Bangkok and Chiang Mai

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We left Wellington at 6am and had a stop over on our way to Thailand which was in Sydney. It was an 8 hour wait which we used to our full advantage and went shopping! We took a bus, train and ferry to Manly Beach and enjoyed a couple of hours looking around the shops and buying a couple of things! It was then back to the airport for us. Our flight to Bangkok was with British Airways which made a lovely change to the always delayed Qantas! The flight was nearly 9 hours so we arrived to a rainy Bangkok feeling very tired. We took a taxi to our hotel and went straight to sleep after having been up for over 26 hours!

We had a leisurely day getting used to our surroundings and the heat again. We looked around the street of our hotel which is just off the Kho San which is the main backpacker road in Bangkok. It was full of hotels, restaurants and market stalls. Our hotel shows films throughout the day for free so we enjoyed lunch while watching Charlie Wilson's War and then went for a massage! It was 4 pound for an hour and was very relaxing. Before dinner we looked at the market stalls and Steph bought a pair of Havianas flip flops for 3 pounds! We had a lovely dinner and felt it necessary to try out the 2 pound cocktails.

The second morning we set off to explore Bangkok, starting with the Grand Palace which is also home to the Emerald Buddha. We had to wear clothes that covered us up and even then Laura's white trousers weren't suitable, they were strict. Laura was given a sarong to wear which actually looked really nice. It was very hot walking around the Grand Palace but it was impressive, the architecture and decorations are grand. They use so much gold and colour and there were Buddha statues everywhere. When going in to see the Emerald Buddha we had to take off our shoes and sit down, it was a shrine of gold with the Emerald Buddha sitting at the top. After leaving the Grand Palace we walked down to the river and we were scammed into an hour boat cruise. The journey along the river was good and we were able to see the contrast in housing in Bangkok, some makeshift wooden houses and others big stately looking homes. We passed a floating market which is where Thai's sell products from little boats. The boat finished by Wat Po which is the home of the Reclining Buddha. We had lunch first and then went inside. The Buddha is massive and all gold. We then took a taxi back to our hotel and watched the Water Horse before going out for dinner. Steph then went to bed and Laura met her friend Matt and his girlfriend Collette for a drink.

Friday was shopping day for us! We went to Siam Square which is famous for shopping and spent the afternoon in a massive shopping centre that was made up of shops and market type stalls. We found a dvd shop selling pretty much any dvd you could want. Steph bought some TV series for herself and some for her friends. We made some purchases and after lots of walking around went back to our hotel street. We had a few hours to kill before going to the station for our night train to Chiang Mai so we had manicures and dinner. We then met up with Matt and Collette for a drink before it was time for us to leave. The train left Bangkok at 10pm and would take 14hours to Chiang Mai, we had sleeper beds for the journey.

The train was late getting to Chiang Mai and so we didn't get there until 3pm. We found somewhere to stay and had a wander around. We then got in a Tuk Tuk to the zoo for a twilight tour, hoping to see Pandas, Tigers and other animals. However, the zoo no longer ran the twilight tour so it was a wasted trip. The Tuk Tuk driver took us back to town and dropped us by the night market that they hold every night in Chiang Mai. The market was huge and sprawled across many streets. We spent the evening ambling between the stalls picking up a few more purchases on our way. We grabbed some food in a nice little cafe before doing some more shopping and then heading back to the hotel.

We had an early start the next morning as we were off to go on an elephant trek for the day. It was an hours drive from the hotel to a remote Thai village where they keep elephants. We had an hour long elephant ride. We were on this metal seat strapped onto the elephant. Laura found it a slightly hair-raising ride as the elephant was going up and down hills and each time she felt like she was going to fall out! We also got to feed the elephant bananas along the trek, it would curl it's trunk up towards us and we'd place the banana in the curl of its nose then it put the banana into its mouth with its trunk. A guy came round to take photos of us on the elephant for a souvenir and after a small palava of having to get back on the elephant a second time we eventually had a photo that Steph was happy with! After the elephant ride we did a walk which lasted an hour, we walked through a Thai village that had Dingos for pets! We also saw a waterfall, the guide said people normally swim in the pool at the bottom but the water level was too high that day due to the rain. We wouldn't have gone in though as the water was a dirty brown!! After the hike the guide took us to a village hill tribe called the Karen village. They rear pigs and chickens for them to eat and to sell. About 200 people live in the village. It was a very basic means of existence except for these massive satellite dishes that the government subsidises for the villagers so the children have a means of education. A lady was also making scarves and sarongs in the village, they were for sale but we didn't buy any. We had lunch after visiting the hill tribe. We were given soup with vegetables in and then rice with a traditional Thai pork dish. The pork dish was also laced with green chillies and had somewhat of a kick to it!! There was also a chilli sauce that we could add to the food but that was extremely spicy! After lunch we had a bamboo raft ride along the river, the river was a dirty as the waterfall and the water was cold! It was great fun though aside from the two french guys on our tour trying to tilt the raft so we fell in!! We stayed on the raft though! We went back to the hotel after this and had some dinner before boarding a night bus back to Bangkok. The bus was considerably quicker than the train and was actually on time!

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