Hey dudes! Well, we've left the stinky, sensory assault that is Bangkok, and are now relaxing in a much smaller, less noisy and less busy Chiang Mai. We took an over-night bus and arrived in Chiang Mai at 6 am yesterday. Our bus, it turns out, is technically being run illegally by a company in collusion with the chief of police in Chiang Mai. What happened, was the bus stopped about 10 minutes outside of the actual city of Chiang Mai, and we were all stuffed into taxis and taken to a 'guest house' called "Nice Place", where we were pressured to sign up for treks and other various gimmicks. Thankfully, Chris Irish (one of our trip leaders who we're hanging out with) emailed me before we left Bangkok and let me know what to expect.
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