We spent a few days longer than expected in Chiang Mai, due to the huge amount of things to do in the surrounding area - among other things we did a 1-day trek and a Thai cookery course! The 1-day trek is a very touristy affair (but great fun) which involves an elephant ride, a bamboo raft trip, visiting a 'tribal village' (I've seen more authentic tribal villages in cultural centres!!!) and a swim in a waterfall. We were picked up with a little mini-van an...

We flew into Bangkok Airport from Sri Lanka just minutes too late to catch the daily flight up to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand where we want to head off to first and hopefully do a bit of trekking in the hills near the golden triangle. We had no problem getting onto the flight for the following day and were actually happy to spend a night in bustling Bangkok which we've both been to before and love! We jumped on the airport bus and headed for backpackers...