Day One: Chiang Mai - Or Flu Robs Boy Of Creative Titles

Caught the train up from BKK overnight. It was quite a pleasent experience except for the fact that it's near impossible to sleep on a lurching diesel train with bright cabin lighting assaulting your eyes. Got a super cheap plate of rice meat and fried egg on the train though which was good because the dried mango I bought was horrible.

I got into Chiang Mai at about 6 this morning so I grabbed the first tuk tuk driver I could see, pointed to the best looking hostel in LP and I was off. Cruising through the early morning streets I got to see monks begging for alms which was cool. Unfortunately when I got to my hostel it was booked out until 10 am. Me, having barely slept for what seems like the last five nights and feeling sick as a dog, didn't exactly relish the thought of trudging through the streets for four hours until a room was available but what else was I supposed to do? They let me leave my backpack so I went off in search of breakfast.

After breakfast I decided to do a tour of various wats around town. Call me uncultured but something about 500 year old Buddhist temples doesn't exactly float my boat. Still I did see some cool ones with beautiful Buddahs and for 100 baht I let loose a family of birds from a cane cage. It's supposed to give you good luck. Then it was back to my hotel for a sleep. I still feel like shit but it's a flu so it should pass soon.

I'm off to Paul's place tonight which should be good.

And another thing... I'm getting to love Thai - English spelling. The best I've seen all day is "Gordon Blue" (Cordon Bleu). Also I'm thinking about buying some Thai clothes but the thing is if I do I'll just end up looking like Kent.

Hope all is well and Howard's keeping you safe.