1:30pm Chiang Mai

Well thankfully we have left the hustle and bustle of Bangkok and arrived in a fab part of the world! We decided on Saturday night (our last booked night in Bangkok) that we were heading to the train station and getting outta there!! On Saturday we wandered around the area of Bangkok we were staying in (Banglamphu) walked to see some typical thai houses, saw a Fortress in the park and strolled through the markets grabbing a few bargains :) Then at about 6 it began raining...welll thundreing it down and the place flooded so we had an early night and made our plans to leave. Bangkok is like Thailands Ibiza.....and just for Hail....BENIDORM!!

So we arrived at the train station yest morn at 11am and booked the sleeper train to the North. We waited in the train station then for the next 7 hours until our train arrived...we ventured out briefly to see the Wak Triaet temple and the Chinese gateway near China town in Bangkok. We boarded the train at 7pm and were both very confused as we thought we had booked beds and there were only seats!!! A guy from Glasgow, Richard, sat near us and then a girl from the USA, Jamie, did too both with the same look as we had. We ordered beer and made 2 friends which was lovely and so the beer continued. We moved to the restaruant on the train and drank a bit more, meeting a couple from Ireland who were also lovely. We went back to our 'seats' to find they had been trnasformed into bunkbeds by the train staff (brill) but of course no where to drink. The 4 of us decided we would all clamber into Richards lower bunk and drank and chatted until 2am trying our best not to wake the others around us! Good fun! Neil then woke me at 8am to look out of the window at the mass of trees and NO BANGKOK...YAY! Off the train we decided to go in search of a hostel, well rated in the Lonely Planet but it was booked so we are staying next door in JJ's which is good for 7 quid a night. Just eaten some lunch but we are wrecked so goin to catch 40 winks. Booked a trip for 2moro trekking and will get to ride an elephant, go water rafting and stay over night up in the mountains. Isnt life just great. Adios for now. Love to all!xxxx

And to Si and Bex- Neil is a new man...he didnt spill the noodles once! :)