Day 1

We got to the train station having been driven by a lad of a taxi driver. We arrived in good time, grabbed some food and boarded. We found a carriage marked '2', got to our bunks and put our stuff down. When the ticket inspector arrived, it transpired that we were not in carriage 2 but the second class section and we were shunted down the train. It turned out that another person in our carriage had done the same thing, an Irishman called Eddie, and we trooped down the train like refugees.

The journey was fine, even if sleep was a little hard to come by, and we arrived on time the next morning. After some inspired haggling, we got a cheap lift into the city centre and sniffed out a restaurant serving tasty noodles. Feeling nourished, we (eventually) found our hostel, had a nap, washed, and set out into the centre. Chiang Mai is lovely, a welcome change from the hurly burly of Bangkok with a laid back atmosphere and plenty of things to do. We went to check out the night market, stopping at a temple on the way. The night market was fairly westernised, with little being sold that wasn't available on Khoasan Road in Bangkok. It rained heavily for a short period, but we were safely ensconced in the food area! Next, we went to watch a Muay Thai contest, something that we had meant to do in Bangkok but hadn't got round to. The place was full to capacity, though with perhaps 80 percent of the audience being westerners. At first we wondered what we had let ourselves in for as the first 2 bouts featured fighters that couldn't have been older than 10. Luckily, the age and standard went up and we had a good time. There were contentious decisions by the judges, as well as a knock out; the hallmarks of a good show. We got chatting to the table in front of us, a group of Irish people, and went out for a few drinks afterwards. We went to a couple of pubs, nothing too crazy, even if the last pub seemed to contain a few women of quesionable virtue on the lookout. That aside, we really enjoyed the 'craic' and arranged to meet up the next day to go to visit tigers but this, perhaps unsurprisingly given the 10am starting time, fell through.

Day 2

We woke up, I handwashed a couple of t-shirts to keep me going and we headed out for a wander in the area surrounding the hostel. We bumped into a couple of the guys from the dorm, Bram (Dutch) and Eric (English) and grabbed some lunch. Sated, we had a wonder round Chiang Mai and made plans for the next day. They went off to meet up with a friend from their hostel in Bangkok and we went back for a nap. After our nap, we went into Chiang Mai, got lost, inadvertantly found the red light district before stumbling upon a popular food stall and ordered. It was only when we sat down that we realised we were at the same place as Eric and Bram, who was with their friend and Daria (Amercican), a new arrival in the dorm. We ate well, the girl left and the 5 of us went to find a bar.

After a couple of false dawns, we found a really cool area around the 'Reggae Bar', where there were a few different bars in a courtyard and plenty of outdoor tables. We played pool on 'Chiang Mai's Worst Pool Table' (they actually had a sign), chatted to some other people in the bar and got to know everyone. Daria was from Colorado, Bram from Utrecht and Eric from Clapham. We had some high level cultural exchanges (well, swapped dirty phrases) and set up a table outside. The people from the bar joined us and we settled down to play some 'I've Never' to break the ice. For a while it seemed that everyone round the table was from near London but thankfully even more people joined the group and we had people from everywhere (even some Finns - my knowledge of Finnish football teams proving invaluable). A couple more Americans turned up and one of them turned out to live 10 minutes from Daria. After discussing how small the world is etc etc, the other American promptly got attacked by a 9 yr old Thai kid selling flowers, who took aggressive sales techniques to a whole new level with punches to the arm and cushion shots to the face. Not sure whether to laugh or push the kid away, the American quickly scurried off as the barman told the kid to go.

Aggressive children aside (or including?), we had a great time meeting so many new people and left just after 12, promising to see everyone in the same place tomorrow - giving us 24 hours to remember people's names.

Day 3

We woke and, after last night's fun, decided to extend our stay in the hostel. Unfortuantely, they had a spate of arrivals and were fully booked and thus we had to check out. They couldn't get rid of us that easily. Rather than go and find a new hostel, we put the our bags in the storage room and pressed ahead with our plan - riding a scooted up the adjacent mountain, as recommended by the guidebook and everyone we had spoken to, where we were promised waterfalls, an impressive monastry and panoramic views of Chiang Mai. We hired the scooters, donned helmets and set off. Tom had ridden before and quickly got the hang of it. I was unused to it and set off cautiously. One close call aside, I grew in confidence and began to really enjoy it.

We got to the waterfalls and were suitably impressed. There were few other visitors and it felt as though we had them to ourselves. We climbed to the pool, in doing so I fell over continously (hence the look of triumph in the photo!). I had all my stuff in my pockets and so couldn't dive in, though Tom had no such issues and throughly enjoyed himself, taking his first shower of the trip in the plunge pool*.

* This might not be 100 percent true

We dried off and headed up to the temple. Once we had climbed the huge, Rocky-esque stairwell we were rewarded with a beautiful temple, though slightly spoiled by the coachload of Korean (I think) school children that beat us there. C.F. Baines would have been proud as the temple reminded us of those in Sri Lanka, though the dogs weren't that impressed, marking their territory on the relics. The view over the side wall was breathtaking, with everyone stopping to be photographed in front of the Chiang Mai backdrop.

We came down the mountain and back into Chiang Mai, our scooters proving invaluable as they allowed us to weave through the rush hour traffic. We dropped our bikes off in one peice, picked our bags up from the hostel and headed into the centre to find a bed. We went to the renowned Julie's Guesthouse and were surprised at being able to get a place (it was 6pm) and at the price (80 baht a night - roughly 1.60 in pounds). The room was perfectly acceptable and our roomates Alisa and Sarah (I think!) were lovely, which was lucky as we keep bumping into them. We had a quick nap and showered whilst it chucked it down. By the time we were ready it had stopped raining and we left the hostel, feeling smug upon seeing all the soaked people and went to sniff out some food. Round the corner, we found a street full of food stalls popular with the locals. Tom picked up an array of meat from a barbecue stall and I had a delicious chicken chicken noodle soup.

Having eaten, we headed back to the bar area of the previous night and met up with our friends from the previous night. There were a couple of new arrivals - Nazli, who Bram took an immediate liking to, and Chris, who we all took an immediate liking to. We had a few drinks, teased some Canadian girls, danced in an adjacent bar and then Tom and Chris, along with two of the girls we had met the previous night, went off to a local nightclub called 'Spicy' and the rest of us headed home.

Day 4

We got up and headed back to our old hostel to meet up with the crew, the plan being to go to Tiger Kingdom. The hostel was running a shuttle bus up there and they let us jump in, perhaps feeling guilty about chucking us out! We chose to go in the enclosure with the big tigers, stroked them and got some really cool photos. However, half way through they reacted to a fight in one of the non-tourist areas and started getting angry - we were more scared than we admitted, with every person secretly plotting their escape route. Afterwards, we calmed down and had some food at the adjoining restaurant. I had a Burmese dish that was fairly average, though Tom loved his fried noodles with pork.

When we got back we lounged outside, chatting. A crepe van turned up and we each got a delicious banana and chocolate crepe (can't remember the proper thai name!). It started raining heavily, so went inside to watch a movie. One of the girls wanted to watch some chick flick but couldn't find the disc, so I took advantage of everyone's indecision and put on Borat. Great Success!

After the rain subsided we popped round the corner and visited a restaurant a Kiwi girl had recommended. My meal was fairly good, Tom was beside himself, declaring it his 'best day of food so far'. Having eaten, we headed down to our usual spot and socialised.

Day 5

We had a long sleep, extended our sleep and got our laundry done. We had a relaxed day, chilling out in the hammocks (covered) whilst it rained. After a while, we got some food. Tom was feeling lethargic and went for a nap, I wasn't feeling as bad and went to explore the Sunday market. It was really good, better than the night market and anything I had seen before - it had real items etc rather than knock off western items, there was music and, unbelievably, there were actually locals shopping. The food areas were incredible, I had fresh pineapple, fried octopus and a green curry. Eventually, I tried to leave, but the stalls were everywhere and it was impossible to tell where I was. Luckily, I bumped into my roomate and we did a fair deal: I saved her from the man perstering her; she gave me directions back. I met Tom at the hostel and we went to our usual place, had a couple of drinks and said our goodbyes. For once, 'a couple of drinks' actually meant two and we were tucked up in bed by 12.

We absolutely loved Chiang Mai and would happily go back. It was one of our favourite places in S.E. Asia, with a really chilled and relaxed vibe. The people that we met made the stay really enjoyable, cheers guys!