Kicking back in Kanchanaburi, chilling in Chiang Mai and police raids in Pai

Ok so I've exaggerated a bit with the police raids in Pai but it made for a better title than anything else alliterative I could think of...

After Bangkok I moved on to Kanchanaburi, taking with me my new resolution to remain sober at all times. Kanchanaburi was very peaceful and pretty, although it being low season there weren't too many people around in the evenings. I stayed in a very sweet guest house with little bamboo huts and very nice views of the river Kwai. On the first day I went to look at the death railway bridge which had very beautiful mountain scenery but obviously a not so nice history of people dying whilst building the bridge. I saw a woman carrying her dog in a little backpack on the bridge which was most interesting, and met an Italian girl called Luna who I spent the rest of my time with. The next day we rented bikes and did some cycling in and around the city. We went to visit the WW2 cemetery which was quite moving, and learnt interesting things about the building of the bridge in the railway museum. Luna and I got a bit lost while cycling so when we saw a Westerner reading the lonely planet we followed him on his bike and hung around with him for the rest of the day. Went and visited a cave where there were lots of Buddha worshipping things placed randomly inside, and lots of bats. I met an English uni student called Eddy when I went out for dinner and kept him company in a reggae bar in the evening (I had an orange juice of course).

The next day I went back to Bangkok and then got on a sleeper train to Chiang Mai. The train was an absolute dream in terms of comfort and I got talking to an English girl and a German couple on the way which made the journey more interesting. Arriving in Chiang Mai at around 7am was nice as I got to see the monks walking the streets and collecting alms. The mountain scenery around Chiang Mai is beautiful, and I spent my days doing a lot of temple visiting and general wandering. Whilst sat down at one of the temples I was approached by a monk who asked if I would mind talking to him as he wanted to practise his English. I ended up talking to him for about an hour which was really interesting. He was very passionate about Buddhism and was very keen for me to learn the art of meditation. It got slightly awkward towards the end when I realised that we had been talking for about an hour, it was raining, and I was starving and he was showing no signs of wanting to end the conversation. I didn't feel it would be appropriate to mention that I wanted to go and get lunch as he had just been telling me that he is only allowed to eat one meal a day. I managed to extract myself though, and made my way to Doi Suthep, a temple on top of a hill with great views of the city. Whilst up on the hill I also visited the winter residence of the royal family, which I found distinctly unimpressive and not at all palatial. Maybe the Thai royal family are fairly low key in terms of their accommodation needs. The next day I did a cooking course, so I am now a culinary genius when it comes to Thai food. I particularly enjoyed the deep fried bananas which was a surprise given that I hate bananas.

Got a bit bored of Chiang Mai, even though it was nice, so I made a last minute decision to go to Pai, which I loved. Met some American girls on the way who I spent most of my time with. Pai is tiny but has a really nice, laid back atmosphere. We visited a hot spring spa resort on the first day which was quite pleasant except for the weird sulphuric smell and then went out with a big group of people from our guest house in the evening, including Tor, the owner of the guest house. When moving between bars Tor gave us all a lift in his tuk tuk, which we somehow managed to cram 10 people into, and also attracted a following of local street dogs. The police are really strict about licensing hours there, and whilst we were in one of the bars the owner suddenly turned off all the lights and music as the police were driving around closing bars down for the evening (hence the title). The next day the American girls and I tried to rent some motorbikes as we had an ambitious plan of driving ourselves to various sights around Pai. Some guys from the guest house gave us a practise session on their bikes first, which was just as well as we discovered that motorbike riding is hard. Luckily I managed to drive in a reasonably straight line down the road without driving through someone's fence and into their garden, but unfortunately the same cannot be said about one of the other girls I was with. The motorbike plan was then abandoned, in favour of riding on the back of other people's bikes. I found that much more fun and a lot less scary, and we had a marvellous day involving a visit to a canyon with amazing views and a swim in a waterfall. Then it was back to Chiang Mai for the night and then on to Chiang Rai the next morning, where I met up with Sophie, which was an absolute joy. We're going to get a reasonably early night today so Sophie can recover from her jet lag, and we plan to visit the golden triangle tomorrow, as part of our route to the border for our crossing into Laos.

I hope all is well with whoever is reading. Do send me your news and I will send more word soon.

xxx