Gay Town

Long time no update, we've spent the last few days moving around the country a bit so it's been difficult to get near a computer. We spent 2 nights in Phuket in the Patong region in Adonis Guesthouse, which is by far the most comfortable place we've stayed and would definately recommend it to anyone travelling to that region. There's loads of expensive Resorts and Spa Hotels around but Adonis was cheap and really good, we even had a DVD player so managed to watch a moving one night. The first night we were there we went our for dinner along the beach strip, which is full of English people. Who are all sunburnt. Seriously, Patong is fast becoming the new Benidorm. So as we were walking back to our guesthouse we stumbled upon the gay district and we decided to go for a drink. We ended up picking the worst bar on the street to have a drink in but it turned out to be hilarious, as "Emma" our brand new ladyboy friend spent the evening flashing us and asking us to come and watch her caberet. Which again was hilarious. After a few mai tai cocktails we stumbled back to our guesthouse and went to bed, as we'd booked to do a boat tour the next day.

After an early start and a trip on a minibus we got to our destination at the top of phuket where we were taken by speedboat to see a variety of local islands, such as Hong island, James Bond island, Nacka island etc, they are all beautiful but they do all start to look the same after a while! Best parts of the day were kayaking through rocks and caves and the speedboat ride through a thunder storm. Although this has left us with colds. Unlucky. That night we watched a DVD and went to bed early.

Up at 6am for a flight from Phuket to Chiang Mai. We looked into the option of getting other modes of transport like a bus or train but they would take about 24hours whereas the plane took 2 hours and only cost around 60pounds. Finally arrived in Chiang Mai on Saturday afternoon and after checking into a guesthouse we'd found in our lonely planet book we went to explore the city.

Chiang Mai is already infinately better than Bangkok, it has so much character and soul, the people are really genuinely friendly (bar the tut tut drivers) and the city itself is so beautiful. It has the old city in the middle, where you can still see relics of the old city walls and gates and then the new city outside. Last night we met my friend Emily, from collyers and spent the evening with her and her friends. They all work at a very posh and exclusive school outside Chiang Mai and were out on a boozy night to which we tagged along. Ended up in another gay zone, rode on the back of a moped and partied til the early hours.

Today we have visited lots of temples and the famous night market, which is in full swing now and doesn't seem to have an end! There is so many beautiful things to see, eat and buy you could spend hours wandering the streets. Am having to restrict myself as bit concerned about money but there are similar markets in Vietnam which is at the end of our trip (nearly) so we're going to go shopping mad there.

That's all for now, off to an elephant sanctuary tomorrow for rescued elephants. Can't wait!