We have started our 5 weeks in Thailand, and we’re sitting in an Internet cafe in Chiang Mai, Michele has just had a 2 hour massage and I’ve just finished a Thai cooking lesson. Yum.

Nothing can prepare you for Bangkok, you can listen to all the advice, read all the guide books and have an idea of your plans. But all that greets your flight weary body as you leave the airport, is a scrum of people screaming at you. In true Thai style everybody is screaming with a big smile on their face, but screaming none the less. We are so relieved to see one of the screaming guys holding a piece of paper with Worledge written on it, I feel sorry for Smiths’.

The intencity continues on the roads, the first thing our driver calls to us when we get in, ‘you ready to Rock and Roll?’, all he needed to say was ‘Doctor Jones’ and we would have been Indiana Jones. The traffic is as hectic as Lower Odcombe when the bus comes through, well nearly. You can’t really warn others ‘watch out for the tuk-tuk drivers cos they are crazy’, you’ve got to look out for everyone! Although one late night tuk-tuk did show us his driving skills by pulling wheelies at every set of traffic lights. I loved it !!

The only real escape in Bangkok is in the Buddist Wat temples. The calm and serenity that you get at the less popular Wats is a magical thing. The monks are everywhere around the city. It makes you realise just how important Buddism is to the Thais. How would we feel if Christian Monks were everywhere in normal life ? The other thing that the Monks remind you, is that every Tuk-tuk driver believes in reincarnation !

After a few more crazy days in Bangkok we headed for Chiang Mai on the overnight sleeper train. We hopped to see a little more of Thailand here. As England isn’t just London, Thailand isn’t just Bangkok.

Chiang Mai is a city of around 500,000 people, the second biggest city in Thailand, but it has that ‘village/ small town’ feel. That smile can be seen everywhere but life is a lot less hectic.

We get quickly back on the Wat trail enjoying the peace and quite that they bring, I’m also getting very excited about the food here. As many of you know, I like to eat. The smells, the colours and the Thais shared passion for food is working like a snake charmers pipe. We’ve also enjoyed the excellent markets, the best being the Sunday market, streets and streets of Thai arts and craft and not a single fake Rolex in sight.

So now we have been pummeled and fed to overload we are flying south to Puket for a couple of days then over to Koh Tao to learn how to dive and just chill on a beach. We hope then to contine on to some other islands both on the Gulf and Andaman side of Southern Thailand.

Photo’s will be coming soon !!