Up North part 1...

Well since I last blogged we have visited Ayuthaya which was a nice place to stay. We stayed in a nice hostel right by the river and had most of our meals say next to the river. But Ayuthaya itself is a bit dull, lots of Wats to see but apart from that it was a bit crap. We had a bit of hanging around to do in the evening before the night train (which I wasn't looking forward to!) which was a bit dull. We decided to go across the river earlyish on the rickety ferry, before it finished for the day, to avoid having to get a blasted tuk-tuk so we spent a hour waiting at the station, but luckily we weren't alone nearly everyone else at the station was a Western Tourist waiting for the same train.

The train journey was an experience, we got on just after 9pm as the Steward was making up the beds which meant flipping down a upper bunk and folding down the two seats to make the bottom bunk. The bottom bunk was slightly longer which meant I got the top bunk right next to the a/c unit which meant that I was actually a bit cold during the night but apart from that the trip was good. We arrived in Chiang Mai, having travelling through some really lush green scenery and hills in the early morning, slightly ahead of schedule at 9.30am a little tired and pretty scummy! Had some breakfast and found somewhere to stay, it pretty basic but cheap and central. Spent the rest of the day explaining to centre and then went to the Sunday Night Market which was actually a lot bigger than normal this week due to a Thai-Japanese cultural exchange, which also meant we were treated to a display of Thai boxing and traditional dancing in the main square!

So we've now made it to Monday 19th and week 3 of the trip. Monday was a bit of a scaled down day due to a slight accident for me on the Chiang Mai pavements the night before which resulted in a painful foot sprain (yes I know its not the first time and it probably won't be the last time) , so we had to give in and get a tuk-tuk to the tribal museum which had an interesting collection all about the Hill tribes of Thailand including the Hmongs and the Karens (one branch of which has those women you see in things like National Geographic with the long necks with the rings on). The rest of the day was some hobbling about another part of the city before giving in and getting some ice to apply the RICE treatment to my foot (Matt I remembered that from our little trip to Bournemouth casualty!). In the evening we crossed the river to go to a restaurant by the river however it seems that everyone had read lonely planet, where it was recommended, so we had a bit of a wait for a table. Was worth it as from where our table eventually was we could see the fireworks and lanterns being set off from the edge of the river in aid of the upcoming full moon festival and because its a big thing up here in Chiang Mai we've decided to stay here till Sat, before heading back down south, so we can see the celebrations and parade on Friday night.

A big draw in Chiang Mai is learning various Thai skills such as Thai massage, boxing or cookery so we decided, in order to bring some of the experience of being in Thailand home with us, to go on a day's cookery course. We booked in for the Tuesday course as it would teach us a couple of dishes we've already had in Thailand. So today we have been trying to get to grips with Thai cookery, the course was an all day course and started with an introduction to rice (the staple part of the Thai diet) which included both Jasmine and sticky rice. Then we had a trip to the market to learn about more ingredients and to get the things to make the dishes. We have made Chicken and cashews, a chicken and coconut soup, a noodle salad, red curry paste, Thai red curry and fishcakes. We also tried some Thai desserts and fruits which means we can now buy them at the market whereas before they just looked really quite scary! It was a really brilliant day the people running it were really friendly and professional and knew their stuff, and we met some other travellers and swapped stories and tips.

So that is the story so far, more news from Chiang Mai later in the week, I'm off to get some more ice and put my feet up!!