Quite a few things to update with. Firstly, thanks to Thelma and John and my Mum for giving us some ideas for where to eat etc...we ate at The Riverside last night (which has over 250 dishes on it's menu). We had a starter and a main and it came to under a fiver - BARGAIN!! It was lovely too, with a view over the River (duh) and most of the hustle and bustle of CM.

The craft markets in the morning were a bit disappointing...in all honesty they were huge shops/showrooms with a little explanation area tagged onto the front. We got looked at in quite a bad way because we bought nothing! After a couple of hours of boredom we went back to the hotel and had a good few hours kip before venturing to the Sunday craft market. Now this was not like any craft market I had been to. For a start it was broadcast live on Thai TV (Channel 11 - they only have odd numbered channels, 3, 5, 7,9, and 11 - no even - how strange!), involved lots of dancing shows (not the sort you find in Bangkok - more traditional Thai dancing, and this time it was definitely women not men...) and was spread over a road about a mile long. Oh no - this was not market square in Ely on a Saturday...

Anyway we had a really enjoyable couple of hours (and no Jen isn't twisting my arm for me to say this I genuinely enjoyed it...) walking through the stalls and eating local Thai snacks (egg and sweetcorn pancake which bizarrely enough they tried to pour conendsed milk and sugar over - I declined..., and Jen had some kind of shallots/nuts parcel thingy) before getting to the river area for tea. Chiang Mai is so different to the constant hustle, noise and smell (!) of Bangkok, the people too, are genuienely friendly, and do their negotiating with a warm smile. In Bangkok generally they see you as 'farang' and just see the pound (or should that be Baht) signs. We have yet to find anything we don't like about the place...I have even agreed to go to the night bazzar tonight (poor deluded fool) she must have caught me on an off moment.

In other news, ear deteriorated overnight from being nearly OK again to being as bad as it was this time last week. We dfecided this morning to go to a doctor again as the deterioration seemed to coincide with the end of my course of pseudoephedrine. We went to one hospital (the Macormick) but they didn't have a specialist on so we jumped on a songthaew and went to the most modern one in CM - Ram hospital. Again, in and out in under an hour and this time he's upped my dosage of p-eph and also put me on steroids...(insert your own joke here...) The whole thing cost 354B - about a fiver.
For 2 prescriptions drugs.
Seen in under an hour.
By an ENT specialist.
In Thailand.
He said the good news was that the blood had cleared up around the ear drum and all that was left was some fluid behind the ear drum adn that should sort itself out in a week or so (fingers crossed). He also said he didn't see any permanent damage and that after a week of no problems (hopefully 2 weeks) I can dive or fly!! YAY!!

That's about all to report - one noticeable thing is that I have read more (fiction) books in the last 5 weeks than I have in the previous 5 years (about 10 and counting...). One author I can thoroughly recommend is a chap called Carl Hiassen - he's American but has a great sense of irony...I have just finished a book called 'Sick Puppy' and it is the best book I have read for a long time (along with Michael Moore's 'Stupid White Men'.

Jen is still devouring her book every other day - the usual, kinda murder/forensic stuff...We're off on our trek tomorrow so will check email probably before we go tonight and in 3/4 days.