Helllloooo and greetings from Chiang Mai!! Thought it time for some travel blog action! :) So if that interests you, read on! :) Today (Tuesday 17th) I have had an awesome time visiting the Elephant Nature Park. This park is home to about 30 elephants, who have been rescued from various parts of Thailand and surrounding regions from some very un...

So, back in Chiang Mai, different guesthouse, this one entirely teak wood, entirely roasting inside. OUr fan merely wafts hot air around, which is obviously brilliant. Hannah is ill, same as i was, holly is too, the 'elephant girls'- people who came elephanting with us are too, and im not feeling too fablous. were meant to be catching our bus to...

Tues. March 4 6pm. Sky high cloud cover, nice temp, water fountain running nearby, looking out at river at guesthouse. Mood: down Today was filled with a nice tour but not much for company. Different tour groups, you never know who will be with you. Yesterday was a good bunch with great conversation, today no. Went on tour-should be so thrilled,...

This morning we made a trip down to the restaurant for breakfast at the hotel before our tour of Wat Prathat Doi Suthep, Doi Poi Hmong Village, and finally the Chiang Mai Zoo with our tour guide Supat. We left to begin our tour at 8:30am, heading outside of Chiang Mai and up the most winding, hilly road I've ever seen. The climb up the mountain ...

After 5 long days in Bangkok, I picked up my passport (with my new Vietnamese visa) and train ticket and made my way to the Hualamphong train station on Tuesday night for my 10pm train to Chiang Mai. The station was far larger than I imagined it, housing 12 seperate tracks, a food court, ATM's and shower facilities. I confirmed my track number a...

We rolled into town fairly pleased with ourselves for the time we'd made over the last few days and full of plans for the next week in this tourist mecca. Opportunities abound here for activities such as trekking, rafting and bungee jumping. Unfortunately, unbeknown to us, we checked into a guesthouse notorious for striking its patrons down with...

Well, we successfully completed our cooking course and I still have all my fingers and thumbs - result! To be honest, I surprised myself. I didn't burn or ruin anything and all my dishes turned out pretty well. Elie of course excelled at everything that was put to us. It was a very entertaining day all in all. The cooking school loaded us all in...

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 ...

Stay at JULIE's Guesthouse. This is my advice for Chiang Mai. Scott and I took the tip from Emma and booked into this place and it set the scene for a great 3 days. Its run by Stephen (German, Swedish?) and he knows exactly what backpackers want. We booked our tour with him and it turned out to be exactly what we wanted. Our 2 night, 3 day tour ...