Park Chiang Mai

... of the trains or train stations. I booked a VIP, 1st class overnight sleeper, a private room for the 10 hr. journey to Chiang Mai. Scenery along the tracks were shanty as in most countries. I was relieved to see a full moon and a slight rain begin as we left Bangkok. To me it was a sign that God was lighting the path ahead of me and washing away the sins of Bangkok.

Waking up in the northern province of Thailand brought happiness to my ...

... in selling them. ;)

Not as long term sustainable but highly necessarily was our market shopping this morning, where my dear friends a portion of the donations raised at my good-bye drinks went.

Purchased for the boarding house was:

 6 mosquito nets (these sleep 3-5 children each)

1 large cooking pot

2 pad locks to secure the girls hut door, so they feel safe, until Steve uses his kiwi building skills for a more long term solution

1 gas ...

... messing one with Phil. I get back at 6 am to find dean too fast asleep to open our door & it takes me 40 mins to wake him. Idiot. We went to Muay Thai, which was great. The trannies singing its raining men half way through was a bit scary, but it was good fun. Also, after the real fights, they blindfolded 4 thai guys & got them to fight. So funny, the ref even got a few hits in. Then it was off to Chiang Rai. This place is pretty much dead, apart from a massive food ...

... at the right. We fought our way thru the tuk-tuk drivers and made it to the driveway of the bus station. No right on right. After consulting our directions several times and still not seeing right on right we gave up and bartered a ride from a tuk-tuk driver. The tuk-tuks here are opposite of Chiang Mai and Bangkok, you ride in the front and the driver is behind, there are seats on each side rather than across the front. We wobbled in with our packs on and had ...

... destinations were all written in both Thai and English). Ben insisted on taking a photo of us at the station holding our tickets north - I guess the equivalent in Britain would be two Thais sat at Watford Junction taking a photo of their day pass to Manchester! Such tourists! The journey was ok - we were positioned a bit close to the doors which were very noisy when opened so I guess that's something to note for later on when we take another sleeper ...

... this display was directed at those outside the cage it was still unnerving to be in there with them. We went in with both the medium sized tigers and the older bigger ones, the bigger ones were more mellow, and my favourite was one called Shampoo who was the picture of calm and uncaring! What i found perhaps more amazing than getting to be able to pet them at all was the fact that none of the trainers have experience - when asked how they got a job like that they ...

... treats. Remember, all kwan are not the same - some are good and use these gentle training methods, others are not. I am pleased to say that all the elephants at the park looked happy and seemed to have a good relationship with their kwan, doing things like kissing tourists and putting hats on their heads because it was fun, and not because they were scared of what would happen if they didn't. After the documentary we ...

... everyone. We end up carrying empty water bottles or food containers for blocks looking for garbage cans, none even at the Sky Train stations!
Language: unfortunately I haven't picked up anymore Thai, but now that we're in the north Ken's Thai has improved exponentially – apparently the Bangkok and Chiang Mai dialects are very different.

... shorts and open-toed sandals) but we continued walking south to further explore the area.


A note on this area: Over the course of my 3 visits to Bangkok the area south of the palace became one of my favorite places to walk. On my last visit, I even took a water taxi up to stop 15, (coming from stop 1 in the far south of the city) to walk the streets.

There are impromptu markets everywhere. I imagine locals walking along and thinking,

"Hey! This piece of ...

... as aunties and friends for the mum. In Hopes case (who is an orphan) they are all aunties. Lily is a blind elephant who was one of our favourites, she is very slow however and took ages to walk to the haven, her mahout is also very cool and bviously adores her.

Some of the elphants set out on road but Kelly, Rose, Lis, Dan and I followed the other elephants along the river and then up the hillslope to the haven. A wooden bungalow we let the elephants go off and ...