Chiang Mai

---

---

I bet you didn't expect this to be my next port of call, because I certainly didn't. After setting off from Don Det at 8am I took a boat to the shore, a local bus (complete with live chickens and a bag of live frogs) to Pakse, and a VIP bus to Ubon Ratchathani in Thailand where I arrived around 17.30. I took advantage of being at the bus station to enquire about times and prices of buses to Chiang Mai for the next day. A combination of sleep deprivation and not really being all too excited about Ubon saw me make the questionable decision to get on the 17 hour long bus to Chiang Mai at 18.00.

Luckily the bus was like no other I've ever seen - achres of legroom, drinks and snacks provided periodically, dvds played and most importantly no-one sitting next to me. I actually slept!

Being back in Thailand is a bit strange. There are some things that seem really familiar about the country - the 7/11s everywhere, the food, the miserable people - but Chiang Mai was obviously a new city for me and a bit of a change of pace from Laos. It's actually a very nice city because it's not too claustrophobic as it has a moat-encircled city centre with gates at the North, South, East and West points and the Ping river flows through the East of the city.

First point of call was bed, closely followed by an internet cafe after having no access to it for the last week or so, then for a wonder around the city. Sunday in Chiang Mai is market day which means that an impressive number of market stalls, food vendors and musicians take up a huge area of the old town and everyone seems to head there. It's so busy that I ended up sort of drifting along in the current of people rather than looking at anything in particular but it was a good vibe and really made me feel like I was truly back in Thailand.

On all other nights of the week the Chiang Mai night market is a focal point in the city. Whereas it isn't a patch on Luang Prabang's night market in terms of atmosphere or general pleasantness it does have a huge range of stuff at better prices than in Bangkok so I will definitely be making some purchases here when I return.

After wandering around a fair bit for a couple of days to get my bearings and visiting a few select Wats I decided to embark on a three day trek into the mountains.

---