The second leg of our trip brought us to Chiang Mai, a city in the northwest of Thailand.  Chiang Mai was a much bigger city than I had expected.  It's a fantastic spot for adventure tourism.  If you can think of something outdoorsy, you can do it in Chiang Mai. We met up with one of my friends from USC who is studying in Ban...

We arrived in Chiang Mai at about 7.30am on the overnight train from Bangkok and checked into our hotel before heading out to see what Chiang Mai has to offer.  Chiang Mai has a population of about 300,000.  At it's centre is the 'old town' which is surrounded by a moat and contains lots of temples, touristy shops etc.  After Bang...

    I'd booked three days trekking in Chiang Mai while I was still in Bangkok, so everything was sorted. Just had to get a nice light pack together for the journey. Couple of clothes, towel etc. First Day We headed out in the morning and grabbed some lunch. Thai yellow curry (potato and chicken), very nice indeed and it must be si...

Back in Chiang Mai - there is one of the only good hospitals out here and Im heading to China to teach at a university there in a couple of weeks so for my Chinese visa I had to get checked up for everything from the Plague, Ebola, and Leprosy to my heart functions and all that hahah. Its great here though - it was Chinese New Year yesterday and...

I went to Muay Thai boxing last night at the Kawili stadium (400bht, nearish to the night market), after first round I thought I was going to be bored as there 9 fights and it was clearly going to be a long night, but I really got into it. Each fight consists of 5 rounds (I think maybe 2 minutes for the kids and 3 minutes for the older fighters)...

After Kanchanaburi I came back to Bangkok to take an overnight train to Chiang Mai. By now I feel as though I have had plenty of practice of taking overnight trains. The alternative is a 10 hour bus ride during the day - no thank you. The train was fine with little curtained off bunks to sleep in with relatively comfortably bunks. Arival into Ch...

Where to begin??? Well, Dane and I caught a 2:45 bus friday afternoon to Chiang Mai, which is about 3 hours away and met up with Amy, Miwa and Kate from our orientation group at their mansion (their house is ridiculously nice compared to our shack). Chiang Mai wasn't as big as I was expecting it to be, seeing that its the 2nd biggest city in ...

Saturday 11th March 2006 After a rather fitful night trying to sleep in an upright position we arrived in Chiang Mai at around 7 a.m. I said goodbye to my Korean friend who was going trekking in a hour. I managed to get a very cheap taxi to the vicinity of my hostel before being abandoned. I managed to find my way though. What a beautiful spot ....

Hello everybody!  Sorry to leave you all waiting for such a long time before I sent another entry.  The truth is that I've been so busy teaching, making plans for teaching, adjusting to teaching in this country, getting to know my students, traveling... But the main reason, of course, is that the Internet connection at school here...

We are packing up to leave our favorite spot in Chiang Mai. The sun is finally beginning to come out. Not to whine but it has been unusually cool in Thailand this week. My big purchase was a jacket and shawl. The spa was as incredible as always and a perfectr end to each day of arduos shopping through many treasure troves of silk and silver and ...