Chiang Mai, Thailand

We arrived pretty much on time in Chiang Mai which is apparently hightly unusual for trains generally. I slept surprsingly well albeit only for 6 or so hours. Passing through the countryside was also nice in the morning and fantastic to have some clear smog-free skies and much much less congestion on the roads etc. Even the tuk tuk drivers seem moderately less annoying here!

After a little bit of confusion about the direcections to our hostel, we found it and enjoyed a coffee and breakfast while our room was being prepared. I also took the opportunity to skype my family back in Australia which was great. By 2pm we were in the room....so great to have a shower as it already feels like 35 degrees outside.

In the evening we checked out the Sunday market which was buzzing with people but much more relaxed than anything we'd encountered in Bangkok (thankfully!). We also found a nice inexpenisve Thai bar and restaurant for dinner and played a few games of pool before a final cocktail back at our guest house. Even in a day we seem to be back to a much more relaxed state of mind now that we're clear of Bangkok.

Today we had a big sleep in and caught up from the previous night on the train which was great - this is really one of the most comfortable and quiet places we have stayed for some time. In the afternoon we went for lunch at the Art Cafe on Moon Muang Street which was great and had an exhaustive menu of western, mexican and thai dishes (no kidding about 20 pages worth) and it was great to have a decent coffee for a change.We also checked out some tours and travel options to Luang Prabang in Laos.

In the end we locked in a one day trek for tomorrow and booked a two day bus-ferry-slow boat ticket to Luang Prabang which seems like the best way to go. Before dinner we walked through the middle of the city and headed for a restaurant that we'd heard good things about called Lemon Tree. It was a bit of a walk but didn't disappoint and we enjoyed a very very hot Tom Yum Soup with river prawns. We walked back home afterwards along the mote and through some back streets passing several beautiful temples.Not a late one tonight as we have our trek tour picking us up about 8am.

We had a very rushed breakfast at our guest house before being picked up by a minivan for our 1 day trekking tour today. First up the obligatory elephant ride which I had done once before but for Sandra was very exciting. There were two baby elephants, one 6 months and the other 12 months, that were also there and I must admit they are damn cute. The 12 months old 'bad boy' accompanied us on our half hour ride and behaved just like a toddler running amok through trees and annoying the hell out of the adults! Particularly funny was when he jumped in the river and completely submerged himself for a bit of a bath, their expressions are sometimes eerliy human like. We finished off the elephant riding by feeding them a few bananas before it was back to the van.

Next up we headed to the river for some bamboo rafting, the water was quite low and slow moving but it was very relaxing and the water was nice and refreshing. Along the way we saw a few water phythons but they are relatively harmless,quite small and scared of humans in any event.

After rafting we had a simple lunch of rice and stir fried vegies before back in the minivan for our last stop which was a short trek through the jungle to a waterfall. We along with a few others from our group braved the water for a swim which for me was probably the highlight of the day...very refreshing and nice to be in some fresh water rather than salt water for a change.

Back in Chiang Mai we went for a bit of walk around town again before dinner nearby to our guest house and finally enjoyed some live music / blues just about thirty metres away from our guest house.