Chiang Mai, Thailand

Arrived at Chiang Mai early in the morning. Checked into our hotel just outside the city walls, Baan Thai. It was a good basic hotel, with the luxury of having a pool! We have some breakfast and get settled into our rooms, then go to Doi Suthep, the hilltop temple. It is unfortunately too smoky (due to burning off - hot season) to get a good view from the top. We then head into Chiang Mai town and have some lunch at a restaurant owned by expats which provides food and veterinary help to street dogs and cats. Later that night we went to watch a Muay Thai match and went to a pub called the Riverside and enjoyed a night of dancing, drinking and talking with some locals we met. Stayed out perhaps a bit too late given we start a 3 day trek tomorrow morning!!

Bangkok, Thailand

Day 1

Arrived into Bangkok at 5.55am and waited in line at Passport Control for what seemed like forever. A older Thai woman became very distressed and angry that she had to wait so long and she started hitting the poor Passport Control woman, who hid under the desk to escape the punches raining down on her back. I have never seen anyone act so spoilt and selfish in public, particularly not a well dressed older lady.

Arrived at my hotel (New World Lodge, located in the Banglamphu area) quite early, so I checked in and went straight to get some breakfast. I arrived 1 day prior to my tour starting (I travelled to Thailand alone) so I went for a walk around the immediate area of my hotel to orientate myself. It was a lovely sunny day and I walked past ladies setting up rows of drying fish, butchers shooing flies of their cuts of meat, dogs licking at congealed pools of blood, men pushing their pad thai carts around to get the prime positions for the lunchtime rush. After that I went to bed for a bit of a rest. Later on that day I ventured out for dinner across the road to a street-side vendor and had an amazing Pad Thai meal, as recommended to me by my friend Lisa who stayed at the same hotel the year before.

Day 2

After the morning's tour briefing, a few of us decided to check out Chatuchak Weekend Market. The Market was huge and the variety of things you could buy, endless. Amazingly I refrained from buying anything (too early in the tour to be lugging stuff around). Later that day we had the "tour briefing" which included everyone (6 people on our tour had been doing a Vietnam & Cambodia tour previously, our tour kind of tacked onto the end of theirs), then out for cocktails on Khao San Road, then for beers to Shamrocks on Khao San Road.

Day 3

A few of us decided we wanted to walk to the Grand Palace (not too far away from our hotel on the map - quite a bit longer than we anticipated by foot!). On the way we stopped at a few temples, and of course when we approached the Grand Palace were told it was closed by touts (which it was not, they always try this line on unsuspecting travellers). The worst thing was, an Irish tourist approached us and told us this story about him trying to get in and it being closed, did we want to share a tuk tuk to another temple nearby. How cheeky. We hired a Thai guide and our first stop at the Grand Palace was the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The Emerald Buddha (which is actually Jade) was a lot smaller than I imagined, but was incredibly beautiful to see in person, and much revered by the Thais. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel, we needed to pack for the overnight train to Chiang Mai!