Veranda Resort & Spa Chiang Mai

... br><br>Things could have been worse. My friend Dima, a young 28 year old backpacker from Russia came to visit and showed us the reddness on his leg presuming it was sunburn from falling asleep in a boat. I suggested he get treatment, it didnt appear to be sunburn but more of a rash. That night Dima was hospitalized for Dengue Fever which he caught while traveling in Cambodia. Its a serious disease, he was ...

... and I think this time round I managed around 8 helpings, without joking. The camp was again a collection of bamboo buildings, except the land was steeper, and they were more staggered on the hillside. Of course, after dinner, the general entertainment arrived, our host, Sook, turned up and dished out Thai water, or rice wine as we call it, a horrid smelling, but OK tasting spirit, and despite deciding that we were not drinking with Jon, the card games started, chase the ace, blackjack ...

... sold! (Not to mention hot showers!) Of the 3 Guest Houses I've stopped in so far this is by far the best of the 3, as well as being the cheapest!<br><br>After checking in and taking a well deserved shower we all met up again to have a walk around the "Old Town" of Chiang Mai and to book ourselves a "Jungle Trek". The Old Town is a 1km square surrounded by a wall and moat (Basically it's an old fort) and is where the majority of the night life is. Also within the walls are 47 ...

This was not our most joyous day. After a rushed get up and not feeling great after a poor night's sleep we were thrust onto a horrible bus with, no offence, what seemed like thousands of irish people shouting and sweating. Thus our journey began, i wont go into detail but we went from bus 1 to bus 2 to bus stop 1 to tuk tuk 1, to Vientiane for no lunch as tuk tuk 2 arrived ...

Got to my guest house at 12.30 yesterday afternoon. Chiang Mai is very different to Bangkok. Greener and less hectic. At the station I couldn't see many taxis - and when a taxi driver approached me, he showed me to what looked like an ordinary van. Felt a little bit of trepidation getting in, but it turns out they are all like that here - a particular make of van, rather than the cabs in Bangkok.<br><br>My guesthouse is very sweet - luckily ...

... ha!!! Sunday was a bit overcast so we took a walk back down to the little shops to book our onward journey. I wanted to hire a motorbike for the afternoon but Soph was having none of it ... can't blame her I suppose considering her recent string of minor accidents. Instead we agreed to source a willing local to give us an island tour. A young Thai guy called Dan took is on a 4hr sightseeing trip in his motorbike tuk-tuk. Koh Lanta is pretty much made up of small clusters on ...

... night bazaar) this one was huge. We headed back to the hostel and dropped off the bike. The walking market had a arts exhibition which was interesting. I have posted some of the video from that. After the show we did more shopping and this time it got expensive and I was ticked at myself for a while. I wont tell you what we bought you will just have to see when we get back. Very nice is all I will say. We headed back to the room to get ready for the next day. Showers and to sleep.

... road. The girls were heading back home and so had "English' food like pork chops and pizza. Me and Pete kept it real with some Thai dishes and showed off, as most blokes do, by having some extra chillis. My food was something like small strips of pork with crackling around the edge, which was lovely until I bit down onto a bit of knuckle....<br>Had a few more beers at the free-pool-place, where we witnessed aforementioned drug deal, and went back to pack up kit ...

... vapour created from cooking would coat the pots and form a damp-proof layer, so that the seeds or whatever was in the pots would be kept completely dry. It struck me that we, in the west, would NOT suspend a platform with pots on it over a stove BECAUSE it would get greasy! Outside the window of our hotel is a little wildlife haven. We have frogs or toads all around us making very weird noises but ...

... jab man. the crowd blew the dump off the place with chants for and against as the bells chimed and flute sang. six fights and three kayohs later, elsie, one of the girls, convinced us we were hungry, and we left for the night bazaar and tourist strip for a cozy restaurant meal. over dinner we meshed like old friends. my companions asked me for a few war stories. i pretty much told them all that you've read to this point. coyoacán, chapultapec, chiapas ...