Blogs from Lampang, North-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia

The best way to start the day is with a foot massage. I can't recommend it more! Right across the alley from our hotel is a small massage parlor, run by a very sweet woman. I have to note here that so far we find the Thai people to be very friendly, open and helpful. Especially with the aid of Google Translate! Anyway, back to our foot massage. It started with a foot scrub with fresh limes, included a complete workout of our feet and legs, and an extra good rub of our back, shoulders and arms. Feels great! So, back to the car and on with the journey. Next stop - a fabric-weaving village on the way to Nan. We found two shops that sell local embroidered clothing, not cheap, and nothing really interesting. But ... read more

Today we passed what we thought might be a tough mountain ride. However from our side it was a nice 20km descent, enjoyable and relaxed. Finally the climbing all the last days paid off. Unfortunately my muscle got a lot worse, especially from not moving it while rolling down the hill. We arrived in Thoen, where we found only one hotel with a reaonable price but awful rooms. The highlight there was Tony, my jumping spider!... read more

We reached Lampang, our next destination, by a suprisingly nice and well-fed train journey. Having grown up with National Rail we were instantly suspicious when the food trolley trundled its way down the aisles, but it turns out that in Thailand the trains are not only cheaper and more spacious but also insist on giving you vast quantities of free food and water. The only issue is there is very little warning when a station is approaching, and besides any information is given in Thai so constant vigilance is recommended. Upon reaching Lampang we managed to find a guesthouse after some confusion and a missing hostelworld.com reservation (which I have not managed to forget as the website continually email me asking 'so how was your stay at R-Lampang Guesthouse?' I wouldn't know hostelworld, your booking wasn't ... read more

Having arrived in Lampang from Si Satchanalai quite late I took a songthaew to reach the Hotel Kim City. It was not my first choice and a bit expensive but had a room for the night (the rest was fully booked). I checked in and had to hurry up. Hans Peter, an old friend of my sister, was waiting for me. He picked me up with his motorbike. And here I was, sitting on the back of the bike with a swiss guy who has been living in Thailand now for quite a lot of years. We went to the restaurant of his wife Anong. She has just opened this restaurant a couple of days ago and invited me for a fab dinner. Hans Peter grew up in Basel/Switzerland, spent some years living in Canada before ... read more

Our last day in Chiang Mai was eventful to say the least!! It began with Camilla's stomach feeling a little delicate, but after some tablets we managed to go to the Tiger Kingdom where we posed with 3 massive tigers, which were a little drowsy to say the least but had very powerful tail flicks and got some very intimate tiger photos taken!! Camilla was then draped with pythons and mildly molested by them before Elin and Becky tried them too but a little less keenly!! After an exciting morning we headed back to the hotel and waited to leave to catch the overnight train to Bangkok which didn't quite go to plan.....within about 10 minutes of boarding Camilla and Elin were taking it in turns to use the toilet and were looking ever so slightly ... read more