On to Phuket and the beaches

We spent the last 2 days in Chiang Mai in the North - very beautiful - more rainforest. We took the overnight train from Bangkok Saturday night - very loud bumpy for sleeping but a great experience. Sash was on the top berth, I was on the bottom. (She's younger - that's fair!!) We met a really nice couple from England on a 12 month around the world trip. HOW GREAT IS THAT??!!

On Sunday we booked into the Lai Thai Guest House - nice and more Thai-ish than our Khao San Road accommodation. We walked around the area for a while, did some more shopping (this is a shopper's Mecca), then went back to sit around the pool for a few minutes and then had an oil massage - heavenly!!

Monday we took a one day trip. Started with an hour bus ride to an elephant compound where we rode an elephant for an hour - really cool. Our little guide "Haun", who rode on the elephant's neck, was so cute. He was very happy, singing, laughing and generally enjoying himself and entertaining us.

Then we went to a village tribe and saw how they live, watched them weaving silk into beautiful pillow cases, bed spreads and of course, buying some of there wares. These people are refugees from Burma and speak their own language but do not speak Thai. Really interesting.

Then it was off to trek to a beautiful waterfall where we stopped for about a half hour. Some people swam but it was too cold for this Canuck and I didn't want to sit in a wet suit for the rest of the trip.

We then stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch with choice of fried noodles (very spicy), frid rice (not spicy) or noodle soup (spicy). It was very good but did play a little havoc with my stomach!!

Then our final leg of the trip was on a bamboo raft down a lazy river that had a few little rapids. We got wet of course but that made it all the more fun!! Sash and I sat up front and 2 ladies from Finland sat behind us. Our young guide "Man" was a fabulous navigator and managed to keep the boat on track!!

We met a couple from Israel, a family from Finland (including the 2 ladies on our raft) and another couple from Finland. Great to meet so many wonderful people.

Our driver then dropped us off at the train station in Chiang Mai so we could catch the overnight train back to Bangkok.

The ride back was better than the ride here and I even slept. So great to see the countryside. Arrived back in Bangkok at 6:30. Met a couple of Canadian girls on the train and we took a cab back to Khao San Rd. to unload some of our stuff.

Flying to Phuket today. More later.......