Take a left, a sharp left, and another left...once around the block..

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I'm now back in Bangkok after 3 days in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. Really liked Chiang Mai, would definately have spent more time around that area had I got more time. Everything there looks chaotic and hectic but it's actually really chilled and laid back, definately my scene! Moped drivers are fucking crazy though, saw a family of 4 on this rickety hair dryer engined thing with the youngest kid standing on his mums lap...I had to do a double take to count them all again...just normal to everyone else!
18-09-12 Chiang Mai
After finding a cool cafe near the old city gates of Tae Pae and updating the last blog I spent the afternoon wandering the streets of the old town in Chiang Mai. Some really cool shabby little bars and cafes, hundreds of street stalls selling everything from chicken satay kebabs to random fried vegetables n 'meat' combos, mostly packed with Thai locals.
Went to a few cafe bars that night then crashed in my double room with champions league repeats on in the background as I'd booked 2 days of activities for 19th and 20th... The fan in the room did nothing, it was so hot at night..not much sleep!
19-09-12 Chiang Mai

Up at 8am for jungle trek, elephant trek, waterfalls and white water rafting. First stop though was a visit to the Long Neck village. A village of Burmese long neck dudes with gold rings around their neck and wrists..protection from war times! Very interesting but when I asked how long the village had been there for I was told 2 years! They sold it as though it was there for ages..tourist trap! just sold loads of Thai nik naks and quite a few kids on the stalls so bought an ankle bracelet for £1 as I felt sorry for them.

Next was a butterfly farm. Pretty rubbish!



Then we were taken to an elephant trek for about half hour riding on these elephants..as others there were in groups I got my own elephant with no driver, weird experience being on such a huge animal!!





After elephants we were taken on a 45 min hike to a big waterfall. Pretty impressive sight and got to walk out under the waterfall..painful if you stood right underneath it!





After walking back to the truck we were taken to a white water rapids centre and split into groups of 6...taught how to hold on when the guide shouts at us, pretty simple rules...awesome fun, never done it before so had a great time and managed to stay in the rubber raft. Half way down we swapped into a traditional bamboo long raft but the rapids were a lot less that end do we were punted down river back to the truck and home.





After all that I was knackered so had a wander down to the night market. Was okay, not a massive fan, maybe of I wasn't so tired!

20-09-12 Chiang Mai
Did a Thai Cooking class on Thursday which was ace! The teacher picked us up in the morning and took us round a local market showing us all the veg and fish telling us tips on what's good and what to look for. He picked out our ingredients while we looked around as we'd already picked out 3 dishes to knock up. I went for coconut with prawn soup, stir fried morning glory and Thai red curry..nom nom! We were also shown how to make spring rolls, coconut steamed rice with mango, pad Thai omelet Thai style..we made and ate all this before our 3 main dishes...so much food! We were shown how to flame cook stir fry, huge flame ball from the wok was a nice trick to learn.
Back at the guest house one of the staff, Julie, helped me book return bus/boat ticket from Bangkok to Koh Tao then from Koh Phangan back to Bangkok ready for my flight out to Tokyo. She was a great help and very good at telling me what to check out in Chiang Mai!
tonight down to a place called Chumphon so can get a boat to Koh Tao tomorrow morning. Looking forward to gettin out of the city and near the ocean again. The thought of an 8 hour bus ride sounds shit but it was cheap as chips for all that return travel to BKK, only £52!!
Huge thunder storm has started up again, really is the height of the wet season in Bangkok!!




Need to go find a bar with wifi to book somewhere to stay for the next few nights on Koh Tao...

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