Chiang Mai

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Woke up early on the train...well, had such a shit nights sleep that I wouldn't call it 'waking up'. Anyway, we were hoping to see the sun rise as we arrived into Chiang Mai...but it rose behind the train, so we didnt see anything other than fields. Arse.

We'd just stepped off the platform and we were hustled into a pick up truck and whisked off to our hostel. Got a bit of a tour of Chiang Mai as we dropped other people off. It was definitely a lot more chilled out than Bangkok...which was to be expected, Bangkok being the capital and all that! Our hostel (Spicy Thai Backpackers, if you're interested) was in a quiet residential area made up of big old style houses. The hostel was amazing. Chilled out garden at the front complete with hammock, decent cinema set up, pool table, self service beer fridge etc etc. The people there were cool & the atmosphere was just really laid back.

Decided to walk towards the centre of town. Got to the end of the road and realised we hadn't a clue where we were and it was about 100 degrees. So we headed back to our place but got intercepted by some crazy dude asking if we wanted a taxi. We ended up taking his ancient Datsun into town. No air con, no comfy seats...it barely had proper steering! Town seemed really quiet as we wandered round. Found another one of Gary's listed vegan friendly restaurants and sat down...no-one there. Eventually some loony came in from the toilet, smiling a mental toothless grin and brought us menus. We somehow managed to order food and then some more sensible guy turned up. He was obviously the chef or something cos it all went relatively smoothly from there.

Back at the hostel we found a few of the guys there about to watch Juno...so obviously, we grabbed a spot on the sofa and watched it with em. Bit random, but a nice break from the sweltering heat. After that, just spent the day bumming around the hostel chatting with the people in our dorm.

Woke up early the next day for our downhill mountain bike ride. Turns out that a couple from our dorm were doing the trip too. Got to their centre for our kitting up and then set off in 3 trucks. The drive up the mountain was a bit mad as it seemed the guys driving were trying to race each other to the top. Felt knackered by the time we got there from all the holding on I was having to do so that I didnt fall out the truck! Anyway, the ride was a bit more intense than I thought it would be, but for the most part I kept on the bike. Didn't really get to see too much scenery as I was so focussed on the dirt track in front of me. Right before the last stretch the guy said "be careful"...the fact that this was the 1st time he said this on the ride rang some alarm bells, and rightly so. At the end of the stretch I went straight over the handlebars and landed on the side of my face. Pleasant. We were rewarded by food and drink by a nice enough lake where I put on a brave face and nursed my wounds. There were 2 dutch girls who were doing the intermediate ride with me, Leon & Jeanette and we all hung out for a while and got the truck back afterwards...we will meet the Dutch girls later!

After a well earned shower I got myself a complimetary haircut, courtesy of Jeannette (Thanks for that!! 😊) and then we all got ready for a few beers down the town. After trying to find the night life for an hour or so, we got to the rooftop bar, which was well cool. Soon as we got there, saw Marieke & Monique (the Dutch girls) and they eventually came over to sit with us lot. After this we went to some bar called Spicy Bar or something, and here I remember ordering the bucket, but that's about it. I've since been told that there was dancing, and that me and a guy called Huw from our hostel were following Marieke around like...well, like 2 drunken fools after a cute girl! No recollection of how the night ended or how we got home...a crowded tuk tuk i imagine. Sadly, I wouldn't see the lovely Marieke again.

Getting hammered the night before you're due to check out is not the best idea in the world. Felt like absolute shit the next day and think I showered and packed on auto pilot. We decided to go on a river cruise with Huw. Seemed like a low impact sort of day trip for mine and Huw's hangovers. It was actually a really cool trip. The boat guy was a bit of a dude, and it was just us 3 on the boat. At the half way point we got off and he showed us round this place where they grew all the fruit and at the end of that we got a plate of fresh fruit and some drinks. This was just what I needed seeing as in the town the heat would have made me puke all day! Said our goodbyes to Huw and walked to the train station.

The overnight train on the way back down to Bangkok was pretty dreadful again. I went for the top bunk this time, which meant less bugs but it was like sleeping on a couple of garden chairs pushed together. Got into Bangkok at 0640 and we had cold showers at the station...not so glamourous now is it this whole travelling thing!! Spent the day bumming round in Bangkok. Saw a movie. The cinema was amazing and it cost about $1.50. Managed to get through to 7pm without feeling like we just wasted the day. I was still suffering slightly with the massive poisoning I took on the last night in Chiang Mai!

For the 3rd time, we boarded a sleeper train, this time bound for the islands towards the southern part of Thailand. At this point it felt like we'd spent half the nights on trains, but we were heading for beaches, palm trees, blue waters and....errr....well what more could you want!

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