14hours later and we're in Chiang Mai

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We arrived in Chiang Mai this morning after getting the 14-hour night train from Bangkok. The journey wasn’t too bad in the end - the carriage was fully air-conditioned and we had seats that folded up into bunk beds. There was also a party carriage about 2 carriages up, which had no windows and just played loud music. We stayed there for quite a long time playing card games with a guy from Glasgow who incidentally had been to the ping pong show I was telling you about yesterday so when Lauren went back to bed I stayed and he told me all about it!!

We arrived at about 9.45am and then we met our guide who took us back to the hostel. The guides are really funny. They keep using English phrases and cockney rhyming slang asking us if we are 'cream-crackered' or 'hank Marvin' which sounds so funny coming from them in their Thai accents. Others are 'sorry mate' - which sounds more Australian and asking if Lauren is my 'battle and strife’ as well as lots more jokes and riddles - none of which make sense!

Chiang Mai is lovely though. So calm and peaceful compare to Bangkok and a lot quieter too! We have a meeting about our trek tonight then I think we will head off to the night market - we both need to buy hats for the trek as I left my brand new volcom one (bought in Khao San Road) on the train!

Will update you more after the trek when we get back on Wednesday afternoon, as we will have no access to electricity let alone Internet!

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