Bus Ride to Chiang Mai

Another travel day... We left first thing in the morning and took a 2 minute tuk Tuk ride to the border where we walked through without any problems. It was much less chaotic than the border crossing into Cambodia! We were the only people crossing through I think actually. Once through we hopped into our vans to make the long drive to Chiang Mai we had about a 5 or 6 hour drive to go. It passed very quickly though! Our vans were very comfortable and they had tv's! the driver had a selection of dvd's, most of which didn't actually work, so the ones that we were able to watch were ice age 2 and 4 and maleficent lol. I also sewed up my day pack which ripped on the boat yesterday... Playing with some new stiches and just killing time! We stopped for lunch along the way and we all tried something called Kal Soi (spelling?) which is only available in northern Thailand as it's technically a Burmese dish. It's noodles in a curry type soup broth with the chicken and some kind of sour cream on top. Pretty good! I think I've had something similar before but I can't recall where.

When we arrived at our guesthouse, Libra, in Chiang Mai we settled in to our rooms, showered and got ready for a group dinner. And broke the bathroom door. Somehow it got locked and shut with no one in it and they had to come in and literally saw it off and put a new door knob on.. But they got it working again and we were able to meet the group only a few minutes late!

We went out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant, which was as your would expect for a Mexican restaurant in Asia lol. Mediocre, and about what you get in Canadian Mexican restaurants. But the drinks were good! From there we went to Backpackers Alley which is just a T-shaped area filled with different bars! There's a reggae bar, metal bar, top 40, rave, etc etc. We started out at the Reggae bar solely because of their cheap sangria drinks and eventually moved on to the metal bar which was my favourite of the evening. The band was amazing and the music right up my alley. Much prefer the nightlife here! There are opportunities to actually have conversations and listen to good music instead of being drowned out by top 40 and flashing lights. There's a midnight curfew in Chiang Mai so all the bars closed then and the party moved to the nearby afterbar, Spicy. We stayed there until it closed at about 1:30 or 2:00 then returned home. I made a phone call home to a friend and then passed right out!Read more