Stepping off the night train we were expecting a bustling city after what we had read about Chiang Mai but instead we found a quiet laid back city. Apparently the financial crisis is keeping many tourists away from Northern Thailand and as we took in the tow with its various temples and shopping areas there were very few Westerners around. In fact at two of the temples we visited we were the only group.

I also had my first Thai massage. It is so cheap, about three to four pounds for an hour. The small woman nearly killed me though, she ground into my leg and back muscles, walked all over me and pivoted me into locust positions to crack my back. I felt terrible afterwards, limping and hunched over I hobbled back to the guest house, I looked like I had just come off a rugby field after battling the All Blacks. That was until I went for a swim. After that I felt like I was walking on air, awesome.

In the evening we eat in the lantern lit night market before heading to a bar complex that surrounded a Thai boxing ring where amateur fights take place. There must have been 8 or so bars around the ring covered by a corrugated roof and the fighters brought round a tin after each fight for people to give money, to see the two guys who had just tried to belt each other into 2010 walk around together laughing and joking and posing for pictures was kind of strange. One of the bars next to ours was fully of Thai lady boys and every time you went past they would try to grab your hand and pull you in for drinks, it was funny and they had great banter when you said "no thanks".

After Chiang Mai we headed to the Laos border stopping a few times on the way, including a stop at a huge white and silver Wat, just past Chiang Rai. 'The white temple' or Chapel of Wat Rong Khun, as it is officially called looked like something out of Narnia and has to be seen to be believed, it is amazing and kind of grotesque at the same time. Inside the main temple are is a crazy mural more akin to a teenagers wall than a place of worship, it has skulls and scenes from what looked like Lord of the Rings, and cartoon pictures of Bin Laden, Keanu Reeves and Superman. Very random.