My first impression of Chiang Mai couldn't be more opposite to that of Bangkok. The streets were lined with beautiful bars and restaurants. There was an air of calm (well as calm as Thailand gets!) created by loads of space and the people were very helpful. We couldn't get far without people coming over to talk to us to give some advice or just to have a chat. We had dinner and a few drinks later Tom had managed to persuade me it would be a good idea to h...

As we crossed the border into Thailand, along with the usual traffic, we were met by a cow, three stray dogs and a cockeral, also on the road. We made our way to the train station, which after a puzzled few moment, we realised we had to get to the platform by crossing the tracks. as we waited we saw mopeds using the train track as a road and carrying loads 3x the size of the bike. The army paraded up and down the platform with guns bigger than me!We bought the ch...