Chiang Mai

We stayed in Chiang Mai for about 2 weeks. God only knows what we got up to cos there's not really that much to do there. I can account for 5 of the days but i'm not allowed to tell you what with, you'll have to ask George!!!

Chiang Mai was really good. I couldn't believe how cheap everything is there, compared to the South, anyway. We stayed in the part known as "Old Town", it's inside an almost perfectly square mote. The place we stayed was nice but the owners had a bull dog with a bloody bell round it's neck. They advertised "real" Lincolnshire sausages with breakfast but they were nothing like, more like hotdog sausages, eeerr!!

When we were there we met a guy called Eak (aka Phatie). He's Thai but he learned most of his English in London, where he lived with his wife and daughter, so he speaks with the strangest cockny/Thai acsent. He'd say things like "bloody hell" in a London acsent, it was so wierd. He was really nice too. He looked after us and took us to nice bars and things like that. He would let us doss at his tattoo shop, watching DVD's and drinking bottle after bottle of Sang Som (Thai Rum).

We got a motorbike at Chiang Mai and surprise, surprice George crashed it. Not just once but three times!! He managed to get scratches all down one side and dints to match. George was shitting it a bit when we had to take the bike back cos you hear stories about the repair bills that they make you pay. Apparently they don't give you your passport back (which you have to give them to get a bike) until you pay them. However, George thought it would be worth trying to convince the woman in the shop that all the scratches and dints were already there when we got the bike. Sure enough, it worked. George "reminded" her that the scratches and dints had been there when we took the bike and that he wouldn't take any responsibility for them. To which she said "oh yes, I already knew about them when you took it. Don't worry about it." Jammy sod!!!

We went to Chiang Mai Zoo while we were there to see the panda's, and i love panda's. One day i'm gonna have one as a pet. We had to go twice though because George is a tight arse and the first time we went he wouldn't pay 100 Baht to get into the zoo and them another 100 Baht to see the panda's. I can't remember why he agreed to go a second time but i can only assume that he was trying to make up for doing something wrong. George hates zoo's aswell, he thinks they are cruel but my argument is that you don't know the animals previous or potentially post environment to say whether these are better or worse surroundings for them to live in.

The Toss of a Coin

Before leaving Ao Nang we had to decide the next location. We narrowed our choices down to 2 places Chiang Mai (in the North) or Ko Samui (an island in the South, off the East coastline). The best way we could think of to choose was to toss a coin, and Chiang Mai was the outcome.

The journey to Chiang Mai was a little much though. It was going to be 2 night buses. We got the first one through Nui at the place we were staying. It was a 10 hour journey, which wasn't really that bad because we were asleep for the majority of it. Then we had to spend a whole day in Bangkok waiting for the next night bus to Chiang Mai.

I'd heard the cinemas in Thailand were very good and i wanted to see one. Luckily, the new James Bond film with Daniel Craig had just come out so it seemed like the opportune moment to see it. The tickets only cost 200 Baht so i was expecting the same kind of seating as in our cinema's but it was something else!! We had reserved seating which i chose but wasn't really paying much attention to, just somewhere near the middle. I didn't really check the seating arrangement. When we got inside there was an usher waiting to show us to our seats and carry our snacks for us. The cinema room was a semi-circle of about 10, 2 seater settee's. You got your own table to put your drinks and things on and a pillow and blanket each. It was ace!! When i thought it couldn't get any better the usher handed me a remote control. I was like "what is this for?", the usher pressed one of the buttons and my side of the settee started to recline. I could believe it, i'd gotten all this for less than 3 pounds.

Back to Ao Nang

Hi everybody!!

After Phi Phi we went back to Ao Nang, Krabi. This time it was a little more eventful, although not much. We stayed in a placed called Laughing Gecko, which boasted some very natural surroundings!! It was my first bungalow stay and it really is just a paper shed with a bed in it. It wasn't as bad as i has expected a bamboo bungalow to be though. I really didn't think it was that bad which surprised George. The place is run by a Canadian woman (Trish), her Thai husband (Nui) and their 2 children Niana (9) and Charlie (5). Niana and Charlie took a real liking to George and me. It was almost like being stalked at times. If we were in the eating area, they'd know and they would be straight on to us. George did a trick for them, he was putting things in his ears, which amazed Charlie but Niana was a bit too old for all that childish non-sense. She took more of an interest in me, which was quite nice at first but after a few days of being constantly hastled i could take it anymore. I started going out when they were at school and not coming back until they had gone to bed.

We did a little sightseeing too. We went to a temple on the top of a mountain in Krabi town. I say "we" but George was the only one to make it to the top. It was 1237 steps all the way to the top and i made it about half way and couldn't go any further. I had never realised how afraid of height's a really am until then. Not to mention i was exhausted. Another cool thing is all the monkeys around. They look like they're gonna mug you for food and they probably are. So i gave mine away before they got chance.

We went shooting too. It was the first time i had fired a real gun. On the first day we had a .22 hand gun (means nothing to me) and so the second day we were feeling a little more daring and we decided to go for shotguns. That was ace!!! I had bruises on my shoulder from the back-blast. In the name of sportmanship George and me had a little competition going and i kicked ass!! Maybe not 'kicked ass' but i was better anyway. I got 4 targets to his 3 and the only reason he got 3 was because he missed the target he was aiming for and hit the one next to it instead.

Ao Nang was definately better second time round, i'd even recommend going.