Friday 17th July 2009, Pattaya to Chiang Mai

Well we left rauchy old Pattaya at about 9:30am thanks to Phil and Nid. The drive to Bangkok took just over an hour and a half and after a bit of hanging around Bangkok with Phil (Nid was at the embassy) we made it too the airport at about 2:30pm. Our flight was meant to be at 15:50 but was delayed by half an hour. So after grabbing some food we made our way to the departures lounge and waited a bit longer before boarding our flight to Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is about 700km northwest of Bangkok. It is the capital of the north and it is a moated and walled city. Surrounded by mountains and jungles for trekking etc.

We arrived in Chiang Mai at just after 6pm and caught a taxi into the city. We had decided to try Julie's Guesthouse as it sounded okay in the Lonely Planet and a lady at the airport also suggested it. Well we got there and for the first time in 3 months we found that the place was full and heaving. We were only there for 5 minutes and in that time we saw at least 3 other groups turned away and when we went back later for a drink it was the same story!! Its a popular place!

Anyway from here we tried The Happy House, it was ok but it should be called The Grumpy Old Woman House as the lady working there was dismal! And then just too annoy her a bit more I stayed in the foyer with a drink and ALL the bags whilst Caroline went off too have a look at a few more guesthouses. We eventually decided on Lanna Discovery Guesthouse which was basic but clean.

After checking in we went out to find some foods and check out our surroundings. Whilst having a look around we bumped into Lex and Gareth from before. We had a chat with them and they gave us some tips on Chiang Mai (it was their 3rd time here), before heading in the direction of the night bazaar. The Night Bazaar is basically a big market that is there every night from 5pm onwards. They also have a food section and because by now it was about 9pm we went straight for food and only had a small look at the market. We both had Thai food tonight, Caroline a red curry and I had Pad Thai. On leaving the food area it was raining and this forced Caroline to have to buy a very fetching rain coat (she'd left her umbrella at home), it was lovely!!! On our way home we stopped for a beer before heading to bed about midnight.

Saturday 18th July 2009, Chiang Mai

We rose today about 9:30am and after showering and dressing we went to the Bunny Juice Cafe bar for breakfast. We both had fruit ,yogurt and museli along with smoothies and coffee-very nice and a good start to the day. Today was explore Chiang Mai day, so we just set off in the direction of the moat and walked. Chiang Mai has the moated area which is where we were staying and then the area outside the moat, which is where the night Bazaar was.

Chiang Mai has in excess of 300 temples so where ever you walk you are going to come across a few. The first one we came across was Wat Phan Tao. We just had a look from the outside as we were both in shorts and vests, and there was a sign asking people who were not dressed appropriately not to go inside, which we respected. But the next one we went to was a different story.

First of all we had to walk throughy the Northern Gate which is called Pratu Tha Phae and from here we just walked straight ahead, calling in at Boots and enquiring at the Dentist for Caroline on the way. The next temple/Wat we came too was the very interesting Wat Mahawan. It had lots of model animals in the gardens and was very colourful. Here they were happy to let us in with just shorts and vests on. We are very confused about how it works!! First of all at Wat Mahawan we had a look at an older smaller part of the temple where we were greated by an older monk who was happy to see us. We sat down with him where he had us repeat after him (in Thai) various Buddhist words and then he blessed us, this included water. At the end he also gave us yellow bracelets which are meant to keep you from accident for 100 years. How true this is we will never know but we are still wearing them now, just in case!!!! But more impressive was how he put them on. Monks are not allowed too touch woman so we were both impressed at how he managed to put them on without touching us!! From here we went into the main temple of the Wat and here we got talking to another younger monk who was quite happy to sit and talk too us and another girl about some of their beliefs. It was very interesting but still Buddhism to us is quite confusing!

After the Wat we decided to try and find the Muay Thai Boxing place to get tickets for tonight. This didn't prove too difficult, thankfully. Once we had tickets we then went too a coffee cafe/restaurant and had some luch. After lunch we set off again insearch of the Chiang Mai Arts and Cultural Centre.

The Chiang Mai Arts and Cultural centre is housed in the fornmer Provincial Hall originally built in 1924. The centre itself is 15 rooms of displays starting from Pre-Historic through to today. It was really interesting but maybe slightly long. Alot of information to take in but it was also interactive which was good. The displays on people's houses and farming displays were really well designed and wonderfully made. We were there for about 2-3 hours before coming out and admiring the 3 King Monument infront of it. The Bronze sculptures portray men standing in 14th century royal costume. They represent the three northern Thai-Lao kings most associated with Lanna history.

By now it was nearing 5pm and we wanted too book some trips for the next few days but also we both needed to buy some decent footwear to do it in. By now both of us were down to just flip flops which day to day is great, its all we wear. But for trekking etc we needed new footwear. So from where we were we had too cross back over the moat again and head to the Night Bazzar. Because we were quite early for the night Bazzar there weren't many stalls open but thankfully for us there were a couple with footwear. Caroline got some slip on trainers and I got some walking sandals. Not the most fashionable of item but they do the job!! From here we walked back to our street and then went to Julie's to book 2 tours for the next 2 days. Keep reading too find out what!!

After this we went to the night bazzar food area and had some dinner and then we arrived at the boxing just before 9pm. Typical Thai but it was meant to start at 9:15pm but it didn't kick off untill 9:40pm. The great thing for us though was that we had brought our tickets from the lady who owned the boxing shop so we got ringside seats!! The "stadium" was in a heavily populated bar area so it was possible to have a beer and smoke a fag whilst watching and all whilst being served by a lady boy or 2!! Great fun!! We both really enjoyed the boxing, they started the fighting with young boys fighting and then we had a mixture of older boys and men and we also had a couple of lady fights. They we certainly more viscious than the men. It all finished at just after midnight and we headed straight home as we were due to get up at 5:30am in the morning!!! Oh My God!!!

Sunday 19th July 2009, Chiang Mai

Well what an early start!! But it was worth it!!

We were up at about 5:30am to get ready, and had to be at Julie's for a 6:30am pick up!! Today was Jungle Flight day. After picking us up there was one more pick up of European students (they were all studying at Chiang Mai Uni for a month) and then it was an hour and half drive to the start point. The drive took us up mountains along very twisty roads until we reached the centre which was on the edge of the jungle. At this point we were about 1000m above sea level so lots of ear popping was needed.

Jungle Flight is as it sounds, flying through the jungle on a mixture of zip wires, swing bridges, spiral staircases and absails without a wall!! The main part was the zip wires and it was awesome!! We set out about 8:30am after having a cup of coffee and a quick briefing. Originally we had only signed up and paid for Zone A but once we got to platform 14 we decided along with most in the group to go on and do Zone B. This then included the longest Zip wire of 330m and the highest Absail of 40m. Scary but fun. Thankfully we had some very lovely and experienced guides who pretty much did everything for us so there was never real any worry on safety!! Half way through we also took a walk to a waterfall. Ok down but god it was steep on the way back!! The whole experience lasted until about 3pm and then we were fed. This was a fantastic moment for us all as none of us had had breakfast so as you can imagine we were starving!!! After food it was goodbye time and the long twisty drive back to Chiang Mai. We arrived back in Chiang Mai at about 4:30pm and we went straight for smoothies at Bunny Juice Bar.

After this we got changed, made a couple of Skype calls and then went too the Sunday Night Walking Street Market. Its huge and open between 5pm and midnight every Sunday. Its mainly clothes and crafts and there's music every where. We had a walk around and had street food for dinner before eventually deciding at about 22:30 that we were both too knackered too really enjoy it any more and so we headed to bed!!!

Monday 20th July 2009, Chiang Mai

Another early start but not as early as yesterday, thank god. We were ready for pick up by 8:30am after making sure our coffee intake was up! Today was a mixture of trekking, rafting and elephant riding. The area for the day was about an hour and a half away from Chiang Mai city. The group size was about 12 of us and our transport for today was a truck. But surprisenly it was semi comfortable and again surprisenly to us all it was also ok for sleeping.

Our first stop today was to a hill tribe village. The village was made up of 30 families all living in bamboo/straw houses and they were all members of the Akha tribe. The peole we saw were all wearing fairly colourfu;l clothes and head dresses. HOw much of this was for tourists is unknown but it was nice all the same. They were also selling locals crafts and arts.

From here it was another 10 minute drive to the elephant camp for elephant riding. Now Caroline and I were not really looking forward to this part due to our bad experience in Cambodia but we are now glad to say this place has now restored our confidence. The mahouts (elephant drivers/trainers) were a lot better and nicer. The elephants here were alot better treated than we had seen before. 100 times better experience!!!! After the elephant ride we all had lunch which unfortunatly was prety plain and boring. Vegetable and chicken rice with fruit for afterwards. It may not have been great but it filled a hole!!

From here it was the trekking part. Nothing too hard. An hour walk to a waterfall over rocks and up some small hills. Once there we all had about 20 minutes swimming time (cold but fun) before making the same walk back down. It was slippy in places but generally not a bad walk.

After this we went rafting!! It was great fun and reminded me how much fun rafting is. This was the point we both decided that we needed to do more White water rafting!! The rafting lasted about 40 minutes and then we finished off the day chilling and sinking on a bamboo raft. Not as much fun but still good although by the end we were geting pretty cold especially when the heavens opened. After we had all got out of our wet clothes we then had hot drinks before heading back to Chiang Mai.

Once back in Chiang Mai we decided that we might meet up with 2 of the others we had met today and go to the Muay Thai Boxing again that night but first it was coffee and smnoothies at Bunny Juice bar.

From here it was change and food but because it was geting late we headed to the place where we thought the boxing was going to take place only to discover it was at the other place in town. We weren't really sure where this was and because the start time had been and gone we decided against it. This was until a tout approached us and said timing was not a problem (we are in Thailand) and the tuk tuk was free. So as we both really wanted to go again, in we jumped. Just by coincidence we arrived at exactly the same time as Emma and Sam so we all sat together. Caroline and I had food in the areana as we hadn't eaten. We all had several beers and by the time the boxing had finished we had acquired an American guy (who quite liked Caroline) and we all went out afterwards. The boxing was good but not as good as Saturday night. For some reason they seem to think putting an English fight and Irish fight with not very good Thai boxers is going to make us think our home nationalities are good. It didn't, we just thought they looked a pair of prats!! Thankfully this was only the last 2 fights the others were all Thais. So much better!!

Tonight was a late one and for Caroline her second snog of the trip!!!

Tuesday 21st July 2009, Chiang Mai-Pai

Today was serious hangover and tiredness day-not good for traveling!!

We didn't leave Chiang Mai until about 2pm and we took the local bus, scary, to Pai arriving about 6pm. See Pai for the rest