Sawadee Ka from Chiang Mai, Thailand

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So here I am in Thailand and this is the first blog post since arriving and I know some of you guys are practically about to be sick with excitement (my brother) to find out what the hell I have been up to! So I am now in Chiang Mai the unofficial capital of the north of Thailand.
Let me start off by asking what are the top items you pack when travelling to the other side of the world? Let me think now flip flops, sun cream, bikini all good so far, shorts, T-shirt and potato peeler. Potato peeler! Oh yes this is what the security guard at Delhi airport thought I was carrying in my hand luggage of all things! Just in case I need to start peeling some spuds for my dinner on a long haul flight to Thailand. This amused me immensely because I had to empty the contents of my bag out and rummage in my bag looking for something remotely like a potato peeler. I then proceeded to hold up random items in my bag trying to figure out what the hell they were on about, a plastic fork maybe? No try again so I pulled out my eyelash curlers and aha the mystery of the carry on potato peeler was solved.
This gave me much amusement whilst travelling in Delhi I also watched two separate English people freaking out in the queue telling Indian people to give them some space and PLEASE WAIT! I loved witnessing this stereotype of English people being uptight. Amazing!
So, following my 17 hours of travel I was fortunate enough to be staying with two expat teachers who so kindly let me stay with them. Thank you guys you know who you are. So I must have started off staying at top of Bangkokian luxury staying with them. This was lovely to be able to stay and catch up on much needed sleep. I also made use of the open air swimming pool. Which I had to myself until this tiny, slim women in a thong decided to do one lap, get out and then proceeded to pose for half an hour. This definitely gave me motivation to keep swimming thinking to myself come on fatty swim that food off; you can look like her if I keep doing laps of the 15 meter pool! Eurgh thanks skinny girl for giving me the motivation!
In Bangkok I didn’t really see many sights, although I will go back toward the end of my trip to do so. I did witness the backpacking Mecca also know as Khoa san road, if you are a young person who likes drinking and wants to feel like you are in some type of Magaluf holiday in Asia or you are a white person and have dred locks and like to wear brightly coloured MC hammer trousers then head straight here. I know I am stereotyping, but I can’t help it. If you are like me who barely drinks and likes to do yoga and other calm actives stay away! When I heard the friend I was going to be hanging out with was staying here I was really said “oh noooo”. Anyway I survived Khoa San road area and Bangkok, barely may I add.
Before I left Bangkok my friend and I went to a huge outdoor market in search of a very specific T shirt. The market was so big we ended up entering the pet area; this was quite an unnerving experience for me, as those of you who know me know I am not the fondest of unfamiliar animals. Much to our horror whilst strolling along delighting at being the only farangs. We came to a section with all kinds of animals for sale including baby monkeys, hedgehogs, albino turtles and the domesticated kind we are used to in England. I stupidly took a photo of the baby monkeys in the cage with the flash on and realized I had nearly scared them to death. I felt so bad after doing thIS and I knew I was going to get bad karma for inflicting this on the poor baby monkeys.
I will leave this blog here on my snap shot in Bangkok and return with tales of Chiang Mai, not too many amusing situations yet, but I am sure lots more is to come. Chiang Mai has been temples and relaxing thus far. I hope to be adding photo's soon as well so stay tuned folks.

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