Day 1

We have finally arrived in Chiang Mai, its been a long wait with all the troubles in Bangkok but it has been well worth it and that shows as I have not been providing you all with a day by day update on our travels. So I thought I would do it all in one as were now back in Bangkok awaiting our train to Surat.

On arrival in Chiang Mai we jumped straight in a tuk tuk and headed for Th Tha Phae Road where we sought accommodation, the guest house we found 'Little Home' was not the cheapest available but was just off the main road running around the old city and was an ideal location to get around Chiang Mai after a bit of bartering we agreed to pay 300 baht a night instead of 350 if we stayed for 6 nights which we were happy to do, a good result we thinks. After a hectic train journey with little sleep we were not in the mood for doing too much so we grabbed some food and had a gentle stroll around the area to get our barrings, come evening we decided that we would check out the famous night bazaar which was only a 10 minute walk away where we pigged out on BBQ snapper fish and pineapple rice.

Day 2

Now the fun started, refreshed (sort of) we awoke to the sound of Thai's blasting adverts out from there minivans, a nation that does not generally like voices being raised they see it as some what fit to shout out of make shift karaoke machines off the back of there cars at 7.30 in the morning to advertise the latest.... whatever! So we decided that as it was Sunday and from 4pm Chiang Mai closes one of its busiest streets for a walking market we would keep our energy for that, so we spent the day walking around a number of temples as the pictures show, believe me, once you have viewed all the pictures of temples you will be as 'wat'ed out as we are. The temples around Chiang Mai, although looking similar in the photos all have different stories and different reasons for being built, as you hunt around you find temples that have a better design and are better on the eye, the highlight of the temples was 'Wat Lokmoli', a temple made out of Teak wood and offset just outside of the old city, it had a nice green setting with a number of tree leaves sprayed gold adding to its glow. after a day of searching the temples we set off down the Sunday walking market a challenge as the size was just mental. A road completely transformed from day time traffic the market seemed endless with countless numbers of stall, selling everything from clothes, food and even puppies! The night was a challenge for me as shopping with a lady is not my foretay but Rach did good in fighting her temptation to buy anything although she very nearly spent out on a 1 week old dog, instead we settled for Pad Thai wrapped in omelet and a fruit shake.

Day 3

After a long wait for this day I finally did my cooking course a lesson in Thai spices, food and preparation,I learnt the lot. A morning spent in the local market being shown all the different types of veg used to make the delicious flavours of Thai cuisine. Although the rat we spotted on the BBQ was slightly less tasteful, thankfully that was not on the menu. After all the ingredients were brought we spent the day cooking a range of dishes which included, chicken with cashew nuts, hot and spicy prawn soup, penang curry, spring rolls and sticky rice with mango, a right feast which I may prepare for some of you when I get back, although I feel that the ingredients may be slightly harder and more expensive to come by, "Pay rise Ben :)" After cooking and eating all day I went on the hunt for Rachel who had spent the day by the pool at a swanky hotel improving her feeble tan lol, but dont worry auntie Sue I made sure the sun cream was packed although I cant guarantee the factor would be up to your standards. After a bit of hunting around I guessed she had left the pool as the sun had fallen behind the hotel and I found her slumped in a Internet cafe looking at her photos load up at about 1mb a minute, "for the less computer orientated person that pretty dam slow" Come evening we headed back down the Night Bazaar as if we had not spent the previous night shopping! we had some more pineapple rice and went for a beer, while watching some football :)

Day 4

Day four began nice and early at 7.50am, where we had to get outside the guest house to meet our trekking team for the day, at 8am, "not that I was dawdling as usual" As the pickup truck arrived we hoped in the back where we were greeted by two large German lads and 2 quiet French girls, a good combination of European travellers. We set off on the hours journey to an orchid and butterfly farm where we found there to be a massive selection of 6 orchids not that I knew what they were, sorry mum and about 10 butterflies as the owners had failed to realise the great big hole in the roof of the enclosure. We continued the journey up to our main trekking zone round an extremely bendy and immensely dusty dirt track about 10km south of Pai where we really started our one day trek. We jumped out of the truck and on too our elephant who took us about 3km further inland. It brought memories back of riding a camel in Lanzzarote where instead of spitting out elephant had a slight wind problem. "It may have had something to do with the 20 odd bananas we fed him in the first kilometre." We then set off on an hours walk to a near by water fall passing a massive bee's and ants nest of the way and climbing over fallen trees and numerous watery stepping stones, we sat for lunch with the crashing of water in front of us and pad Thai wrapped in banana leaf. After a hike back we headed for the river where we started our watery part of the trip, after dressing in the suitable attire we got on out dingy and started riding the rapids, as you can imagine with two rather large German on board it was not too steady and we ended up in the water on the first rapid, with more rapids to come me and Rach were heading down in the water but my hero instincts kicked in as I chucked Rach on to the boat and then clambered my way back on board, "with a little help from some German muscle" Now a hero and Rachel thankful we set off again staying inside the boat for now. Half way down the river we left the paddles behind and jumped on to our bamboo raft where once again we spent a lot of the time in the water rather than on the raft. After a long day we set off back to Chiang Mai both satisfies that it was money very well spent with a little help from German humour and a tour guide who found it funny to say he had taken us to Burma.

Day 5

As the photos showed we spent the day playing with 'stuffed tigers', "yeah right these things were very much alive". We headed out on to the main street to grab a tuk tuk to the tiger kingdom, knowing that the drivers collect commission for taking you there we paid 150 baht for a return journey, an hours trip in total so that was a result. When we arrived it was like being in a haw house as we opened up the book to decide what tigers to play with. Okay in regards to that firstly I have never been in a haw house and secondly for those of you who are reading this blog with a dirty mind 'playing with the tigers'... you know what I mean. We were taken up to the cages where we were first introduced to the 3 to 5 month old tigers, most of the time they were happy for us to rub there bellies while they got some shut eye although towards the end they sat up and stood tall in there beauty not threatening us in the slightest. After seeing the younger ones we went off to see the big cats, fully grown 20 month old tigers. Like the younger ones very tame but very much bigger, as I sat down at first it was like a big dog, he placed his back paw on my shoulder and let me coax him while he lay in the afternoon sun, after awhile of Rachel laying with him posing for the camera he sat up "facebook photo" a real sight I was sitting next to a fully grown tiger purring away, "not like Tigger next door" the colours and strength that we could only imagine seeing on TV were sitting by our side, a memory me nor Rachel will forget. After our day with the tigers we Set off back to Chiang Mai where a car decided not to stop and rammed in to the back of our tuk tuk, Okay Dad maybe they are slightly dangerous but unfortunately I don't think they sue like the Americans do so we just continued on our journey. In the evening we set off to a bar just down the road to us where they Thai girls encouraged us or me in to playing pool for drinks, as you can imagine I think we came off slightly worse, but who knew Thai girls could play pool so well...

Day 6

As our time in Chiang Mai grew short we felt it o\would be rude of not to visit Chiang Mai's most famous temple, offset in the hills overlooking the city sits, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. A gem on the hill we climbed the mountain in a sawngthaew "a pick up truck with seats" and jumped out at the foot of the temple. We headed up the 306 steps to the temple door where we spent the morning looking around the holy grounds and the views over Chiang Mai although they were slightly distorted by the smog. After grabbing Chiang Mai's favoured dish of Khao Soi 'noodles in yellow curry with chicken with a side of red onion and cabbage' we headed back down the hill, more due to the fact that I finally sur-come to a bad belly, "although we will leave the details thin its rather painful and draining." We spent the evening on the net where we discovered Skype which was awesome a a far better way to chill on a budget than getting rapped at pool by some Thai chicks.

Day 7

Our time had finished in Chiang Mai is over after a good few days here we have to move on to get down to Ko Samui for Christmas and hopefully some hot sunny weather, not that it has not been hot here but the Thai's seem to think its winter as they have been walking round in hat's and scalf's! If only they tried going to Briton. We caught the train to Bangkok at 14.50, a journey that did not disappoint in its 15 hours of sleepless rocking. We arrived at Bangkok train station at a little past 5am where we dumped the bags in the hope that they will still be there when we get back tonight for our train to Surat. Well that's about it for now as I sit here in Bangkok killing the day with writing the blog, a great way to spend little money, however I believe we are heading to Bangkok's biggest market shortly at Chatuchak park, hopefully we can resist the urge to spend out on the musical frogs!