Northern Thailand

We took the train from Bangkok to Phitsanulok - the express train that stopped about 20 times and took a little over 5 hours to get to our destination, at least we booked an air-conditioned carriage. The trip itself was a bit boring to be honest..... at least we had ipods, books and nibbles. The ticket we bought surprisingly included free soft drinks and a meal - which we passed on as it didn't look to appetising; instead we munched on crackers and museli bars ! We finally arrived at our destination and got a tuk-tuk (a pickup version of Del and Rodneys 3 wheeler van) to the hostel. We were the only people there the first night ... The place was v quaint ... but the rooms were clean. We spend that evening wandering around the town and had dinner on a river boat (under 8 euros including beer !!! bargain).

The next day we took a 1 hour bus trip to Sukhothai (where the ancient city is) and rented bikes for the day ...cycled around the ruins all day....checked out all the buddhas, museums etc... it was another scorcher of a day but very quiet tourist wise which suited us perfectly. Back on the bus home for another hour. I must say the bus drivers and locals even with minimal english are very helpful with directions, bus times etc.....

Friday morning, we took a bus from Phitsanulok to Chiang Mai (further north again) - well we got on the bus at 9.15am and didnt arrive at Chiang mai until 4pm... the bus made some stops where we could get off for 5 minutes and grab a bottle of water etc.... but the trip was a bit of a killer and we were shattered upon arrival. It didnt help that the bus driver at certain stages thought he was a formula one driver !

Chiang Mai is a lovely city..... our hostel is very centrally located and there are plenty of pubs and restaurants in the area. Sunday evening was spent enjoying the views of Leinster being thrashed by Munster! We were checking out the signs outside the Irish pub every time we passed it to see if they were going to show the match, which thankfully (a bit late notice mind!) they did. There must have been 12 irish people there and not a ONE was supporting Leinster.

Other acitivities in Chiang Mai during the first few days: wandering around more temples (lots of big gold giant buddhas) in another scorcher of a day, the heat is unreal during the day. We went to the huge flower market down by the river and wandered around a few general markets also. We decided to get a bit organised today too and have booked a Thai cookery course for tomorrow (am loving the chicken and cashew nuts here, Gert-Jan - I'm actually loving the food - shock horror !!) and a day trip on Monday that includes a trek in the mountains, a visit to a really quaint tribal village, elephant rides (??) and bamboo rafting.

It's a lot cooler in the evening once the sun sets and thats the way we like it. Patrick our mascot was very impressed with all the buddhas and temples but he's getting a bit bored with them now and fancies a change of scenery.