Ban Mae Chon Noi

We got the 18.15 "express" sleeper train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. This particular train is the most modern and comfortable, popular with tourists and locals alike. Tom was very excited about this after staying up until 1.30am back home to try and book first class with no luck; we ended up in second class but it was still good! Toilets were clean, it was nice and private but the lights were far too bright. Tom wasn't as romantic as the couple opposite us who were prepared with fairy lights! Overall the train journey was a good experience, although the price is actually more expensive than a domestic flight which takes a fraction of the time. We arrived at Chiang Mai just after 7am and took a red taxi (or 'Songthaew') to our hotel. It was far too early to check in, so we had a few hours to kill. We spent the day exploring the street food stalls around Chiang Mai and in particular noticed that all the fruit was huge, on steroids compared to home! We grabbed a very reasonable breakfast of fried eggs topped with scrambled tofu and spring onions, it was delicious and very cheap. We checked into our hotel in the afternoon and had a nap as we were pretty knackered. This was a slight error as we realised that restaurants tended to close fairly early here - and we had not yet discovered the night market.

We spent the next day at the elephant rescue centre. This was amazing, I love elephants! We fed them, walked with them and bathed them. We learnt about where they're rescued from, unfortunately though it was too busy for our liking!

Our third day we spent completing a self-guided walking tour which mainly consisted of temples. We a then met up with Amy's friend Vicky and her boyfriend Tom, which was good fun. Unfortunately the night market had run out of the recommended gyozas!Read more