Tuesday 30th October

The bus rolls into the station at 4pm, 6 hours of watching the world go by. Watching flat landscapes evolve into rolling hills and then mountains covered in lush greenery. I have been waiting to see this landscape again. My 1st visit to Chiang Mai and northern Thailand was etched in my memory through the jungle landscapes. We headed straight for Diva Guesthouse for our 5 night stay. First impressions are great of this lovely hostel and its welcoming staff. For around £7 per night, this place was fantastic! We didn't have much energy so went for a little bimble up the street and then found somewhere for dinner. It came to a purse straining £5 for both of us to eat & drink! The markets are even cheaper to eat from over here but at that low price we're just as happy eating in small restaurnts.

Wedneday 31st October

The hostel has lots of advise on what activities we can do while we're here, if we did all of them we reckon we'd be here for a month so we try and narrow it down. We go for a rest day, activity day, rest day approach and book with the hostel.
There are so many markets in Chiang Mai so we go for a wander outside of the walled city to discover one of them. In a 20 minute walk we are in locals territory looking at stunning fresh cut flowers in the flower market and get lost in a maze of multi storey market buildings. Most tend to have food stalls on the bottom (a definite challenge to the nostrils!) then clothes and household items in the floors above. We window shopped until we dropped and stopped at a small place in Chinatown to eat and people watch.
I couldn't wait any longer as i was desparate for the challenge of a thai massage and there was a great place right opposite our hostel so as soon we got back i headed over there whilst Sy set about the mammoth task of editing the photos from the broken hard drive in Myanmar. I am no stranger to Thai massage but i had forgotten how brutal it can be as i was bent, twisted, pulled and cracked for the hour. It's definitely worth it but you do feel a bit abused as you leave!

Was strange being in a foreign country as i checked facebook and everyone was busy celebrating Halloween, posting their best ghoulish photos up. A concept that just isnt visible here. We saw one shop that was selling fancy dress and one local dressed up who worked in a local cafe but other than that it felt like any other day. Pick up for tomorrow's activity was at 8.30 am and we were both really excited!

Click here to view our Thailand photos