Right, so after two absolutely soul-destroying, bone-shaking, teeth-clenching (and that's in first class...) train journeys we've arrived in Chiang Mai. First impressions are of a much quieter, more civilised and less polluted city than Bangkok. Having said that we've just spent the last 4 hours catching up on some shut-eye...

We have decided whilst here we definitely are going to do the following:
Cookery course
Trekking somewhere to see some of the hill-tribes
Visit Chiang Rai and Pai (as in 'who ate all the...')
Watch the Monk parade tonight (1,000 young boys become manks here tonight apparently and there's a big party...kind of ironic really because they can't drink, smoke, eat, talk etc...it could be the dullest quietist party I've ever been to...)

We're then planning to go south-eastish and hit Laos by the Friendship Bridge and enter from the south. There were a couple of nasty incidents involving bandits in north-eastern Laos last week (attacking both locals and tourists...) so we're going to try to avoid going through this area. We can also get our visas in Khong Kaen as there is no Lao consulate in Chiang Mai (we thought there was for some reason...). Couple of weeks in Laos (no internet access in the whole country...how will I cope??) and then into Vietnam - our visas start there on 11/3.

Guest house we're staying in is lovely, swimming pool, air-con and a telly (with ESPN and BBC World - yay!) all for 590B (about 8 quid!!).