Oh.. just another day... woke up at 5am in a to roosters' nonstop crowing and impromptu dog fights... i then hiked w/ my mahout to the jungle to ride JoJo, my 18yo boy elephant, back into town just in time for JoJo's bath and elephant shows... Thai Elephant Conservation Center The poor communition of the center definitely made for a HORRIBLE fir...

We awoke on the day of the boxing with some excitement, neither of us having been to such an event before. Popular opinion at one stage, certainly in the West, seemed to require that anyone with a reasonable education and an ounce of compassion should view boxing as barbaric and antiquated, something that should go the way of fox-hunting and coc...

After the previous nights frustrations I needed to clear my head. So when I got up I headed off to Wat Chediluang which I had seen severaly times but never been to. A Chedi is an ancient temple which looks like a pyramid, bit more aztec or incan than egyptian. It's quite impressive and I found a nice place to sit and meditate. The monks were doi...

We arrived here after a 1 hr Lao Airlines flight. Its not at all what we imagined, we pictured a small mountain Village with cool bars and outdoor activities, instead it is a big concrete city. Saturday we go up to Pai which we are hoping is what we are after. Here we rented motorbikes again and explored an impressive Wat and saw a waterfall.

Caught the overnight sleeper train to Chiang Mai. The carriage seats were converted into surprisingly comfy bunk-beds by the train staff at 9pm giving us no choice but an early night. I managed to nab a bottom bunk, thereby securing myself a good night sleep (the overhead fluorescent light was an annoyance to some of those in the top bunks). Wok...

within an hour or two of arriving in chiang mai we were busy in the kitchen. i was already enjoying chiang mai after the circus that is bangkok. i was glad i wasn't staying on a street full of hostels offering prison cell rooms, banana pancake sellers, fake dvd vendors and people who had quite clearly found themselves. we signed up for a one day...

After almost 16 hours on the train we finally arrived in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai because of its prime location and fertile land, the valley that extends from the base of Suthep Mountain to the Ping river was settled in by seceral different ethnic groups, including the hilltribe group known as the Lua tribe. The Provincial population is 1 600 000 ...

Well, that's been an incredible journey, 9 days on these great motorbikes, enjoying life to the full, as usual... Now it's time to get back to Chiang Mai because we're flying tomorrow to Phuket ! Time to get a proper sun tan and not only the forearms !!! All the way back through those crazy curves again...and a big storm on top of that. Didn't p...

Greetings from Chiang Mai. The accompanying photos are from the annual Loy Krathong Festival, or Festival Of Light, held on the first full moon in November. The idea is to symbolically float your troubles from the past year, and wishes for the coming year, away down Old Man River Ping. It's also to ask forgiveness for polluting the river yet aga...