Hotel Serenity Chiang Mai

By the time we arrived in chiang mai (Thailand's second city and the capital of the north) it was about lunch time. We had a bit of freetown before going on a brief walking tour of the city. Despite being the second city of thailand, the main central city which was enclosed within some walls, was not that big. We saw quite few temples before for the first time on our trip it started to rain. Luckily despite finding some shelter was not that long and we were able to walk round a bit more. In t...

After our late night watching the football we didn't get up till late. We met the rest of the group after lunch and preceeded to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, a temple ontop of the mountain that could be reached by climbing the 304 steps to the top. It was quite a nice temple and the views of the city were great. in the evening we went to a japanese restraunat, which wasn't too bad except the service. One person in our group didn't even get his food!!! After the meal we went to a few bars and fin...

Hey there, I am now writing from Chiang Mai. We arrived this morning after a 13 hour train journey from Bangkok. During the day before we got on the train to Chiang Mai we had an orientationwalk aroundbangkok which involved getting boats and the skytrain and we spent a couple of hours in a massive shopping centre - very touristy but it had fab aircon!! I had my first green curry for only 50p - bargain!! Then on the way back to the hotel to pick up my bag I had a foot massage for about 1 pound...

We arrived in Chiang Mai in the afternoon of the 22nd. This is the last evening with each other. We went out for a really nice dinner on the river in Chiang Mai and had some drinks later listening to a Thai Band do covers of Western music (they were actually really good!). The next morning most of us got together to head to an elephant camp. It is a camp where injured, sick, and mistreated elephants go for rehabilitation. we arrived early to see the elephants have their bath time in the lake....

Apologies for the cringey title but couldn't resist! I won't let it happen again. So back to business... The place beginning with A turned out to be Ayutthaya (well predicted Carly!) We spent an uneventful but very hot afternoon there around a swimming pool before taking the overnight train to Chiang Mai that evening. Needless to say we arrived in Chiang Mai a bit bleary eyed but the accommodation was a nice hotel of the non-floating variety and the most comfortable beds we had experienced ye...

OMB, it seems like forever since I wrote an entry. I have a free day in Bangkok today before I fly out for Siem Reap, Cambodia to visit Angkor Wat this afternoon. In Luang Prabang, my group boarded a long thin boat to go up the Mekong River for 2 days to the Lao-Thai border at Houayxai/ Chiang Khong. A driver at the front of our boat steered it around rocks and sandbars for an incredible 10 hours a day, and this was serious hard work. Meanwhile, we sat on seats that had clearly been removed f...

Day 8: Chiang Mai We got off the train at 10am and headed to the hotel, which was quite nice, I'd guess 3 star, which was good because the next few days were the hilltribe trek which was going to be really basic conditions! Chiang Mai is the 'capital of the north' and is a fairly big city but in a strange way it doesnt seem so. The advantage of the overnight train is that you dont need any time to recover after the journey because you actually get a decent nights sleep, so we went on a walkin...

Day 12: Chiang Mai Had a nice lie-in until 11am and then we got some brunch from a market stall before getting a songthaew to the station to get some money back for the train ticket back to Bangkok that were aren't using. Managed to get 80% of the price back which was great as we didnt expect to get anything at all! Got a tuk-tuk back to the hotel and went to a temple at the top of 306 steps which has fantastic views of the city. We went to an umbrella factory afterwards where we saw them han...