My favorite place in Chiang Mai: Pinte Blues Bar.  A simple, small bar that has three things: beer, espresso, and a huge collection of fine blues and related music.  I could just sit there for weeks and listen to the guy's entire collection and stare at his hall of famers on the wall.  That said, I was glad I stayed out of the bars on Saturday n...

Kupili smo si karte na spalniku na pogradu, ker smo skrtuhi, ampak je bila postlelja zacuda tudi zame skoraj zadosti velika (kaksnih dodatnih 10cm ne bi skodilo). Po priblizno uri in pol voznje so nam pripravili postelje in v vagonu je pocasi zavladala tisina vse do drugega jutra in prihoda v Chiang Mai.

Hallo allemaal! Ik heb de laatste tijd niet veel geschreven, maar heb het ongelooflijk druk gehad, maand aan een stuk tour na tour. Volgende week donderdag ben ik eindelijk vrij, ik zal dan wat meer schrijven over mijn 'avonturen', alvast al wat foto's als voorsmaakje... Cyaa!! xKx

I decided to have an easy morning as I had been traveling for two days. Took a walk to look at the moat and the remaining parts of the walls. The moat was maybe 20 meters wide and the walls were made of brick and looked like it was 5 to 10 meters tall. The bricks looked like they were slowly eroding after many years in the sun and the rain. Japa...

I woke up this morning not sure of what I wanted to do. I looked at the map and saw the Zoo so thought I'd take a run over there and see what it was like. I got some money out (without my passport I can't cash T-Cheques) and took the bike for a spin. I got to the zoo at about 10am and it was pretty empty. I paid for the one of the "hop-on, Hop-o...

Been rock-climbing (with Nueng: he picked up on Charlie and my "to the left to the left" and now he dances away while belaying me and lets me free-fall down once I reach the top) for whiskey and took a day-long cooking class yesterday. It was good fun if popular (read over-popular: 16 prospective chefs) and I'm not altogether sure I've gotten an...

So Chiang Mai could be described as an 'experience' to say the least. The bus journey was pretty uneventful and after waiting around in the city for a few hours I headed off to a temple of the outskirts of town to start my meditation retreat! Walking into the meeting room I was greeted by some bald guys in orange robes (formally known as monks) ...

Last night we attended our first Thai boxing match, called Muay Thai by the locals. Muay Thai is essentially kickboxing with a little less rule regulation...elbows and throwing your opponent to the ground are legal moves. The arena was a little out of the way and horror stories began flowing into our heads the further outside of the city we got ...

Chiang Mai is billed as a bohemian centre full of book shops and little cafes. My impression coming from Laos is that it is a big city with the traffic etc to follow it. This was really just a first impression however and I spent enough time there to enjoy it. Having been a little cut off for a while it was good to do some housekeeping and a eno...

It has been a packed few days, we went on a day tour to Doi Inthanon national park - we were taken to the highest point in thailand but we had to take their word for it because it was bucking down and there was no visibility, we also saw some amazing waterfalls (what made these different to waterfalls in Australia was the bamboo forest around an...