Day 17 - Chiang Mai, Thailand

Desperately want our bed back from the Oriental Residence. The one here is rock hard and so uncomfortable. Didn't therefore take much motivation to get up for a lovely little breakfast. This really is a lovely little hotel.

Decided to get some admin out the way first, changing some travelers cheques (regretting bringing these now!) and getting our bus ticket to the Laos border as we prepare to cross our first overland border. Luckily it is about as well trodden as a ping pong ball in a Bangkok bar so should be a fairly easy crossing. 

Got a Tuk Tuk to the bus station. The driver didn't have the best visibility in his Tuk Tuk after pimping it out to look like a frog! Got our tickets for the 5 hour journey to Chiang Kong, leaving 9am tomorrow. Pushed the boat out and upgraded to "business" on the coach for a whopping £5 more each. ;-) 

We then head back into town. Unfortunately we have missed the afternoon tour to go and ride elephants as we had to queue at the bus station for longer than expected. So we decided to go for a boat ride down the Mae Ping River on a traditional 'scorpion tail' boat but literally missed the boat here too! A day of near misses with tourist attractions it seems. This gives us the opportunity to wonder around the lovely old city so we spend the day walking around the narrow lanes getting lost with a walk over the river along the way. 

It's a gorgeous little town with a very laid back way of life. Loads of gorgeous coffee shops and bars. Some of the streets even remind us of Greece

Raoul Moat aka Moateee.  Didn't see Gazza with a fishing rod and a chicken. Just an elephant statue. 

We continue to stumble across temples around every corner.  There are over 30 within the old city. Temple fatigue definitely setting in now despite how amazing they look. 

A well deserved beer after 2 hours of walking in the sun. Need to check up on how Gun is doing in Bangkok. 

Got Nat's Christmas day wear sorted. 

Quick stop for a bite at a lovely coffee shop called Ramon Tea House then back to the hotel for dip!

The road to our hotel. 

More FaceTime today. Great to see Grandma and Grandad and Jacob at Mum and Dad's (sorry missed you at work H!). Loved Jacobs reaction when Nat's face came on the iPad shouting "Nene!!" so excitedly. I am sure he must think that if he eats more days in his advent calendar we will come home sooner as he was getting through them at a rate of a day every 2 mins!! Really great to see and speak to you all. FaceTime is great. 

After our dip we played more cards. Shit head will henceforth be renamed sad head! We miss playing cards with our buddies. 

Had a little surprise in that it sounded like world war 3 had broken out earlier but turned out to be fireworks from next door. It's the Thai Kings Birthday on 5th Dec and they are starting the celebrations.  

For dinner this evening we went back to the same areas on the river as last night and ate at the riverside restaurant. Lovely setting.  We had a table right on the river. 

Great food again. I opened for chicken Massaman curry and sticky rice again. So tasty. This was voted the number one dish in the world by CNN. 

Back to the hotel for 10pm tonight. Early night ready for an early start tomorrow. 

Day 16 - Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Thailand

Hit the gym before breakfast today to continue our efforts to not grow morbidly obese whilst away. After we walk to the lovely Dean and Deluca for breakfast. Love this place. They need to open some in London.

It's our only experience of it getting Christmassy with carols being played and all the Christmas stock now in

The very impressive sky train. Beats the tube hands down!

We then go for a little wonder around our hotel as we don't have long before we need to head to the airport. No sign of any unrest. It's all pretty localised and the rest of the city is just continuing as normal. We are actually just around the corner from the Police Sports Club where the Prime Minister got evacuated from yesterday.  

Not sure about where he decided to park his food cart. 

Time to leave Bangkok. Such a great city. We love it. It is a proper metropolis with so much going on. We could definitely spend a bit longer here although we keep getting sad seeing places we were with with Caroline, Dave and Lynne :-( 

Another great flight with Air Asia. Such a great airline. Depart and arrive early again. 

Arrive in Chiang Mail and from landing are at the hotel within half an hour. Chiang Mai is a lovely little town. Such character. It is what I was expecting from Siem Reap. We are staying in the old city which is completely surrounded by a moat. Within the old city there are loads of temples, lovely little bars and coffee shops (big here). It's very laid back, a lot cooler temperature wise and on the whole more traditional. We are still on classic back packer route though. Randomly there are loads of Boots pharmacies here too (as per Bangkok) 

We check into the lovely Vieng Mantra hotel. 

http://www.viengmantra.com/home.html

Realise I have booked three nights instead of two! Doh. I seem to have lost all ability to book hotels and keep track of what I have and haven't paid for! Managed to change it though. 

View from our balcony. 

Not sure of the bench though... Over hangs the side of the building. 

Then head out for a wonder around town. Head over the river towards a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet but actually find a better looking one before we get there. 

Turned out to be the right choice. The restaurant was gorgeous. It had a gallery at the front and backed onto the river at the back. A very nice touch that people were letting off Chinese lanterns on the pier at the back. Started off well...

Yes...

Yes...

Noooooo!!!

Blown straight into the huge tree in the middle of the restaurant. 

Try again. 

Yes...

Nooooo! Of he goes to join his mate. 

Luckily the material must be fire proof as no trees were harmed in the launching of these Chinese lanterns (much to my disappointment - you know how I love a good fire!). One finally got past the tree though. 

Gorgeous food. 

Night cap in the bar down the river which was also really cool and lively. Had a good live band on. New fave beer is BeerLao dark. Tasty stuff. 

http://www.theriversidechiangmai.com

Then walk back over the bridge, through the night market home. Great start to our time in Chiang Mai. 

Day 15 - Bangkok, Thailand

A very sad morning this morning. Time for Caroline, Dave and Lynne to leave us ;-( We meet them at 8am for a coffee to hand over our flat keys to Dave and then see them off. Totes emosh... Dave just wouldn't stop sobbing (only kidding!) It really has been the holiday of a life time so far. Thank you for such an amazing two weeks you three, best holiday we have had! You are going to be dearly missed. Lovely card from Caroline. In a while crocodile!

After they leave we go back to bed for a bit. The last two weeks have been very hectic and we are in need of some down time. After turning on the news we hear of the issues in Bangkok and that today is the day the protestors have said they will overthrow the government. Interesting times to be in Bangkok. There are ten places where protests are taking place, the main one being around Government House. See the map below. The stars are where protests are taking place and the blue dot is our hotel.

We didn't need much persuasion about what to do today and decide to just chill out and enjoy our lovely luxurious hotel today. Needed to sort some admin out like the how to get to Chiang Mai tomorrow. Opted for the hour flight instead of the 12 hour bus ride! 

Spot of brunch in the wonderful French brasserie, Cafe Claire in our hotel. Time to start proper traveller mode now which effectively means not spending quite as much, not boozing as much, not eating like pigs and doing more exercise. Good start with a healthy breakfast though. 

We then hit the pool. The weather is lovely in Bangkok. 31 degrees but a nice breeze and not humid at all. Sunday loafing in the pool. 

Then time for a double face time session with the parents plus Pete and Selena. Great seeing your faces as usual. 

We then hit the gym for a good run and then off out to a great restaurant called Hyde and Seek courtesy of Wallpaper Guide. It is just around the corner from our hotel. Really cool place. Failed on the spending less and eating healthy with the pulled pork burger. But only had two beers as been for a 10km run so two out of four isn't bad! 

http://www.hydeandseek.com

Quick stroll around the block back for an early night. 

Oh and we have also put our tree up today too.... ;-)