Sawadee Kha from Chiang Mai. Thanks everyone for your messages and news from home, Soraya, Selina, Lianne, Gemma, Suz, Simon and others - lovely to hear from you. Remember if anyone wants to come and meet anywhere, you are most welcome to join me for as long as you can get off work! The last few days of Krabi were great - we did end up going kayaking around the amazing rock/cliffs poking out of the sea, and found little caves which we canoed into and through. Because it was just me and Ant, we could get great views of the sea and islands from all sorts of angles and there is something very serene about floating around such beauty. I have something to confess - I needed the loo while we were floating in the kayak, so I jumped into the sea to pee.... I don't know why I'm telling you this - anyway, we lay on Ao Nang beach reading and eating sweetcorn after, and the naughty monkeys were eating everyones left overs. The day after, we caught the ferry to Phuket again to pick up a bag we had left there, and then we flew to Chiang Mai.

So, to tell you about the wonders of the Chiang Mai province...Chiang Mai Town is a complete maze of roads around the main square, meaning that we get lost every time we set off somewhere on a motorbike. The weather is a lot cooler than the south beaches and Bangkok, meaning it is a more comfortable heat during the day and I need blankets at night. There are food stalls everywhere (which often have much nicer food than restaurants). The people are laid back and very friendly as if we were in a small town. We've actually been in North Thailand for over a week now. The first few days we joined a massage school to learn Thai massage - yes, I know how to massage now so start queing up now for a session! I'm having problems remembering the order of the 60 positions, but apart from that, I've done quite well - I have a certificate and all. During the evenings we went to the cinema to see the first film in the Thai trilogy 'King Naresam' which is an excellent film set in the old Siam times when kings were conquering kingdoms - can't wait to see the second part which is being released today. We also went to the Tribal Museum which gave info on the locations, traditions, costumes etc of the hill tribes around Thailand (there are many hill tribes and we've driven through some of their villages). We also saw Chiang Mai zoo, which was a bit sad for obvious reasons, but also nice to see animals I'd never seen before like this huge emu sized blue bird and the white tigers were particularly beautiful to look at- even in their confined landscaped area, they looked so powerful and proud.

During the massage course we were talking with the teacher about going on a road trip, and then just decided "why not?". We set off then and there and Ant got all excited cos we didn't know where we were going - we were just following some route this old biker dude told us about. Ant also neede to get his visa stamped at the border for another month. There are two words I have to say about North Thailand - National Parks. The north is full of them, and not just little ones - huge ones with nature trails, hot springs, one waterfall minimum and all sorts of forest wildlife.

The first town we stopped at was Chiang Do - a much cooler climate up there and very secluded (forest lodge accommodation). This place is well worth a nights stay atleast, because of the beauty and solitude of the place. Thank God there were no mosquitos cos we were surrounded by trees, but it was just too cool for them (I had three duvets on me at night). We ate at a gourmet restaurant there - I had duck mmmmm. We also saw a Wat (temple) there, which was in beautiful forest surroundings so it was quite a climb, but worth it. We saw the famous caves there which were pretty big and go far and deep into the mountain - up to 14 km inside. We had a long but scenic drive to Doi Ang Kang, described in Lonely Planet as 'Little Switzerland' because if you look around, it looks like some mountainous hill resort with small gorgeous bungalows fringing the mountains. We actually arrived there in the dark because 'scenic' also means long and the 'scenic' road we took took a lot longer than we though it would cos it winds round the mountains alot. Because of the altitude, we had to drive mega slow in the heavy mountain mist and that's kind of a bit worrying when you're driving around mountain tops in the dark. We made it eventually anyway, and it was well worth the stay. People there didn't speak much English, but it didn't matter. There was an Agricultural Park there that we went in and saw the most amazing Azalea garden, rose gardens, bonsai and rock gardens, japanese pear and fruit tree gardens, cactus and many other herbs and veg etc growing in landscaped gardens. That was definately a highlight of the trip and the weather was just amazing - sunny, with a light mountain breeze - perfect.

After this we drove along another scenic road during the daytime to Tha Ton - a riverside town. The drive there was particularly enjoyable because of all the orange tree fields we passed coming out of the mountains. People were selling these fresh oranges along the road and we stopped a couple of times to buy some. They were cheap and delicious - I think they were more delicious to us because we were driving through the fields as we were eating them. Nobody could speak English, but they understood the town names so we didn't get lost cos we'd just ask for the town direction. Tha Ton has beautiful riverside accommodation and so we got a gorgeous riverside bungalow facing the river. On the other side of the river we saw some young monks from the monastry up the hill bathing. We got a dirt bike out and Ant took me down some dirt roads in the orange fields where he made me drive. This was particularly difficult for me because 1. this was a taller bike than the others I'd tried, 2. This was a manual where you have to change gears, 3. We were on dirt roads which are harder to drive on, 4. it was night time, 5. The bike kept stalling when it felt like it, 6. It was a very powerful engine so if I didn't let go of the clutch in the right way, we would wheelie and end up in a ditch, so no pressure there! The morning after, we woke up at 5.45 am - no we are not crazy, the monks come down from the hill monastry at 6 to receive offerings of food from people in their offering bowls. We went and gave them loads of fruit and they sang a prayer. We went up during the day to see the huge Buddha statues scattered in the hills and the Wat's (temples). There were little monks (9-14 yrs old) at the laughing Buddha statue. They called us up to show us a cave. It was a very beautiful small cave with Buddha statues inside which we wouldn't have seen otherwise. I felt a bit wierd when we were in the dark and a couple of the young monks behind me brushed against my bum and hand (I'm sure that they're not allowed to touch girls or recive anything directly in their hands from a girl), but Ant just laughed and said they're just kids, which is true. The views from the top of the hill were beautiful.

That afternoon we drove to the border of Burma to get Ant's visa stamped then we made a late, unplanned stop at a town called Phayao which is not mentioned in the guide book - I'm not sure why. Phayao town is built around a huge beautiful lake which is quiet and serene. The National Parks are near by and the place just has a very relaxed atmosphere about it. We saw a group of 9 dogs or so just chilling together, walking around town; what was funny about them was that each one was of a different breed of all shapes and sizes. There were some German and other European tourists there but not many. We drove on the next day to Chae Son National Park. We visited quite a few National Parks in the past week, but my favourite was this one. It has a lovely waterfall with 6 drops and therefore 6 pools, 9 hot springs, and a public spring pool and lots of small private hot spring huts. We did the private..... We actually ended up staying in one of the mountain bungalows that night which was very beautiful. Some of the scenery of these parks is not something I would have originally thought of as Thailand scenery - maybe Canada. The drive back to Chiang Mai was extremely scenic (through the National Park) and very windy, so the 4x4 car came in handy and Ant had some rally driving fun with it splashing through the dirt roads with rivers running through and the bends were extreme so you can imagine the look on my face when he'd put the foot down. We stopped for lunch at a beautifully landscaped lodge/restaurant in the middle of the National Park, called David's Kitchen. The Pad Thai noodles (which we've been eating a lot of lately) was exceptional.

Sorry this entry's been so long, you can all have a coffe break now or better still, a hot chocolate break. Hoping to hear more news from you all soon. We are staying in Chiang Mai for another few days for Ant to do the advanced Thai massage course, and then not sure where we'll be from then but in about 2 weeks time we're off to Bali for three weeks - no plans yet, but that's the best way. Love from me xxxx