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.