Dear All

Well I thought it was about time I filled you all in on the latest antics....I am now in Sukhothai but more of that later...

Anyway as you know I bailed Bangkok a week while ago and made it to Chiang Mai on the most luxurious bus journey I've had to date. We were shown a movie, Wild Wild West, had plenty of rest stops and air con (that worked - probably explains the cold I caught on arriving in Chiang Mai)... It must have been a good journey as I even managed a few hours sleep!!!

Chiang Mai is full of Wats (Buddhist temples) and there are over 90 in the city which is more than Bangkok! So you never have to wander far to find a Wat and some of them are glorious and ornate and gilded in gold...the city is really pleasant and the people and exceptionally friendly and you don't get much hassle.

When I got there on the first day I luckily managed to get a tuk tuk driver who had only started working that day so was a bit green around the edges so I got him to cart me over town for about 20 baht looking for a guest house... After an hour and a half at looking at various places I eventually settled on one and all for 20 baht.....

The weather was amazing when I arrived and on a Sunday they close the road outside my guest house and put on a market and then the night market extends all the way along the road too in the evening... For some reason the first Sunday I was there some pop star or other pitched up and put on a small concert at the city gate and it was really funny to see all the young Thai teeny boppers going mental and screaming at this bloke strutting around on the stage.... I guess I would have done the same if the Great Mr Williams was on the stage though.... so I had a good wander around there and only wished I had the funds to do some serious hard core shopping along there as some of the stuff was amazing... Chiang Mai night market is described as the Mother of all markets and I see why... loads of stalls selling all sorts of arts and crafts, clothes and the usual knock off designer gear... there are amazing food stalls full of cheap food and it's just great to wander around in the evening..... I was very good though and only bought a couple of things but I fully intend to return when I rejoin the rat race and have a salary that can support the shopping!!!

Anyway I booked myself on a three day Thai cooking course that is one of the major things to get up to in these parts....that and going trekking and smoking marijuana and opium with the hill tribesmen!! The course was run by a mad Thai Man United fan called Perm out at his his place near the hills around Chiang Mai.... all in all we made around 25 Thai dishes. The course kicked off on the first day with a tour around the market and being introduced to the weird and wonderful world of Thai fruit and vegetables ...then it was on to do some cooking...we made loads of really great a soups...Tom Yum, Chicken in coconut milk, then did loads of stir fried vegetables and noodles and of course pad thai (staple diet in this country). We made green curries and red curries and spent an hour on one morning making our own Massaman curry paste. Massaman is a Muslim curry from Southern Thailand and bleedin good it was too as we made chicken Massaman with the pastes we had made earlier.. After spending an hour sat on the floor of the cookery school pounding herbs, spices and the like mixing up this concoction Perm then told us that it takes about three minutes to do in a blender!!! Cheers....anyway all during the course it was raining so what better to do than to make loads of scrummy food and stuff your face afterwards. We also made spicy glass noodle salads, sweet and sour vegetables with tofu, sticky rice, spring rolls and spring rolls for dessert and sticky rice and mango for dessert.....we also made thai style fish cakes and just covered the spectrum of yummy food that features around Thailand.. to be honest I can't remember all the things we made now there was so much and I certainly never felt like eating a thing when I returned back to the guesthouse in the evening... I took the girls at the guest house a doggy bag of my culinary delights each evening as what more discerning tasters than the locals?...they all liked it and thought my green chicken curry was excellent and if I ever wanted a job in the kitchen there then it was ok by them!!! On our last day we had a lesson from the master in vegetable carving and some photos of my efforts will be posted on my website soon once I've emailed them to my bro!!! (Doing that now!) Well I managed to make a rose and a butterfly and some curly things out of spring onions...it was a laugh.....I even managed to set fire to my stir fries (on purpose for the flame effect!) like the pros do (eh Stuey?) and I kind of got addicted to doing that.. however I wouldn't recommend it at home as I fear I may set fire to the kitchen!!! It was just totally amazing fun though cooking all day while it chucked it down with rain outside and I'm looking forward to putting it all back into practice when I eventually find somewhere to call home.... I've got the cookery book from the course and a list of substitutes to use so it'll be great fun to cook some of that again!! And it's so easy.....

Anyway after three days of continous eating I decided that a bit of a trek around Chiang Mai might be in order to exercise some of it off. However as I happened to be there in rainy season I decide that three days getting drenched in the mountains wasn't perhaps the best idea with my cold so opted for the one day whistle stop tour of around Chiang Mai which was ok but not recommended... in fact I'd say to you all avoid Chiang Mai in late August September as it rains solidly....the locals did tell me though that the weather they were having was unusual...hmmmm... anyway I went on the one day tour with a Dutch guy called Rob from my guest house and we basically spent the day soaking wet, even the waterproof jacket leaked! We kicked off on an hours trek on the back of an elephant through the jungle and got initially soaked.. it was however, authentic rainforest, in authentic torrential rain so about as real as it gets! This took us about half way up a hill and we walked the remainder of the way up to visit a Hmong hill tribe who resided at the top. The village consisted of wooden huts and chickens and pigs snuffling around and the local women selling you local trinkets... Probably bought from the night market in Chiang Mai! The men of the village were all out at "work" and the hill tribe kids get free schooling so it was almost desserted .... the Hmong people grow opium although it is "illegal".... After there we tramped down the hill in the pouring rain and picked up our mini bus and it took us to this groovy little place for lunch...spicy potato curry and rice, soup and stir fried veg...(not as good as mine though!) The afternoon was spent visiting a Karen village. In Karen hill tribe villages it's girl power all round as the women are in charge. They run the villages and also choose their husbands. From there we walked on to go and visit a waterfall where we were supposed to be able to go for a swim.....Given the amount of rain we'd had and flooding in the North of Thailand let's say the waterfall was more Niagara and there was no way you could swim as you'd jump in and be in Bangkok about an hour later.. it was very impressive though but that ruled out the swimming... so from there we were picked up by the van to take us rafting down the river for the rest of the afternoon. We had already noticed small trees and broken rafts zooming down the river earlier and wondered whether we would even be going on a raft...our guide assured us he had life jackets for us all ...Anyway we got there and the rafting guides said no way are they going on the river it's way too dangerous...so I never got to go rafting which was a bit of a bummer. But to be honest the thought of just remaining soaking wet for another couple of hours didn't fill me with enthusiasm..... so all in all it was a bit of a disappointment but that's what you get for being in Chiang Mai in the rainy season I guess!!

After that Rob and I hired a motorbike and went one day to Doi Suthep about 16km outside of Chiang Mai. It is one of the holiest temples in northern Thailand and it's just totally gorgeous.. there are great views of Chiang mai city from the hillside where the temple is and the temple itself is lined up the steps leading to it by two huge dragon staircases.. really amazing. After then we biked around Chiang Mai and then happened upon the lake by the tribal museum just outside Chiang Mai. Along one edge of the lake are these great small open sided wooden huts jutting out in to the lake and they are attached to a food stalls. So we sat there on bamboo mats in a little eatery over looking the lake and eating some great food and chatting... it is near the uni campus and it seems it's where the students go at the weekend to let off steam, drink copious amounts of whisky and chat up the girls... joyously we were the only "farangs" there and it was great. We were only meant to be stopping for a bit of lunch but ended up staying until around 6 p.m. so never made it any further that day on the bike.. good thing too as funnily enough on the way back to our guest house it chucked it down with rain and we got soaked again.

Next day we headed off early to Mae Sa to the elephant camp where around 40 elephants reside and to see the baby heffalumps and the others being fed. Now this was an amazing experience... we got there just in time to see the show and for 20 baht (30p) you can buy a huge bunch of bananas and sugar cane to feed them after the show. The show was a bit contrived and full of tourists but the strength and teamwork demonstrated was very impressive and it makes you realise just how incredibly strong the elephants are and also when you get to meet them how placid and gentle they are. The Mahoots that look after them are completely dedicated to their elephant and are responsible for their welfare and training. We saw some of the elephants doing paintings (and yep I bought one!) then after the show you get to spend time with them just having photos taken and petting them and feeding them coconut, bananas and sugar cane.. it was totally awesome. I'd never seen that many elephants together in my life. Also you were able to get really close to them and it was great fun. There are elephants wandering around with their mahoots all over the place so you get to see so many all over. We went off to the nursery where we got to meet two Mummy elephants and their babies who were only tiny and still being fed by Mum... ah it was great. In the absence of a sufficiently large and secure area to support these elephants in the wild this has to be the next best thing. All in family groups and able to socialize but also to work....

Next day we left Chiang Mai and headed for Sukhothai and straight into a flood!!!! Yippee! There has been some serious flooding in Mae Hon Song in the north and now the water is flowing south and it's meant to hit Bangkok in the next few days (look out Kate!) Apparently, although the river had been very high, the evening before we arrived the flood waters arrived, and now we're under about 1.5 feet of water. It's not that bad as I only have to wade about 3 - 4 metres through water from the town to my guesthouse so it's not a major problem. They believe they have had the worst.....

Anyway Rob decided to come with me to Sukhothai and saw the water and had a strop and disappeared for a few hours.. It is actually a really pleasant and friendly town and the main reason I was here was to have a look at the old city as it was Thailand's first capital in the 12th/13th century and we found out it was not flooded there. The old city is about 12km away and we went there yesterday and hired bicycles for the day, in the scorching sunshine and cycled around the ruined city. It's full of ancient temples and an old palace. It is mainly enclosed in a park so there's no traffic except for the odd motorbike, other than that there are just folks cycling around... it was really amazing to see. One of the most impressive sights is a seated Buddha who is about 15 metres tall and around 11 metres wide. Apparently it is used in lots of advertising literature about Thailand...photos will be on the website soon.. so that's about it really I got sunburnt...

Fab news is that Millie and Elaina are coming for a visit in November so I am well looking forward to that.... if any of you have stuff you want to send or get to me (like envelopes stuffed full of dollar bills - and not forgetting it's someone's birthday in a month) then see Elaina..... I am so looking forward to seeing you both and we'll have a blast on the Thai beaches !!!! Second best part is that Elaina's hopefully gonna bring me Marmite Yippeeee!!!!

So now, for in between times, I am wondering which way to go. I have heard that highway 12 which is the way I need to go to get to Nong Khai to cross the border into Laos is apparently flooded... I may be able to get a train from Phitsanulok so I'm going to head there tomorrow and find out what the score is further East... if not then anyone got any bright ideas as to what to do in Thailand in the rainy/flooded season????....I guess I may have to fly to Laos but am going to try and seriously avoid that expense!!! Will let you know in my next email how I get on...

Anyway I hope you're all well and catch you another time.. Loadsa love Lisa / Lillie xxxx