Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Pai (It Rhymes!)

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We were going to go straight to Chiang Mai but after chatting to a girl on the overnight bus to the border, we thought that we would break the journey up by having a couple of days in Chiang Rai. Although it doesn't have any spectacular sights to speak of, it is full of that Thai hospitality and seemed much less touristy than other parts. We checked into a hostel, which although we didn't know it at the time had an excellent location. From our balcony, we could see a massive golden clock. Pretty nice, we thought and forgot about it. But at 7pm, suddenly the clock started doing this massively over-the-top cheesy light and sound show. We are talking a 10 minute blaring loud song while the clock changed colour in time to the music. Only in Thailand, could 7pm seem so much fun.

On Adam's birthday, we found a British restaurant (well it had a Union Jack?) and had a classic full-on fry up breakfast. After gorging ourselves, we set out for the Hill-Tribe Museum where we had a look at the cultures of different tribes that lived in the surrounding areas. Unfortunately though Adam fell ill but after spending a few days in bed, he was right as rain again and so we moved on Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is the darling of Thailand so we had high hopes. It is quite a cool place with a 'university town' feel to it. We wandered around and found the Night Market, which is huge and atmospheric. After a day or so of wandering around the temples, we went to Chiang Mai Zoo. We went primarily to see the Giant Panda Bears that are currently on loan from China. They were just as cute and cuddly as you imagine but quite a bit smaller than we expected. There were no bars on the zoo, just a trench following around their pen so you felt really close to them and we got some excellent pictures. We spent the rest of the day hanging out t the zoo. We had fun feeding bananas to some giraffes and elephants. Gabrielle gave a chunk of meat to a leopard (on a long stick through bars!) We also saw Koala Bears, Sun Bears,Lions and rare white tigers.

After Chiang Mai, we decided to hit Pai. Pai is a town that loads of backpackers had recommended to us so we wanted to make time to do it justice. It is a Hippy Haven for people to chill out in the hills for a few days. Lonely Planet cites it "as not really a place but more of a state of mind", which makes us laugh a lot. The road to Pai has about 350 curves going around the mountains. Gabrielle never gets car-sick but even she was looking pretty green towards the end. It was a pretty cool town sitting on the banks of a river, all full of traveler comforts and quite a good place to kick back for a while. It doesn't really have any sights as such, just a relaxed ambiance (we heard Beatles 'Norwegian Wood' playing 5 times in two days!) and we spent a day whizzing around on bikes around the mountains roads.

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