Chiang Mai, day 1

So, guys, we were at 549 euro plus I spent 30 euro yesterday and today:
Breakfast 150 bath
Taxi 60
hotel 1012 (3 nights)
lunch 450 + 20 tip
laundry 100
dinner 220
coke 29.

total now is 619 euro

I remind you that 414 of these are flight and medical insurance... so, so far in 6 days I lived in Thailand with 205 Euro... that is 30 odd euro a day... including hotels.

And let's talk about this hotel.

It's simply beautiful. It;s a marvellous oriental garden with some bungalows. It's new, immaculate, extremely clean. It has everything you might need, some gym equipment, a huge pool, a bar and a restaurant, bike rentals, great showers and toilets (shared, but currently we are 4 guests and 10 showers and 10 toilets for male and same for female. I got myself a double room for myself paying 1012 baht, otherwise it would have been 712 baht... You do the conversions.

I have not seen the city yet as I was busy doing the washing and booking myself into some... thai massages classes. I will start taking lessons on Monday and for two weeks I will be busy getting certified so I will be able to crack a few bones when I will be back to Europe.

The feel of Chiang Mai is different from the one I had in Bangkok, tonight I was outside in the garden and it felt like being in heaven. The garden the birds, the water noise... So peaceful! I just loved it.

You must be wondering if I met anyone during this journey. Yes I did. I met a nice Thai guy that has a dream of building up his own house somewhere in the north-east of the country and so far he is doing well. A lady from the Tennessee that was at the cinema. She is an English teacher working in the country, somewhere and on the way back to Europe to go to live with her boyfriend met this year somewhere in the Southern part of the country. I met a lovely couple, Dutch from Eindhoven that were travelling in the same nightmare train with me this morning and just in need of a break and an 18 years old girl from Cornwall that decided to take a break from Britain and came here volunteering with some orphans from Chiang Rai. All lovely people, all different and all of them with a scope in life or with a very well defined career or objective.

19:35 13:35 – it was long but despite this I managed not to get bored, writing, reading and listening to some music. Long chats with the Dutch guys and a good laugh about anything odd we were seeing in the train. Things like, the doors of the train opened constantly, people smoking where it was not allowed, a train packed with soldiers of all possible armies, sea, air and land, waiters and servants going all over and asking you to hold things for them when two hands were not enough. The toilets... I am sure you saw the pictures... Take a look at them... Latrines, really, not toilets.

Anyway, tomorrow I will start my two weeks in Chiang Mai and I transformed this vacation into a study one. Who knows that I do not decide to come back in November and continue the other three courses, so I can be a fully qualified Thai Massage teacher :)

Now though, I am tired and I leave you in peace. Sleep well you guys. Catch you later! From Chiang Mai, big hugs!