Smile House Chiang Mai

After more net usage the next morning we went in search of tailors but found only sharks with odd cockney accents After some lunch snacks we returned to the guesthouse for cold drinks, naps and more future travel research. At dusk we headed to the shops, having a quick peruse of the night bazaar before stopping at Ratana's kitchen for Phad Thai and Khao Saew (Northern Thai noodles in curry broth). We then venture back to the bazaar and were immediately enamoured by the crafts on show - I love...

From the Pai blog, you can probably tell that our stay in Chiang Mai was a rather disjointed affair. The application process for our Indian visa meant that we had to visit twice, killing some time in Pai in between whilst the slow wheels of Indian bureaucracy turned and no one looked at our visa forms. Chiang Mai is Thailand's second city, in the more relaxed north of the country, and a massive improvement on Bangkok. It's got a much more relaxed vibe to it, and the people met there were gene...

When Jamie and I first bought our tickets to Thailand, our flight was supposed to depart at 12:30pm on December 13th. A couple months later, they changed the flight to 11:30am. Earlier this week, they changed the flight to 4:50pm. Jamie arrived in New York early Thursday morning, and met me at my apartment. We packed my bags, looking angrily out the window at the snow, sleet, and rain- cursing the weather for potentially making our flight delayed even more. There were no signs, however, of ye...

Well our fall back to earth from Utopia was a wake up full of pollution, humidity, and noise. Chiang Mai had originally seemed like a haven away from Bangkok, however after our short sojourn to Pai, everything seemed to be going wrong. We hadn't made a reservation anywhere for our return as we didn't know how long wed be away. When our mini-bus driver asked us where we wanted to stay, I had to think quick. There was no way I was going back to the place with the hard beds, so I opted for a gue...

After a nightmarish 3 weeks in Bangkok waiting for my camera to be repaired and then re-repaired, then only to be returned and the focusing to be off! Arrrgh! (which I didn't realise until leaving the capital) I had had enough to be honest, the 12hr day train to Chiang Mai would be my escape route out of the purgatory.. and working it out on paper, it would have been cheaper to replace the camera than the cost of the repairs and extra money spent waiting around in the Kok.. Although I did war...

We sadly left the chilled ways of Laos behind for the crazy neon lit Thai city of Chang Mai. The trip to the Thai border was only an easy boat hop across the Mekong river and we were through the border control in a few minutes, probably the easiest and less stressful crossing yet. The journey on to Chang Mai was quite fun. We stocked up on some tasty snacks at the market and then caught a local bus to Chang Rai. We got there quite late at night and had missed all of the buses onto Chang Mai s...

I haven't updated in a while so i thought today would be the perfect time to do so as i have nothing planned for the rest of the day except finding food and a good place to sit and read my book. Starting from where I left off we ended up staying for 6 nights in Koh Tao and travelled back on the next day using the same "boat" and bus method that we used to get to the island from the capital. This was all good until we arrived at the port and found that when the nice Thai lady in the travel off...

Met Giles and Da from UK (hurrah someone else to talk to!) Drink at viewpoint bar - could see the enourmous waves crashing onto the beaches below. Night out in Patong. Started at C U Later bar, a gay go go bar....quite cool. Drag queens miming to old songs and boys in white undies waving fabric (bit like Priscilla...). Unfortunately the electric went because of the heavy rain so we had to sit by candlelight. Then the lads in underwear simply stood about with numbers on their pants waiting to ...

Everyone woke up a bit later than usual today. We had more switching around with the itinerary, and we instead had some time to spend in the city. Different people in the group did different things. A couple of us rented bikes from a place just 2 minutes walking distance, for just 50 baht for 24 hours! After picking up the bikes, we rode around in what is a very bike-friendly city. We visited different 'wats' or temples. Every now and then, we would spot a Buddhist monk in prayer or walking i...

From an elephant show to visiting the hilltribes of Chiang Mai, today was a packed yet enjoyable day. Our group had organized a tour with a program located in a building not too far from where we were staying. We made sure everyone had an opportunity to go, so we decided to wait while the others came back from their Muay Thai boxing lesson. At around noon, our private van drove us from the city. We had a driver as well as Amy, who was a very nice and informative tour guide. She explained some...