Blogs from Chiang Mai, North-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 335

Yesterday was spent doing practically nothing in Bangkok while we waited for our 6pm bus to take us to Chiang Mai. We blissfully sat under the air-conditioning unit in an Internet cafe, easily forgetting about the intense heat and mugginess outside which we were due to leave behind! Our bus was the usual uncomfortable affair which took us over-night on the gruelling 13 hour journey to Chiang Mai. We arrived sometime around 7am at a hostel where we were offered drinks and as they hoped a place for us to stay. Straying from the crowd, we decided to look for our own accommodation and found ourselves a nice guesthouse with on-suite bathroom at a very decent rate for a twin-room. After settling in, we took a walk around the town, starting with following the city moat ... read more

HI, Well unfortunately a whole memory card of photos accidently got deleted. They were from Laos. A real bummer as they were of the monks and Wats in Luang Prabang and North in the village of Nong Khiaw. Power cut coming to Island so no news i can write. Tomorrow I try. xx... read more

After an overnight train ride we arrived in Chiang Mai feeling tired and dusty. Thankfully our room had a hot shower and was just up the road from a cheap Khao Soi place (a delicious Northern Speciality - a kind of curried rice noodle soup). We spent the day checking out the rather bohemian walled city which almost has as many temples as Bangkok! In the late afternoon we chartered a car up to Wat Doi Sutep - a stunning gld temple which overlooks the city of Chiang Mai - fantastic views!!! in the evening we visited the famous Night Market - lord knows why it's famous, there's little decent food and is very touristy (though I am sure great for some cheap tshirts or souvenirs). Our 2nd day in Chiang Mai was spent relaxing and ... read more

Hello again all Just want to start this blog with a quick message of congratulations to two of our bestest friends in the world, Lucy and Mark Wilkinson, who had their first child on Saturday morning. Yound Joseph "Little Wilko" Wilkinson was a healthy 7 lb 14oz and we are so very happy for the three of them. We've just worked out we have been gone for over 7 weeks ..... cant believe its been so long already. Some things seem like a long time, for example it seems ages since we had to make our own bed or either of us said "oh no, it's monday morning". On the other hand it seems like yesterday that we were at Heathrow saying our goodbyes. We walked around a Thai supermarket yesterday and its normal things like ... read more

At times I have been feeling my age, as the following may prove. Our stay at the sanctuary was very nice indeed, the house we were staying in was, if you all can picture it, like the decking at Underhill with an ‘L’ shaped pitched roof structure placed along the outer straight edges, leaving a smaller quadrant of decking exposed in the centre. It felt very open and airy if a little challenging when we had the heavy wind and rain. We coped. For the first few days there seemed to be a small clique there who had colonised the place, this may have been down to the fact that the owner had been away for four weeks. As her arrival back became more imminent the vibe around the place changed markedly (for the better). Where ... read more