! Thing is once you've seen one of these Wat's you've seen them all really.

Next stop was Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle, once we got there we got on a boat ride which didn't feel too steady in the water. It then took us over to Burma, Laos then back to Thailand. We stopped off in Laos for around half an hour, sweated a lot, saw some snake whisky which I didn't even bother attempting and some other random stuff!

After an hour or so we headed back to the minibus and on the move, dinner time. It was an all you can eat buffet and we were hank marvin but I think we still went OTT. Piling up the plates with all different sorts of dishes plus these little mini donuts and some of the driest cake known to man.

Back in the minibus, again, a bit too much time spent in here I think not! We headed to the Myanmar border crossing and had a look around. It wasn't the nicest of places at all, just full of people begging, it was horrible really. Even more so than i've seen in Thailand.

After that experience we headed to see some hill tribe people, it was a strange setup, me and Laura thought they can't really be proper hill people as they were near a road. That was our theory antway! They also wanted about a tenner to go look at their homes which we thought was a bit odd! Anyway had a picture taken with a tribes woman. She had red teeth like she'd been chewing on somebody's arm or leg! She may have been a cannibal for all we know!

We eventually headed back to Chiang Mai about 5.30pm through the mountains through far too many checkpoints and arrived back at about 9.30pm. I didn't realise it was that far up to Chiang Rai, a well long day. Arranged to meet Laura tomorrow and have a look round this massive Sunday market.

Went out for some tea and watch the football and met 4 lads in the bar from Sheffield, Loughborough and Southend. Decided on a few beers seen as though it's Saturday night. On the way to the next bar we saw an elephant just randomly walking round in the street! How bizarre! The next pub was called the THC rooftop bar which was full of hippies and you sat on the floor on these mats.

In this bar one of the lads who was a touch pissed, invited 3 girls over, who we found out to be Irish, not the easiest to understand, we called him a d*** because of it though! They sat down and one girl would just not shut the f*** up, I don't think she came up for air! Then she started going on about how she smokes half and of resin weed a week, thats why she wont shut up! f***'s sake!

I thought b******s, so I started telling this girl that me and this lad had bought a speedboat on the Mekong river and that we deal opium and sell it all round Thailand and Laos! She asked us if we smoked it!! We decided to make an exit as they were doing our nut in.

Had a few more drinks at another bar then decided to call it a night, Went the wrong way home so I had to backtrack a bit, what a dick! It's not too hard to find as there is a big landmark nearby but i'm slowly getting my bearings on Chiang Mai. By the time I do it'll be time to move onto Laos anyway!