20th March 2008 I was up at 6:30am, had a quick, cold shower and got some breakfast in the cafe next to the hotel. I was picked up by a Singserm minibus that was full and so perched on the end of a seat for the five minute ride to what was basically a transfer…

I got the minibus from the hostel to the airport at 7am arriving in plenty of time to check in for the One Two Go 8:40 flight to Bangkok Donmueng. I didn’t have to wait long to board either. The flight was only about forty minutes and, although the leg room was less than on…

After the drinks and massage fairly late yesterday I was up late this morning. I spent most of the morning online uploading the rest of the pictures from my old camera. Everything up to when I left Chungdu in China is now online. I also spent ages working out how to travel by train to…

Today has been a pretty lazy day. I got up fairly late and, after having breakfast at the hostel, walked into the city to Wat Chiang Man. This particular Wat is said to be the oldest in Chiang Mai, but still has much the same features as all the others. To get out of the…

I forgot to mention that in the first village we stayed at a small boy posed under a tree for a photo, but was pretty shy. In the second village (last night) there was another small boy who took great interest in us whistling and me making Donald Duck impressions. He then joined us after…

14th March 2008 Today is the first day of my three day trek. I was picked up at about 9:30 and joined the four Spaniards and five Danes in the truck taxi (a Toyota pickup with bench seats in the back and open for ventilation). Our first stop was at the Thai tourist police station…

15th March 2008 After a night of very broken sleep thanks to the hard bed and cockerells we were given breakfast of scrambled egg and toast, followed by pineapple! After that we set off on the four hour trek to the elephant centre. We stopped for breaks fairly frequently and then half way at a…

Despite the heat I slept really well last night, but did wake up early. I had breakfast at the hostel and then walked into Chiang Mai city. I got a hair cut and shampoo for 150 Baht and have gone from novice hippy to grade 4 skinhead – at least it’s cooler and less to…

I was up at quarter to five and got the hostel taxi to the airport. They use the same minibus as the tours and the driver looked more asleep than me. I found out later, when I bumped into the Brazilian couple (who, you guessed it, were on the Great Wall tour) at the airport…

After the non-stop sight seeing so far I decided to take it easy today. I had vegetable omelette and toast for breakfast – I didn’t make it up it was on the menu! I then got the subway up to the silk market to get a couple of cheap t-shirts and to see if I…