Thailand - Bangkok - Chang Mai ( 27/2 to 7/3) Arrived in Bankok after an epic 13 hour hour bus journey from Siem Reap in Cambodia, We left at 7:30am in a minbus bound for the thai border. Ther isn't any luggage compartment in these buses so the luggage gets piled in after all the people are in. You literally have to dig you way out of the bus. We travelled along a road, that was little more than a dirt track for 6 hours, bouncing away, enjoying the ride. We arrived at the border at 1pm completed the formalities and strolled across the border to a double decker, air conditioned bus with ample leg room, we have left cambodia and arrived in Thailand. The contrast between the two countries could not be greater. A dual carriageway way took us straight into the heart of Bangkok almost as if we were back in England, but it was 25 degrees and I was sweating (It was snowing in England at the time). We arrived in Bangkok at 8:30pm but couldn't find a hotel anywhere that wasn't full. Eventually we found a room for around 7 pounds a night each, a shock to the system, bearing in mind we hadn't paid more than 3 pounds a night each for over a month. In the evening we headed off out to meet Davo, Jimbo, Greg and poppy, some uni friends who had arrived from South Africa the day before. A good time was had and we staggered in at 4am. The following day we took in a few wats and booked our train tickets to Chang Mai in the north then relaxed for a few hours. In the evening we went to see some thai boxing, not as good as i thought it would be but still very violent. Over the next two days we, explored the grand palace, the worlds largest teak mansion and Jim Thompsons House, a silk merchant from america. As you can imagine sightseeing in bangkok is a little thin on the ground to say the least unless your happy walking round wats all day. We left Bangkok that evening on a train to Chang Mai, happy to leave a place where you can never get Tuk-Tuk drivers to take you where you want to go, without going via a suit shop, jewellers or the place where they think you should go instead. I thought that Bangkok nowhere near lived up to my expectations, an over rated place, not like Hong Kong which was every bit as impressive as I thought it would be. We arrived in Chang Mai the next morning after a very comfortable overnight train journey and chilled out round the pool for the day. The next day we set off on an epic 3 day trek, the best 3 days of the trip so far. The trek started with a leisurely ride on an elephant. We were able to feed the elephants bananas along the way, which is ok to start with but as soon as the elephant finds out you have some food, they just keep poking their trunk over their heads. So one minute your enjoying the view and the next your faced with an alien like trunk in your face saying "give me food, give me food now". After lunch we set off trekking in the heat, sweating horribly until we reached the first waterfall. The water was freezing but irrestible in the heat. After cooling off we continued the trek to some huts where we stayed the night. The evening was spent sitting round a campfire playing the guitar. Our guide knew only two songs Let It Be by the Beetles which he played about 8 times and to my amazement Country Roads by Hermes House Band. Fantastic. The next day was spent trekking between waterfalls. On the final day after trekking along a river in the morning, we hoped abord some bamboo rafts for a relaxing sail down the river. A few minutes downstream, chaos erupted with rafts being overturned. People were going in all over the place. This went on for nearly an hour, I dont think anybody made it to the end without getting absolutely drenched. Hope nobody had a camera on them. Great Stuff. We are off to Laos tomorrow, a few hundred miles but it takes 3 days to get there. Bye for now