Once again, its been far to long since i last wrote.  Alot has happened since Launceston and ill do my best to fill ya in. Flew back to Sydney and met up with Rich and spent a week living with him and 5 Koreans.  It was a riot being that only 2 of them spoke English. I flew to Bangkok on the 4th and Rich landed a day after.  Spent...

HE SAID: Sadly we are getting tired of golden temples, shrines, pagodas, and golden buddas.  We have now been in Chiang Mai for 4 nights and have only left our resort to visit the night market.  Good thing our room is spectacular with a giant flatscreen and huge balcony.  Such a comfortable room, we have difficulty leaving it.&nbs...

After a long and tiring flight I arrived in Chiang Mai yesterday evening. I was met by a driver from the hotel so the transfer went very smoothly. The hotel is quite ok, but not as comfortable as I had been led to expect. Today I am still trying to get over my jetlag. I slept in and then went for a little walk in the old town. And now at three o...

Pheww, we are back in normality. It really hit home during the taxi ride from the airport to our guesthouse. The car was brand new, the windows went up and all the inside lining was intact. The roads are smooth, with no potholes, and we were driving on the left side of the road and the driver is in the correct spot in his right hand drive car......

Took a 5 hour bus back to Bangkok and then a 14 hour overnight train to Thailand's old capital in Northern Thailand.  Chaing Mai is a smaller, less chaotic version of Bangkok and personally alot better.  We got hooked up with this hotel through the travel agency in Bangkok (you don't need to do this, there's plenty of room), ...

Two months into the trip and I'm questioning why I'm here, not engaging with locals, but cramming in the tourist sights and experiences. There is even less trekking to be done today, and we don't ascend the promised Doi Inthanon mountain. Still, beside the river and through banana plantations, it is most scenic. We're driven to the Wang river fo...

Wed 12th July 2006 We arrived in Chiang Mai yesterday morning after a 12 hour bus journey from Bangkok, I slept a little but Damian is obviously a good deal taller than your average Thai as he stretched well past the head rest, making sleep all but impossible! We slept for the entire day yesterday so our "lets hit the ground running by travellin...

In Chiang Mai for two weeks now. Most of the time has been spent at TMC (Thai Massage School of Chiang Mai). I haven't managed to get out of town to explore the surrounding areas of Chiang Mai yet. The weekends are short, and so far there has been enough in Chiang Mai to occupy my interest, mainly the many Wats. Every street (or soi) here seems ...

It's been nearly four weeks since my last update and this one will most probably be the second to last entry as I will be returning to the U.S. in only 2 weeks! This is a bit sooner than originally planned but this way I will get to attend my brother's wedding and I'm also looking forward to visiting all my friends in Ohio too. Since my last ent...

Well we finally made it to Chiang Mai after the most horrendous coach trip I've ever been on in my life! I'm not a big fan of coaches anyway but the train was full and we were itching to move on from Ayutthaya. It was supposed to take 9 hours but this turned into 12! The possibility of getting any sleep was severely hampered by the fact that the...