Hi again...

After the last post we soon arrived in Chang Mai and were welcoming the familiar western comforts. Roughing it can be fun, but it's always nice to go to a Starbucks and know you're getting food that wont make you sick.

Chang Mai on first appearances was rather underwhelming; it was just a city and not a particularly special one. The river front was good though, with a couple of good restaurants boasting live bands (and Hagaan Dazz), which was pretty great. We did do a tour that went outside of the city however, which is where Chang Mai came into its own. The water fall with rainbow picture is pretty good and the Pagodas were impressive (both below). They were near the highest point of Thailand which was about 12 degrees Celsius - about 20 degrees lower than the city centre:





During our week in Chang Mai we traveled 3 hours to a place called Pai, which is a funky little town. We hired out a couple of mo-peds and went to a natural spa. Ruth and Burts went in, but Beth and I decided not to. Hot baths in 30 degrees is a little pointless. We did find a freezing outdoor pool after, which was good. I've included a pic of Beth next to the mo-ped I hired - I got 70kph out of that baby >: )




Pai is also where we spent 1hr 30 min on the back of an elephant - it was really quite uncomfortable as I'm not even slightly flexible >: /    I do have video footage however, of Beth falling off repeatedly when the elephant went into the river. As Ruth and Burts will assure you, Jeremy Beadle is gagging to give us 200 quid.




In Chang Mai we also managed to see Casino Royale, which is absolutely brilliant incidentally. The odd thing was before the film started, we all had to stand up in the cinema, while they played a 3 min film showing the king meeting people across the country. This was so everyone could pay their respects to the man the whole country worships. It would be like standing up to sing the national anthem in England really.

From Chang Mai we got another flight to Bangkok getting up at 5am. We then spent about 7 hours in Bangkok before heading to the airport once more to catch a flight to Singapore. About an hour before the flight, Beth and I started to feel a little awful.

We boarded the plane and felt very bad, very quickly. During mid take off, (seat belt signs still on etc) I had to run to the toilet. Thank God we were in the very back seats of the plane. Basically we both had food poisoning - I had bad diarrhea 3 times and was sick twice. Explosive and projectile respectively >: (

The second time I was sick was during the decent where I had to be in my seat again - I literally half filled a sick bag in one 'hit'. I'm writing this on Sunday morning and the flight was Thursday evening. I'm just about OK, but Beth is still in bed and feeling awful. It's pretty expensive to stay here also, which is annoying when you can't leave the hostel due to feeling so bad!

Singapore seems like a lovely place however and we're glad we came here. It's certainly a good place to be ill, rather than Laos or Cambodia, due to it's renowned cleanliness.

We also met up with Steve Kulski and co (mate from Tadley), which was excellent after 7 months of not seeing the guy, but we weren't feeling well enough to socialise too much. He was only around for a day or so, as they left for cheaper places (Malaysia).

We were intending to leave Singapore a day or so after Kulski, when a good friend of my mum's contacted me. Marilyn lives in the heart of Downtown Singapore in an awesome pad. It was excellent to use the pool and watch footy on her wonderful Plasma TV and we truly are grateful for her welcoming hospitality. The pictures below are of the view from her apartment (night & Day) >: )





After making an (almost) full recovery, we caught a bus up into Malaysia and to it's capital, Kuala Lumpur. We arrived one day and left the next which was enough to go up one of it's tall towers at night, looking at the city and the Petronas towers (2nd tallest in the world).

After Kuala Lumpur we traveled on up to the Cameron Highlands, which was great for a quick trek and to see the vast tea plantations. The picture below gives you an idea:




The same day we also went to a crazy place where they had various insects etc, but in XXL size - the beetle below is not given credit by the photo:



We then moved quickly onto Penang, which is an island off the north west coast of Malaysia. We spent just 4 or 5 days in Malaysia due to our food poisoning, which was a shame, but it leaves plenty to go back to.

From Penang we got a 5am mini-bus up to a port in Thailand, where we caught a boat to Koh Pa ngan; this took 15 hours in total.

You'll have to wait for the next posting for more I'm afraid; that is if you're still reading and not just looking for pictures of me injuring myself etc.

Take care,

James