Wait a minute this isnt a karaoke bar is it??

Hello ALL!!

Sorry for the delay in update but been busy enjoying myself and havent fancied sitting at the PC. Well we have made our way north to Chang Mai and I am amazed we got here in one peice. I suppose you get what you pay for, but our journey was horrible. It was supposed to be 12hrs but took us closer to 14 and a half. The AC wasnt working, the coach couldnt go over 50mph or it started shaking. When we got to the roads of Mai we wasnt even accellerating, we were actually just coasting down hill!! But were here!!!

Chang Mai is amazing and you can see why people rave about it. It is like Bangkok but not as built up and minus the polution. It is split into old town and new city, the old town is surrounded by a moat and wall and is quite simply a square. In there moat have to be the biggest cat fish i have ever seen!! What makes it so scenic is no matter where you are you can see giant mountains around you. There is around 140 temples in this small city which is the same amount as big old Bangkok, so everywhere you turn theres a temple. Theres one on the end of our road that has a familiar face in it, yes believe it or not there is a donald duck in our temple???

Obviously the most talked about temple here it Wat Thatra which is on the summit of Doi Suthep, the mountain that you cant miss. We made friends with a taxi and he drove us around for the day for about 3pounds. To get to the temple you need to drive up the windy mountain and then they drop you off at the bottom of around 360steps. Just what we wanted to do on a scorching day. Funnily enough there was a random elephant up here, god knows how he is there but he was there? The views from the top allow you to see over the whole of Chang Mai and they are massive orchid fans here. We got taken to a factory where they show you how they make all their stone statues etc. We also visited Wat-U-Mong, not purely cos of the name but due to the fact its a tunnel temple. Not one of the largest but still felt that it was untouched by tourism. Also there seemed to be an island where you can see the fish in the lake around and the heards of snapping turtles.

We have once again bumped into a few familiar faces, the drunks from the floating market and the candians. So we went out for a drink in a bar which was on a roof top with no roof and a bouncy bamboo floor. not very safe and not the kind of place you want to be if your drunk.

They have a night bazaar market here which covers about 3blocks. This happens every night and is filled with all the hand made items you would expect. If you continue going south you come to a road of karaoke bars??? Though these are no usual bars as you are welcomed in by loads of extremely friendly ladies??? After a while it clicked where we were, I dont think I need to explain. But lets just say there wasnt much singing going on.

We visited Chang Mai zoo, which was totally different to what we get in the UK. First of all it is massive and you have alot of walking ahead of you. Its all up and down hill. And the animals arent in cages which is nice, they are surrounded by moats so they cant get across. I reckon Thai animals are affraid of water. We were amazed to see that the elephant area was literally just an elephant walking round the zoo?? And also the size of a hippo!!!

We are heading even more north the Pai (pronounced Bye) tommorow which is supposed to be chill out central. I will keep you posted.

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