Hello again.

The bus up to Chaing Mai was pretty uneventful. I couldn't sleep for the duration of the trip so i just read and played cards with myself because Jess was zonked out on the back seat! Once there we checked into our hotel which is basically a bit concrete block but at least we have somewhere to stay! We went out that evening to check out the night scene but couldn't fnid anywhere busy. There are a lot of old european or american men up here because of the abundance of thai prostitutes.

On the 10th we had a bit of a lazy day. We wondered around the Pae gate area and managed to book ourselves into a cookery course for the next day. In the afternoon we snuck into a better looking hotel and lounged by their pool and spent a few hours swimming and soaking up the sun. That evening we went back out to reasses the nightlife. We found this really good drum and bass bar called 'The rooftop cafe' which is full of travellers sat around on the floor chatting and drinking. We met 2 girls from england and their crazy thai friend who they had met in Pai. We ended up playing 'Ring of fire' (with a completely different set of rules to ours) for a while before heading off to bed.

The 11th was an early start for us. We were picked up at 9.30 from our hotel and taken to the Gap's cooking school which is set just outside the city. The teacher was this really eccentric man called Joe who started calling me "laura" which quickly turned to 'Lou-Lou' which after going off on a tangent about the telitubbies soon became 'La-La'. We learnt to make green curry paste, jasmine rice, green curry chicken, stir fried chicken with cashew nut (my personal favouite), fish souffle, thai fish cakes, spicy and sour lemongrass soup with shrimp, thai spring rolls, Pad Thai (fried noodles), and finally steamed pumpking with coconut custard as well as learning how to make those little flowers made from tomato skin. So it was a very busy day for us with lots and lots of cooking! We ate half the food that we cooked for lunch and took the rest of it back with us to have for dinner. We were also given a cook book which included the recipies we had just used and a certificate to say that we had done it, so you can all expect some scrummy thai food coming your way once i get back! Once we had got back and had eaten the last of our master peices, we headed out to the night market which is about 2 minutes away in a tuk-tuk. We spent about 4 hours wondering around this huge market set up along the streets. We spent more than we should on things we don't really need but had a good time doing so, so i think that makes it okay! Afterwards we went back to 'The rooftop bar' where we met a few people from Holland.

The 12th was a bit of another lazy day. We slept in until about 12 (due to the insanely busy day before) and then wondered up to have some brunch. It was the first day of Songkran (thai new year) so dispite our best efforts to stay dry, by the time we reached the cafe we were soaked through! It is traditonal to sprinkly water on family members to wish them good luck for the new year and wash away the old and this tradition had escalated into a huge 3 day long water fight involving anyone who is crazy enough to venture onto the streets! We spent the afternoon by the pool again lazing around. That evening we mustered up enough energy to go back to 'The rooftop bar' (again!) where we met a lovely couple (he is from Stoke-on-trent, she is from Sweden) who convinced us to (a) drink more than we were planning to - we ended up sharing a bucket of Thai wiskey and coke and (b) venture out to this dive of a club called 'Spicy'. We got to spicy and mutually decided that it was a horrible place to be so got a table outside and sat around chatting for a few hours.

Today (Monday 13th) Jess and I brought ourselves 2 buckets and took to the streets for the water fight. It was a really amazing experiance. The whole street is lined with people with water guns and buckets soaking each other and passing cars in such a light hearted happy way. Everybody is involved from little children to their grandparents, it is so much fun walking up and down the street pouring buckets of ice cold water over a complete stranger's head! Needless to say withing seconds we lokoed as though we had just been for a swim fully clothed! After a few hours we bumped into the couple who we had met the night before and we 'joined forces' to fight against the world but ended up soaking each other more than anyone else. This evening we are heading back to 'The rooftop bar' (4th night in a row, but it seems to be the best place to be!).

I hope you all had a good easter weekend. Thank you to Nana and Grandad for my money, it is much appreciated especially with the speed i am spending at the moment!!
Lots of love
xxxxx