After about 5hrs much needed sleep it was time to pack our bags again and and leave Bangkok (neither of us are sad about this). Due to the floods between here and Chiang Mai we decided to spend a little more and get a flight up. £40 each with free snack and drink was much more appealing than a minimum 12hr bus journey overnight!

We were both expecting a shabby prop'd aircraft to take us up; we were relieved to see the same jets Ryan Air etc. use and the service was really good. After the flight which took about 1.5hrs we jumped a taxi to our guesthouse, it's a lovely little place about 10-15 minutes walk from the busier areas and the owner is Swiss with really good English!

So where did we go first you must be thinking?? First night . . .new town full of bars, restaurants, night markets etc. . . . .Our first stop was the local hospital! Three nasty bites on Sinead's ankle a couple of days before we left Bangkok caused it to gradually swell up! The flight to Chiang Mai seemed to make it worse and the nickname 'clubby' didn't go down too well!

Slightly reluctant to use the Thai hospital for fear of poor service and high costs (how cynical), we were registered, seen by nurse, doctor, then pharmacist and out in 40 mins only £20 lighter with a pocket full of drugs! The hospital was about a mile from our accomodation so we had to use the local '

song thaew', a shared taxi made from a converted pick-up truck. They seem to be different colours for different routes, you basically wave 'em down, tell 'em where you want to go and if they're heading in that direction you pay around 40pence each and hop on!

After Sinead's ordeal we decided to head out for dinner! The closest restaurant would have to do tonight! We found a little rustic antique shop that had a lovely back garden on the river with really tasty Thai food and a romantic setting (shame Sinead wasn't feeling it :) ) We had a spicy papaya salad with our meal that our friend Buj had recommended, we asked for above medium heat; I don't know where their medium bar was but this was SPICY! We battled through though as it was awesome!

Off we hobbled back to the accomodation for a quiet night!

Today was going to be a lazy day while Sinead rested up her leg . . .then we came up with a plan! Scooter! We managed to get a practically new little honda manual scooter for 150Bhat for 24hrs (a mere £3 and it only cost £2 for a full tank of fuel!!!) We explored the old city with Matt trying to navigate the crazies on the road and the poorly sign-posted one-way sections. After a couple more temples were checked off, we got some street food, chicken goujons and filo covered quails eggs with a sweet chilli sauce - yum! We're back chilling at our room now while Sinead lets her ankle rest some more!

Off to check out the night markets and get some food soon so we'll catch ya later!

p.s. Don't scoot about Thailand for half the day in the scorching sun with no sun cream on!

S&M