Our bus didn't leave 'til late afternoon, so we strolled down to the Death Railway Bridge in Kanchanaburi while we waited. It was extremely hot and were it not for the air-conditioned oasis that is 7-11 - Thailand's equivalent of Costcutter which is seemingly everywhere we go - we might have been the first victims of the Death Railway Bridge for about 70 years. The Bridge isn't much to look at; an iron monstrosity joining two pieces of land divided by a river. However, it was built by Allied prisoners of war when Japan was using Thailand as a base for its empirical ambitions in WW2, and some 100,000 people died building it, so we thought we'd better go have a look. Unfortunately I forgot to apply sun cream for the walk there and ended up with some attractive but very uneven 'beater 'tan lines'.
We then chilled by the hotel pool for a while, Charlotte making us laugh when she told us that a penguin dive was a pencil dive with your hands sticking out at right angles. When we informed her that in reality it is a normal dive with no arms, she understood why we found them scary.
The bus journey was our first real taste of Thai driving. The driver between Bangkok and Kanchanaburi had been relatively calm in comparison with our driver here, who drove like Evil Knieval on speed, weaving in and out of traffic with no regard for the lanes or other slower drivers (who were actually going a normal pace). Needless to say I didn't get any sleep on this leg of the journey.
We hoped that the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai would be a little smoother so that we could get some sleep. This was optimistic at best. Whether in the bussling city of Bangkok, the passport lounge of Suvarnabhumi Airport or in the front of speeding minibuses, Thai people seem to have a knack of being able to sleep at any possible opportunity. The same could not be said for us. Sleep was made near impossible by the screaming kids, snoring Thai's and bumpy track. Charlotte and Pete somehow managed to overcome these disturbances but I was awake with nothing but a little light, a book and a bag of Cheetos for company well into the early hours of the morning.
The train, which was supposed to arrive in Chiang Mai at 12:45, pulled in at around four; Thai people also like to be late, but I won't go into that (for fear of some time in the notoriously savage Thai prison system). We found our hostel (MD House) which was like a basic hotel before satisfying our hunger with a great meal at Lert Ross - a tiny rustic cafe/restaurant serving traditional Northern Thai food. Then we went to the Rooftop Bar (pretty self-explanatory, though not as swanky as it sounds) for a few Changs and made some Dutch and American friends. We followed them in a couple of tuk-tuks to what we thought was a club, but discovered that we'd been taken instead to some kind of strip club. After our ordeal in Patpong we didn't really fancy it so we took another tuk-tuk back to the hostel, managing to avoid the 50 baht fare to the club - the driver was helpless to protect himself from Pete's sweet-talk.
Travelling around Thailand is quite different from travelling around Europe, where there is so much to see and do that a free day is hard to come by. Furthermore, it felt like we'd been doing a lot of travelling and not much relaxing, so we hadn't planned anything in particular for the next day. We slept in before exploring the old city by foot, eating a basic Thai lunch and dropping into a few temples. It was great to explore and soak up the city - Chiang Mai has a chilled out, hippie vibe.
All that walking made us quite hot and tired, so our room's air conditioning was greatly appreciated for a couple of hours before dinner. We went to a smart Thai place called Hot Chilli for dinner, which was really nice. When we emerged, full and satisfied, the city streets had been transformed by the buzzing Sunday night market which takes over the streets every week. I was unable to resist some of the cheap things on offer, such as a 'silk' tie with elephants on it, some almost luminous candy floss and some slimy edamame beans (which were later thrown away). Pete, desperate to try some Thai pineapple ('my mum said it's really nice') accidentally ended up ordering a pineapple iced drink, which he also had to throw in the bin. We really enjoyed the night market, despite disposing of many of our purchases.
By ten AM the next day we were at an elephant camp in Maewang, an hour or so north of Chiang Mai. We climbed up some steps onto a platform, which the elephants came and stood next to in order for us to climb on. Fortunately, each elephant had seats for two people sitting next to each other. I think otherwise we would have fallen off. I went with Charlotte and our elephant, who was a bit cheeky, needed a trainer on at all times (though he seemed to spend most of the time on the phone - another questionable Thai driver). Once our elephant climbed up the side of a small valley to get some plants to eat, which was petrifying, and later he decided that our trek was actually a race which he wanted to win, which was perhaps even scarier. Pete went ahead with a guy we met, who was similarly tall, on the biggest and oldest elephant in the camp. We all absolutely loved it, scary as it was.
We walked for an hour through the paddy fields with our group to a waterfall nearby where we did some jumping and swimming. Pete and I nearly lost our boxers, which the current was keen to keep for itself, having forgotten our swimming gear. The cold water was very welcome; I was drenched in sweat by the time we got there. We ate a very basic Thai lunch, where we were outnumbered by about ten to one by wasps, before going bamboo rafting down the river. One of the group, who decided to commandeer Pete's raft, crashed it into a wall, which caused a collision. I was left with minor injuries - war wounds, nothing but a souvenir of the trip.
Having had nothing but Thai food for over a week, we found a recommended Indian restaurant in which to have dinner with some of the people we met on the elephant trek. The portions were far more normal compared with Thai ones, which did little to satisfy our hunger (though lined the stomach adequately for a night of Chang). We then went to an area which had the most activity (by Zoe's Bar if you're interested) for a few drinks before heading back to the room for some sleep.
The next day we would travel to Vang Vieng in Laos to go tubing, but that wasn't until the evening. The night before, after a few Changs (and some encouragement from our new buddies) we'd booked ourselves on a half-day Thai cooking course nearby. It didn't seem like such a good idea when we woke up at 8:45 but turned out to be really fun. Our instructor, who looked about ten, was the most difficult subject of the Him or Her game we've ever come across, but she(?) (Ouiyy or something) was very sweet. We learnt how to cook four different courses: soup, curry, noodles and appetisers. We all plan to show off our skills back in England, so we'll have to stuff our suitcases with ingredients like kaffir lime leaves and palm sugar to ensure it's up to scratch. Sorry if you don't get a present.
Travelling around Thailand is quite different from travelling around Europe, where there is so much to see and do that a free day is hard to come by. Furthermore, it felt like we'd been doing a lot of travelling and not much relaxing, so we hadn't planned anything in particular for the next day. We slept in before exploring the old city by foot, eating a basic Thai lunch and dropping into a few temples. It was great to explore and soak up the city - Chiang Mai has a chilled out, hippie vibe.
All that walking made us quite hot and tired, so our room's air conditioning was greatly appreciated for a couple of hours before dinner. We went to a smart Thai place called Hot Chilli for dinner, which was really nice. When we emerged, full and satisfied, the city streets had been transformed by the buzzing Sunday night market which takes over the streets every week. I was unable to resist some of the cheap things on offer, such as a 'silk' tie with elephants on it, some almost luminous candy floss and some slimy edamame beans (which were later thrown away). Pete, desperate to try some Thai pineapple ('my mum said it's really nice') accidentally ended up ordering a pineapple iced drink, which he also had to throw in the bin. We really enjoyed the night market, despite disposing of many of our purchases. 
By ten AM the next day we were at an elephant camp in Maewang, an hour or so north of Chiang Mai. We climbed up some steps onto a platform, which the elephants came and stood next to in order for us to climb on. Fortunately, each elephant had seats for two people sitting next to each other. I think otherwise we would have fallen off. I went with Charlotte and our elephant, who was a bit cheeky, needed a trainer on at all times (though he seemed to spend most of the time on the phone - another questionable Thai driver). Once our elephant climbed up the side of a small valley to get some plants to eat, which was petrifying, and later he decided that our trek was actually a race which he wanted to win, which was perhaps even scarier. Pete went ahead with a guy we met, who was similarly tall, on the biggest and oldest elephant in the camp. We all absolutely loved it, scary as it was. We walked for an hour through the paddy fields with our group to a waterfall nearby where we did some jumping and swimming. Pete and I nearly lost our boxers, which the current was keen to keep for itself, having forgotten our swimming gear. The cold water was very welcome; I was drenched in sweat by the time we got there. We ate a very basic Thai lunch, where we were outnumbered by about ten to one by wasps, before going bamboo rafting down the river. One of the group, who decided to commandeer Pete's raft, crashed it into a wall, which caused a collision. I was left with minor injuries - war wounds, nothing but a souvenir of the trip.
Having had nothing but Thai food for over a week, we found a recommended Indian restaurant in which to have dinner with some of the people we met on the elephant trek. The portions were far more normal compared with Thai ones, which did little to satisfy our hunger (though lined the stomach adequately for a night of Chang). We then went to an area which had the most activity (by Zoe's Bar if you're interested) for a few drinks before heading back to the room for some sleep.
The next day we would travel to Vang Vieng in Laos to go tubing, but that wasn't until the evening. The night before, after a few Changs (and some encouragement from our new buddies) we'd booked ourselves on a half-day Thai cooking course nearby. It didn't seem like such a good idea when we woke up at 8:45 but turned out to be really fun. Our instructor, who looked about ten, was the most difficult subject of the Him or Her game we've ever come across, but she(?) (Ouiyy or something) was very sweet. We learnt how to cook four different courses: soup, curry, noodles and appetisers. We all plan to show off our skills back in England, so we'll have to stuff our suitcases with ingredients like kaffir lime leaves and palm sugar to ensure it's up to scratch. Sorry if you don't get a present. 
The cook's got a beard so where's the confusion?!
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