20th January 85 dorrar for the flight to Chiang Mai this morning is not too bad. However, when you consider the supposed safety record for Lao airlines over the past few decades maybe 85 dorrar was peanuts if they get us there in one piece. The small plane turns up and our worries increase when we see the propellers powering the thing. It has arrived from Vientiane and only about half the passengers get off. The weather is pretty warm again, about 25 degrees and sunny, at least it'll be a nice day to die. We board the plane on time (not too difficult when there are only 2 flights a day from Luang Prabang and the plane seats only about 50 people) and we can instantly see the trim coming away from the insides of the aircraft. Still as long as it flies that's the main thing! We take off on time and one can't help feeling that if there's an accident on the runway then the fire engines won't exactly be queuing up to save us. In all truth the flight passed without too many problems, the customary Laos friendliness and good nature puts us at our ease and we land at about 13.00hrs after a 55 minute flight. As we gather our first thoughts of Chiang Mai we are struck by the friendliness of the locals in a genuine way and not as forced as we saw in Vietnam. We check into a not-so-luxurious 7.50 dorrar a night hotel which is basic and looks like a former mental asylum (So Stu's at home then!). Well it's clean at least but with no TV. It is quite amazing how our acceptance of living standards has changed over the last 2 months, at first we only stayed in posh hotels whilst we found our feet and now we are quite willing to 'slum' it in cheapie hotels where the shower doesn't really work and you have to reach over the toilet to turn it from cold to luke warm. Doesn't that mean the place has character though? (i.e. in need of a re-furb). The weather is pretty warm again and thankfully not really any different to Luang Prabang. We have a late lunch (Stu has spicy sausage salad and fairly lays into the onion, Amy is not pleased) and take a walk around town to get our bearings. We stop in a bar and Stu whips Amy at pool a few times. Afterwards we go to the legendary night bazaar and it's similar to many of the night markets we have already seen with too many stalls all selling almost exactly the same things. There are some nice silk wears though and in our not really interested state of mind we are able to do some fantastic bartering before walking away empty handed. Stu notices that it is Friday (cos Spurs are playing on TV tomorrow) and so we head off in search of the Friday night curry. We head for a vegetarian option in a small eatery and the fair is pretty good with the Samosas definitely the highlight. Saturday 21st January We have a bit of a lie in this morning and head down to breakfast just down the road. The vanilla milkshake is simply divine as well as the ice coffee and scrambled eggs on toast. The sun is shining down again and it's an uncomfortable 25 ish degrees. This is the life. We decide to see some more Wats because plainly we have not yet seen enough. Stu is immediately drawn to the temple called Wat U Mong (yes we did get the photo) and he can't believe this one wasn't named as some sort of piss take. On the way we meet our first 'friendly' local as we had so many previously in Bangkok. It's the same flin flannery every time, they get talking to you wanting to know your name, where you are from then they describe what they do, normally some sort of student or government official. A discussion then follows where your new 'friend' gives you a great piece of advice saying something like it's really lucky you are here today as this evening there is a procession of 1000 monks or some other codswallop. You of course are immediately thankful about this vital piece of tourist information and your new friend supposedly has you onside. This process is known as the softening up and on more than one occasion we have caught ourselves falling for it. Next comes the selling bit where your new 'friend' tries to give you more advice about some really cheap suits or other stuff. Before we would have fallen for it but now we can confidently say that we bought them much cheaper in Hoi An so b***** off! As the day passes we meet another of these friendly locals and before they even say anything Stu has them down as scammers. We get a tuk-tuk to the tribal museum only to learn that it is shut for the day. Nevermind. We have lunch by the river listening to a local band practising for the evening so any peace is ruined. Dinner is at a local street stall, beef and noodle soup which at 25 baht (30p) is fantastic value. Then it's off to the pub to watch the first of 2 live games, the scum lose to Everton and Spurs can't manage to beat the Villa even when playing against 10 men for the last few minutes. Perhaps the slide to mid-table obscurity is about to begin. Bed. Sunday 22nd January Today we are off for a day trip to see the long necked Karen tribal women. As these ladies have decided to live about 4 hrs by minibus away, thrown into the package are a trip to see orchid and butterfly farms (wow!) a big Buddha on a hill (not seen that before either) and a limestone cave (been there, got the T-shirt). Needless to say we are fairly unimpressed and all we want to do is gawk at the incredibly long necked ones. On the way we learnt that the tribes we are going to see are originally from the Thai/Burma border and have moved within touching distance one suspects simply for ease of the tourists. Apparently they get 50 baht (75p ish) for every visitor who enters their village. What we also learn is that they have to start wearing the brass spring weights (note that they are not actually ringlets) from the age of five. With each birthday they get a special prize, an extra layer. Depending how stretchy they are they can fit a coil up to 26 rings. We also learn that it's not actually the neck that is stretched it's just the shoulders that are pushed down and the ladies can take the weights off but are then very susceptible to breaking their necks as their neck muscles are not very strong. As we arrive the girls carry out some traditional weaving but one suspects that their hearts are not in it. They generally don't look too pleased to see us and have real difficulty turning their necks (not surprising really) and look simply uncomfortable. I ask them why they are all called Karen but they don't understand English. One of the mysteries of the world thus remains unsolved. We depart and head back to Chiang Mai, the driver thinks he is Michael Schumacher (don't they all round here) and we have to tell him to slow down before he gets us all killed. We arrive back fairly exhausted and relatively disappointed in the whole trip really. Dinner is taken at the local street stall again, this time it's pork and noodle soup. If the daily night bazaar wasn't enough they have a humungous Sunday market. We have a stroll around and buy some prezzies (including a dodgy Thai CD) and then it's back to the hotel for a quick pack and bed. Tomorrow we are off to Sukhothai by bus, another one of Thailand's previous capitals. We enjoyed Chaing Mai greatly, it has a certain suburban feel about it. It is clear that a lot of expats live here, shacked up with their little Thai brides to be. Maybe this is like the kind of waiting area before the green cards are dished out. Whatever the reason, there are plenty of Brits around and where there are Brits there are pubs and where there's pubs there's beer! Our kind of place. What's our favourite beer at present? - Singha beer, not as expensive as Tiger but as least it doesn't have formaldehyde in (Chang beer). Lots of Love Stu & Amy.