Man who walk sideways through turnstile, he going to Bangkok

So having said bye to Sam and Simon (who had to head back to work at home) and a 3 hour flight (and seeing Everest again from a bit further away) we arrived in Bangkok, quite a shock to the system seeing modern buildings, cars, roads - just about everything seemed to have leapt forwards by 40 years. We met up with Tim and Cheryl who had managed to get Penelope safely back to England (with a few stories to tell!) and out to Bangkok before we got there. Also met Mike H who had done China, Tibet, Hong Kong and a few other places on his own before meeting us again. Our hotel was near the backpacker area of town and the place opposite did pizza - great!

Spent 2 days looking around a bit, went down the river on a boat and the skytrain to the biggest shopping mall in Asia in search of a new camera for Jo, found a McDonalds and KFC downstairs and had my first proper McDonalds beefburger in months! Had a haircut, she took quite a bit more off than I expected but it'll grow back one day... Had a nice meal and night out ending up in ice fights somewhere off Khao San Road I think?

The end of our third day in Bangkok we all loaded our stuff onto fast longboats - long boats with big turbo diesel engines perched on the back which go flippin' quick and deafen you. Then got into some very strangely decorated taxis (bright pink leather seats!) and to the train station where we found our way onto a sleeper train to Chang Mai. This took us from about 8:00 that evening to 10:00 the next morning so most of the time was spent asleep on the surprisingly comfortable beds - didn't see much scenery other than it being quite green outside.

Chang Mai was a really nice place with a great guesthouse where the owner did everything he could to help us arrange stuff to do. Spent the first day chilling out and finding out that Georgia had just been invaded by Russia and Pakistan had really kicked off - add that to the bombs in Turkey recently and it looks like we've been starting wars most places we've been! Found an Irish bar with Strongbow that evening - 2.50 for half a pint but it was nice to find it again!

The next morning we headed off on a guided tour exploring the area - starting at a refugee camp/tourist village where Burmese refugees are allowed to stay if tourists can come and stare at them. Saw some people from the Mong tribe (teeheeehee!) and those people who wear rings on their necks to make them longer (which actually just pushes their shoulders down to "make them look like dragons"). Went for a walk through some paddy fields, had lunch then wandered down a hillside to have a ride on an elephant! Three of us perched on top of Nelly (not her real name) and gently bumped and slid our way through the jungle. It's amazing how easily they climb steep slopes and never feel like they're going to fall, and just how gentle they are. Having done that we walked up the hill and got a lift to go bamboo rafting. By this point it was pissing down with rain and we were sheltering under umbrellas, thinking we'd be able to stay dry on a raft. How wrong can you be, by the time half of us were on the raft it was mostly submerged, by the time we were all on then it was about 6" under water and we were told to sit down on the "seats" which was just one of the supports across the raft. Luckily the river was warm as we spent 1/2 hour floating downstream, up to the waist in water with our umbrellas up to keep the driving rain out of our eyes - must have been quite a sight to see from the shore but unfortunately nobody got any pictures of us - a good end to an interesting day though!

The following day was spent wandering Chang Mai, even went to a Chinese temple briefly but we gave up on that when it started monsooning again. Back at the hotel Tim and Pete were contemplating hiring quad bikes as they'd spent the last days working and wanted some excitement, and as it had been raining hard the conditions were perfect so we booked that for the afternoon. On arrival we were slightly disappointed at the look of the quads, especially as we were told the buggies next to them couldn't be used as it was too slippery but we gave it a go anyway and quickly realised we'd made the right decision - it was amazing! The 250cc quads were a little tired, mine kept chucking the chain off but after the guide fixed it it made it through to the end.