Chaing Mai- 7 weeks in...

These weeks have literally flown by, but at the same time thinking back to December when we arrived in Koh Samui it seems an age away...
That's the main aspect we notice whilst traveling, you have no concept of time. Some days we wake up and have to think about what day it is- even if we haven't had a drink the night before... Its probably because you don't really have a set routine, no 9-5 job as such, and no counting down the days till the weekend.... not that I'm complaining, as each day to us is like the weekend.... I was just merely pointing out that not knowing what day it is can be a pain sometimes......

Anyways we have just arrived in Cambodia following a 23 hour coach ride from Chaing Mai in northern Thailand via Bangkok- one of the few downsides of traveling are the long journeys... but we take the rough with the smooth, and we have had many smooth experiences to out- weigh the rough- mind you at the moment I am very hot and sweaty and uncomfortable, so the rough is not that pleasant...

CHAING MAI

We stayed in Chaing Mai for 8 days in total. We arrived here after a 13 hour train journey as mentioned in my last blog entry. We stayed one night in Chaing Mai city then we got a 4 hour minibus ride up to a mountain village called Pai.
Pai- I recommend a visit to this village, as it is very relaxed and chilled and the scenery is beautiful. The journey up the mountain however is on a very bendy road, so I advise you to take motion sickness tablets, unfortunately Toni and I didn't so we were both sick on this journey.

Pai is rather cold at night compared to the rest of Thailand which at times can be 30 degrees at night, but in Pai we had to wear long bottoms, cardigans and scarfs in order to keep warm. However a visit to the hot springs soon warmed us up and made up for the drop in temperature.. Aswell as the hot springs I also recommend a visit to one of the many hill-top tribes and also the grand canyon. If you choose you can rent a motorbike for as little as 100 baht a day (2 pounds), and then you can visit many places yourself....

After 3 nights in Pai (which was plenty), we made our way back down to Chaing Mai city (we took motion sickness tablets this time)....

As we were losing our tans due to not being able to sunbath in Bangkok, we were determined to find a pool to relax and chill at for a few days... However on our budget and being in a city this was a tall order... But luckily we met a tuk tuk driver- Pete,  who took us to a lovely swimming pool in a park which was only 50baht each to get in (1 pound) it was called Chaing Mai Land Village. If you go here though make sure you take a tuk tuk drivers phone number, Pete became our personal driver which was handy... and for 60 baht between us each way (1 pound 20) it was a bargain....

We also went out a few nights in Chaing Mai, I suggest the  Reggae bar and the Rock bar which are opposite each other and both play live music and offer good vibes....



Bobbie also went Zorbbing during our stay here (think being in a big giant ball and being rolled down a hill)... She had wanted to do this for a while, but in England it is quite expensive. But in Thailand this extreme sport was only 500baht (10 pound) a third of the price then at home, and Bobbie loved it...

On our last day in Chaing Mai we visited Tiger Temple- an amazing experience, we actually got to go insde the tigers enclosures where they were free to roam with no chains in sight; many of you may think we are insane but we were assured that these animals were hand reared from cubs and were quite tame- however 'IF' we were unfortunate to be attacked then we would receive 8 million baht (4 million pounds), and seeing as we are travelers we thought we could use that money- ha ha. Luckily none of us were attacked!
Seriously though this was such an amazing experience and I highly recommend it. Prices vary depending on the size and how many of the tigers or Lions you would like to interact with.... I actually laid down besides a fully grown tiger and cuddled her!!! Insane I know... We paid around 15 pound each for this amazing experience..... Big tip- watch their tales, I got whacked in the eye by the tigers tale which really hurt, Im sure she didn't do it on purpose though....

We spent our last day in Thailand in Chaing Mai which was sad after spending 7 weeks across this amazing country and surrounding islands... We now look forward to the experiences from the rest of our journey.....