We took the Chao Praya River Express ferry from the nearby Phra Ahthit pier all the way to Sakarn Taksin which is the start/end of the Silom BTS (Skytrain) line. Then we took the skytrain all the way to the end of the Sikhumvit Line to Mor Chit or Chatuchak Market. I was very pleased with myself as my navigation was spot on and my timing was also pretty good. We arrived 10 mins before 10am, our agreed meeting time. At 10:02 Lee turned up and we started shopping.

Katherine was in heaven once again but for me it was a necessary chore. Chatuchak is a great place to pick up bargains and presents and we bought t-shirts, shorts, bags etc. Lee intended not to buy anything but of course, went away with a big bag of clothes. We ate lunch there (one of our few disappointing meals) and took a slow ride around in a golf cart train. It was a great way to rest our sore feet. It was very hot and after 5 hours it was time to go. We crossed the road and took bus 524 back to Khao San Road. The bus ticket collectors are very good at telling us where to get off though I followed the route with my map and always knew where I was.

On Sunday we decided to go to Jim Thompson's House. He moved to Thailand after visiting it at the end of the Second World War. As a former architect he had an eye for design and beauty and he revitalised the Thai silk industry. To get there we walked down the streets to the Golden Mount where we took a canal boat to his house.

While walking down the road we were approached twice by men who seemed friendly. They started asking questions about where we were going and how long we had been in Bangkok. The first one told us Jim Thompson's house was closed until noon as it was a Buddhist holiday and he pointed out three wats we should go to. I had heard about this scam so took my map from him and walked away. I doubt it was a Buddhist holiday and Jim Thompson's house was most certainly open at 9am, like it always is. The second man walked off when I said we'd been there a few days and I had visited Thailand more than once. Not as easy prey as we looked.

The canal boat ride was fun but slightly dangerous. Mainly from the disgusting, polluted waters. You can raise canvas sides to the boat to stop the spray coming in and it's a good idea to cover your nose and mouth with something. There are four ticket collectors who stand on the edge of the boat with their arms hooked through a rope. They wear crash helmets and I guess it's warranted when the boat picks up speed.

Jim Thompson's house was one of the more upmarket places we went to in Bangkok. All the staff were very nicely presented as were the gardens and house itself. You can only go through the house on a tour lasting about 35 minutes. There are fantastic works of art, ceramics, statues and wood carvings to admire in all the rooms. Afterwards we looked through an exhibition of embroidery by French artists but most of the pieces were very odd and the meaning was lost on us.

We like to do round trips so planned to take the bus back to Banglamphu area. While walking down the soi we were accosted by a tuk-tuk driver who was so desperate to take us he offered a ride at only 10B. We discussed it and decided to stick to our original plan, We had taken the tuk-tuks in Chiang Mai and Ayutthaya and it's less necessary in Bangkok. On one hand I feel sorry for them as they try hard to get rides and make a living. But on the other hand they are so pushy it is unpleasant. Anyway, we were having a grest time riding the buses (No. 15 this time).

Today, our last day in Bangkok we chose to visit the Pasteur Institute Snake Farm. We packed up and checked out early then walked to the main road to take bus 47. We saw a bus jam-packed with people on their way to work so were glad when our bus arrived reasonably empty. Again, I followed the route on the map so knew when to get off.

Actually, we were quite early arriving at the snake farm as the slide show isn't until 10:30am. We looked at the snakes in their cages and visited the Museum of the Red Cross in Thailand. The woman was very excited to have an interest in the museum and made us sign the visitors book and she gave us badges.

We still had time to spare so ordered an ice chocolate and a Smooch Chocolate to see what the difference was. The ice chocolate had larger ice pieces and the Smooch Chocolate was fought over as we both liked it better.

At 10:30am we went to the auditorium for the slide show. The slides are old but it is an informative lecture, if you can understand the words. The snake farm is the second oldest in the world. The oldest is in Brazil and started in 1901. The one in Thailand started in 1923. They farm the snakes for venom, some of which is sent to the equine donors in another city. The horses donate blood with anti-venom from the ages of 4 to 12.

When the slide show finished we trooped back outside to the arena to be introduced to the snakes. First up was King Cobra. He was placed on the ground within a couple of metres of us and was fearsome with his hood expanded. We saw several snakes including a pit viper. Some snakes we could 'pat'. They milked a snake and force fed it some chicken. Just like with human blood donations the snakes need to eat to retain their energy. It won't be milked again for another two weeks. At the end, we were introduced to the biggest snake they have, a python. I was the game person who volunteered to hold it. At 23kg it was quite a struggle.

We left the snake farm highly satisfied with our visit. We chose to return to our hotel by the sky train and river express boat. Then we relaxed until it was time to shower and get ready for the taxi. Just as we left it thundered and the most massive downpour we had encountered so far began. It lasted for the long, slow trip out to the airport. Luckily we had given ourselves plenty of time and soon we were winging our way back to the cool of New Zealand.

Shopping, Silk and Snakes remains copyright of the author pythagnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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It was one of those bundle days but with more space between the rides. Our taxi arrived early a bit after 7:30am so the yummy banana pancakes we had ordered had to be squashed into a takeaway container (and this also explains why I left with the room key).

We spent some time at a pier waiting for our ferry ride. Periodically another taxi would arrive and deposit some more foreigners. We amused ourselves by watching a man put his catamaran into storage for the rainy season. He was an Englishman and ran a business taking snorkellers and others around on day trips. Unfortunately, we had to leave before we saw the excitement of the crane left his boat out of the water.

At the mainland we paid 10B for a short ride down the ferry pier to a place to wait for the bus. This is a restaurant out front and somebody's house out back. The bus left at 11:30am and we had a lot more waiting so we wondered why we had to leave the guesthouse so early. Never mind. It is the way of things.

About 11:10am they started preparing the bus and at 11:30am we boarded. We picked up some more passengers at another pier then headed to Bangkok. It seemed quite slow travelling but we picked up speed when we turned off at Rayong for the inland route to Chonburi. Some hot, sticky hours later we actually stopped for a break. Then it took another couple of hours to get into the heart of Bangkok. Katherine was right, grumpy by then.

We were dropped on a corner near Khao San Road and I navigated us to and along Soi Rambutri until we found Lamphu House, tucked down an alleyway off the soi. It is a very comfortable place and popular so I was glad I had booked ahead. We have a small and tidy aircon room with a balcony large enough to sit out on, which is unusual in Bangkok. There is no tv but they show DVDs on a plasma screen tv downstairs.

We ate at a guesthouse nearby and took a walk down Khao San Road. This was interesting to me because in all my visits to Thailand this was the first time I had been there. There were many people, lights, stalls. We just walked and looked. The only thing we bought was a postcard of a wat we had been to in Chiang Mai.

We Arrive in the City of Angels remains copyright of the author pythagnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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First I arranged for somebody with a motor scooter to take me around. Lots of tourists zip about on their own rented ones but I didn't want to combine learning to ride a motor scooter with the steep hills. One of the women at the guesthouse made a phone call so at 9am I had Dee as my guide. That's all I learned about him as he didn't speak much English and I don't speak much Thai.

The western side of the island is the more developed side as the beaches are better. One beach is called White Sands. The eastern side is undeveloped with stony beaches and mangroves. The middle of the island is mountainous and covered in forest. My plan was to see the eastern side.

Our first stop was at the Orchid Gardens guesthouse. Supposedly they have nice gardens to wander around in but it is a work in progress and their orchids have already finished flowering. They had a couple of monkeys that I said hello to.

Next we went to Nonsi waterfall. There are several waterfalls on the island and the more spectacular ones are in the National Park. I wasn't about to pay 400B to see a waterfall when they are so common in New Zealand so I chose to go to a less-known one. Dee didn't know exactly where it was and had to ask at the village how to get there. In fact, he didn't know the exact locations of most of the places I wanted to go to so I feel pleased that I showed him some little gems that he didn't know about.

Dee turned the scooter off the main road on to a dirt track for a few hundred metres until we had to walk. The waterfall had two tiers and we started by walking to the second tier. The water was fresh and cool and I dabbled in it up to my knees. I was intrigued by the first (lower) tier as the first metre of its pool was so deep it was a dark blue in colour but the rest of the pool was relatively shallow. I wondered if some of the water goes back underground as the amount of water leaving the pool is much, much smaller than the water going in.

We drove for some time before coming to our third stop, the village of Salak Kok. This is a traditional fisherman's village and the houses are on stilts over the water. We hired a kayak and went for a paddle in the mangrove forest. The interesting thing I discovered about the sea here is that they have one tide a day, not two like us. So every morning it is high tide and every evening it is low tide. I don't know if it gradually changes so that in the opposite season the high tide is in the evening. I have to investigate that. Anyway, what it meant was that the tide was going out.

We paddled out to a large estuary that runs to the sea and past more stilt buildings then up the western side of the estuary until we ran out of water and had to backtrack. The mangrove seeds popped loudly and there were many crabs. I was very happy with this activity. We ate lunch in the seafood restaurant that is attached to the kayak hire. It is like an ecotourist project to provide income for the community. Nothing was really explained so I just guessed.

I had read there was a new walk through the mangrove forest so we did that too. It was a short walk on a concrete walkway. There were 10 points which explained a little about life in a mangrove forest but I found them rather confusing.

Our last activity was trying to find a viewpoint. I think we kinda failed at that but we went to the end of the road where we found a dirt track which we walked for 10 minutes to a quiet beach with a hut at one end. Probably one of the fishermen lived there as there was a huge net hanging from a tree. We walked back to the motorscooter around the rocks and then it was a zippy ride all the way back to Blue Lagoon and Katherine reading in the restaurant area.

We had our dinner in the Blue Lagoon restaurant. They are quite slow but when you hear pounding in the kitchen you know they are making the food from scratch and it is worth the wait. The sun goes down and the lights come on. It is very pretty and we wished we could have stayed longer. The people here were very friendly and I felt terrible when I later discovered I had gone to Bangkok with the room key in my pocket.

Unseen Koh Chang remains copyright of the author pythagnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Two classes are run a day and in our class there was me and Katherine. They didn't have an afternoon class but I did see them at other times with 5 or 6 students. I guess they are more busy in high season. They told us they quite like the odd free afternoon or morning, otherwise they are quite busy for most of the day.

The main teacher is Ju and she runs the cooking school with her friend and brother. They greeted us with a cup of special tea made from a fruit that is related to the orange tree. Ju introduced what we would be cooking - pad thai, a soup, a curry and mango and sticky rice (yum).

The format for all dishes was similar. Ju or her friend would give us some background, talk about and show us the ingredients, we would prepare some food (chopping) and then we would cook away. Actually, we followed their instructions and our main job seemed to be stirring the food in the wok so it wouldn't stick.

The thing I learnt about pad thai is that it came about after World War II. The government wanted to promote national unity so devised this dish with common ingredients. The pad means noodle and Thai means Thailand so together it means the noodle dish of Thailand. Of course, you can get other noodle dishes but this one is the national one. Originally it was made with shrimps but now they are expensive so often the pad thai excludes them.

After pad thai we took our dishes to a nicely-prepared table (table-cloth, water glasses, big bottle of water etc) and ate them. We were so full already as we had had a bread roll for breakfast from the nearby bakery. Completely unnecessary as we discovered too late.

Next we prepared two soups, tom yum (clear soup) and tom kha (coconut milk soup). I cooked the tom yum and Katherine cooked the tom kha. The ingredients for both soups is the same. They differ in that tom yum uses a shrimp stock base while tom kha uses coconut milk. They end up with quite a different flavour.

Ju introduced all the curries to us - green, red (panaeng, sour, jungle) and yellow. We chose to cook panaeng curry. I cooked it regular style while Katherine cooked it with spaghetti. Now our lunch was prepared and we sat down to our soups and curries.

Our stomachs were bulging and still there was mango and sticky rice to go. We had seen this in the market but not sampled it yet. It was one of the things on Katherine's list of things to eat/do before leaving Thailand. I want to know what she does if she doesn't tick off all items on her list. Does it mean that she needs to stay behind until she completes them? I think she would like to stay but not without me as I do all the organising, ordering and buying. Life is easy for her.

Ahh, mango and sticky rice. It was the best.

Thai Cooking School was great fun, very slick and well-presented. The two women who taught us were so nice and knowledgeable too.

We took another walk in the afternoon. This time a bit later than yesterday's walk so it was maybe 1 degree cooler. Not that we really noticed, it was just permanently hot. Meanwhile the ants in our semi-outdoor bathroom had made a nice covered tunnel to their new nest.

We Cook up a Storm remains copyright of the author pythagnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Chantaburi is notable for being a city where gems are traded. But we were only interested in it's night market where we traded baht for food.

In the morning we took a tuk-tuk taxi back to the bus station and at 9:30 caught a bus directly to Leam Ngob, the village where the ferries to Koh Chang depart from. Confusingly, there are three ferry piers - the Koh Chang Ferry, Ferry Koh Chang and Centrepoint. We were dropped at Centrepoint where we bought a ferry ticket and were immediately hustled onto a taxi-truck for the 100m dash down the pier and on to the ferry. It was so immediate I left the bag of fruit we had bought from the night market in the back of the taxi, the third time we had left fruit behind.

On Koh Chang the single waiting taxi was already chocker so he called another taxi. We drove through a village, over a steep hill, through the popular and developed White Sands Beach, over a smaller hill to Khlong Prao Beach. He dropped us at Blue Lagoon and we had a 200m walk down a dusty, dirt driveway through a rubber plantation to the actual site.

The bungalow we chose was a fan-cooled bungalow (luckily with two fans as it was extremely hot) on stilts over the lagoon. I called it the Green Lagoon rather than the Blue Lagoon as that was a better representation of it's colour. We had two deck chairs on our balcony and could see the sea a 2 minute walk away. It was a very peaceful and relaxing place to stay though we fantasised about staying in a flash resort with a swimming pool.

After a wonderful lunch of kau soi we decided to take a walk along the beach and check out the lie of the land. Not the most sensible thing to do in the heat of the day. First we walked north along the beach past a couple of resorts with one or two nearly-naked patrons. We saw an undeveloped area so followed a path back to the road. We walked south along the road, past the driveway to Blue Lagoon to a small headland where we were able to gain access back to the beach. People must have thought we were crazy as the temperature must have been in the high 30s and most people use the much cooler method of motor scooters to get around. The beach was a more direct route than along the road so we soon back at our bungalow for a cold shower and a rest in our deck chairs.

The sunset was glorious.

Islands in the Sun remains copyright of the author pythagnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We stopped half way up the windy, steep road to see a clouded (or Bengal) lizard warming itself on a branch. The lizard was 100m across the valley and blended in so well with it's surroundings we wondered how on earth Ruang had spotted it. This was the tone for the day, many times he spotted something that we had trouble seeing, even after it was pointed out to us. Luckily, Ruang had a scope with him that gave great close-up views of the creatures we saw.

Our next stop was at the viewpoint to put our leech socks on. They make you look oh so silly but they are oh so necessary. Nasty, little creatures. Katherine took a liking to them but then she hasn't had one attach to her so you can't get it off.

Then Ruang spotted a hornbill, a Great Hornbill. It was huge and was sitting on a branch outside it's nest. These are the birds where the female encloses herself in a hollow in a tree while she lays her legs and the male feeds her through a small hole. After three months she breaks out with the chicks. So, if the male dies, so does the female and the chicks. We saw the male too.

We stopped again to see a squirrel. Squirrels are quite common and we had admired them at several places include Baan Lotus, right back at the beginning of our trip. But this was a Giant Black Squirrel and it was large, much bigger than the regular squirrels. It was eating fruits on a branch over hanging the road.

A bit further along we heard a family of gibbons so we took a walk into the jungle to hunt for them. (Thank goodness for leech socks as the horrible things were everywhere.) We finally spotted the gibbons, sometimes stationary on the branch, sometimes swinging through the trees. There were at least two black ones and two white ones. The colour of the gibbon doesn't matter, the breeding pair can be any combination of black/white and they produce any combination of black/white offspring.

While we were happily absorbed in watching the gibbons we heard a noise and about 10m away was a black shape on the ground. It was an Asiatic Black Bear. After a moment to admire it Ruang told us to retreat quietly and quickly as the bears can be dangerous. He told us stories of people who have had their faces scarred from the bear raking them with their claws. It was a good sighting though as he has only seen them one or two times before. Later in the day Ruang showed us claw marks on the trees where the bear has tried to get honey or insects from the inside. Also, he pointed out a sleeping platform made by a bear. It was way up high in the branches and there were the distinctive points of bear claws going up the tree.

Next we went to the Park Headquarters for a toilet stop and to look around the Information Centre. We saw an Indonesian Water Dragon (a small one) perched on the end of a branch and some kind of longtail bird (I forget it's full name).

Now it was time for our trek. Katherine had been worried about this but I think Lek from our guesthouse had primed Ruang and we had an easy 6km walk of about three hours. We went slowly so as to spot wildlife but we only saw a horned spider, slaters (curled in protective balls like marbles) and some birds. Ruang did point out mud marks on a tree where a wild elephant had rubbed itself while walking by.

Finally, we came out to the grasslands where it immediately became much hotter. After 10 mins we arrived at a hide at a watering hole. There was a saltlick nearby too, but no animals. They were all on holiday, it seems. The hide was a like a treehouse with small windows to observe the animals. It was coolish with the breeze and we had a rest and ate our lunch. Poor Ruang was carrying our packed lunch (rice and veges), two books on birds in Thailand and his scope.

After lunch and a rest we walked a further 10-15 mins through the grasslands to the road where our driver was waiting. A driver for another company had cunningly slung a hammock between his vehicle and a tree. We drove on to Hew Suwat waterfall slowly so as to spot more wildlife but the only thing of note was a family group of pig-tailed macaque monkeys. Some were swinging in the trees like the gibbons, some were at the side of the road. The alpha male came and did some posturing, checking us out and hoping we would throw fruit. It's a bad practice as they should be fending for themselves but I suspect many people do throw them fruit so they come to expect it.

I had been to this waterfall before, last time I was in Thailand. I think there was less water this time but it is still good to see. We had a drink and a wander around. We took off our leech socks here as we had finished treking for the day. On our way back from the waterfall we stopped to look at a water monitor lizard.

Our next activity was searching for wild elephants. We drove along the road that bisects the park. It goes from Prachinburi Province in the south to Nakhon Ratchasima Province in the north. I biked this road last time so was glad to point out to Katherine the places I had been. I looked very carefully for elephants. There are many trails onto the road. In fact, the road (and the walking trails) was originally an elephant trail. Katherine searched for elephants with her eyes closed so afterwards I told her I had seen three. But, alas, we didn't see any. November is a good time to go, apparently. Ruang said they see wild elephants just about every day then.

We took a side road that goes to a radar station for the airforce and stopped at another grassland area to see if any animals would appear. No, they were still on holiday. We did see a woodpecker and a little bird (I forget the name) chirping away with all it's might. I would expect more animals to appear at dusk but we weren't having any success (just a wild chook and a pheasant and a mongoose, but I didn't see the mongoose). We drove up the windy road to an excellent viewpoint of the setting sun.

That was the end of our day tour of Khao Yai National Park. Now we were on the return journey to our guesthouse. The driver still drived slowly so when I saw two wild dogs I banged on the cab. It was a pair of jackals. Our last animals for the evening.

Our 12 hour tour was definitely worth every baht even though we didn't see snakes, scorpions and elephants. We were very pleased to see the animals we did and would gladly do it again. A fantastic day had by all.

Paddington or Pooh? remains copyright of the author pythagnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We both enjoyed this trip as the train slowly climbs through rock out crops to the Isan plataeu. It took about 3 hours to get to Pak Chong. At the station we were accosted by several people who wanted to sell their guesthouse and National Park tour to us but telling them I had already made a reservation was a good foil. And true.

We were met by an old man who took us to the Greenleaf Guesthouse. We travelled on seats on the back of his truck, a common way to get around. The guesthouse didn't appear to be much on first glance. Our room was basic and there was mould on the bathroom walls. Katherine just about revolted after our lovely bungalow and gardens at Malee's in Chiang Dao. But she got over it when we discovered there was a coin-operated washing machine nearby. We had been handwashing all our clothes at Malee's as the laundry service was expensive at 50B per kilo.

It was very hot and I tried to rest in a hammock outside but was disturbed by bugs. Katherine tried to rest inside but it was hotter than outside. Finally at 4pm it was time for our half day tour. Four young UK women and a UK man were also on the tour. The women were travelling together and were amusing in their lack of preparedness and knowledge about Thailand. They were fun though. The man (who was travelling separately from them) was nice and had more clues.

The first stop on our tour was at a tree at the roadside. We were looking for a green parrot in a big tree with green leaves. We didn't see it so we moved on to the first bat cave. This one is in a temple complex and was only discovered 10 years ago. We thought this was surprising - how come nobody noticed the bats leaving the cave? So, we climbed down steep steps and the guide took us to several rooms to see the bats. He showed us a mother with a baby holding on to her and a bat adoption site - some bats care for other bat's offspring. They are actually social animals. In one small cave room the bats flew very close to us but not quite touching as they use their sonar to sense our position. There are ony 2-3000 bats in this cave.

We had a choice of exit points. Two people chose to return the same way but most of us followed the guide further into the cave. We came to a big room with a hole in the roof. Part of the roof was on the ground. Perhaps this is why the monks and nearby villagers hadn't noticed the bats until relatively recently. Maybe it was only when the roof fell in and the bats started using this as an exit point that they saw them. Our guide went hunting for a creepy crawly and came back with a scorpion spider. It's actually an insect as it has antennae and six legs, not a spider and it is harmless so I let it roam over my hand.

Our next stop was the bat cave with 2-3 million bats. They were already streaming out of the cave as we approached it. They take an hour or more to all exit the cave. We watched them for a bit - they are like a giant streamer blowing in the wind. We also saw a coupleof hawks circling then diving into the stream of batsin search of dinner. The first hawk was successful and flew off with it's prey. We watched through the scope as the hawk picked the unfortunate bat to bits. Good for the hawk, bad for the bat.

We ate fruits on the hill while watching the sun set. Still the bats streamed from the cave, but in smaller numbers now. Our last stop was a fresh water spring here some of the group went swimming. It was dark by now and almsot cold on the way back to the guesthouse. I had noodle soup for dinner (20B) and Katherine had some tofu, vege rice dish.

To the Bat Cave remains copyright of the author pythagnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The first half of the journey is through built-up area and not so interesting, apart from the passing the army barracks and the equestrian centre. But the second half is very scenic as the road winds it way through the mountains, alongside a muddy brown river. We saw elephants and their mahouts walking alomside the road - there is an elephant camp up here too.

At Chiang Dao our first priority was food as it was now after 1:30pm and we hadn't eaten for awhile. We ate noodle soup. Katherine thinks this is the fourth time her vegetarianism has been compromised as even though she didn't have meat in her soup. the soup stock would have been made from meat. It was delicious anyway and Katherine closed her eyes and thought of Mother Earth.

We took a truck taxi to Malee Nature Lover's Bungalows, about 1.3 km past the well-known Chiang Dao cave. Malee has a beautiful garden with little brick bungalows. We settled in and went for a short walk to the temple up the road. We had just started looking around when the rains came (yes, my title Monsoons in May is appropriate). Luckily we had our plastic rain ponchos from the Elephant Camp so we sheltered for a bit then walked quickly back to Malee's and a lovely mussaman curry for dinner.

At nightime the fireflies, frogs and geckos came out and kept us entertained.

The next morning we walked down to the cave. We hired a guide with a lantern to take us through the caverns. You can go by yourself through the paths lit by electric lighting but with a guide we went the less well-trodden path. At times we had to crouch and scramble through little tunnels. The bat droppings reminded Katherine of Steve Gurney and his problems from going through a cave in Malaysia. The guide pointed out lots of rock formations that had been named eg 'Looks like dead elephant', 'Looks like lotus flower'. Her other most popular saying was 'Watch your head' but despite the warning I still managed to bang my head.

It was a very hot day that day, at least 32deg in the shade so the afternoon was spent snoozing in hammocks and swing chairs.

On our second full day at Malees's I hired a bicycle and had a short 2 hour ride along back roads through orchards and to hot springs (not much to see actually) and again the rest of the day was spent in idleness. In the cooler afternoon we walked to the hill temple again this time managing the 500 steps to the top.

On our last day we had time for some final relaxing before catching a truck taxi back to Chiang Dao town and the bus back to Chiang Mai. We were intrigued by the police checkpoint where they checked everybody's papers, except for us. I told Katherine they were looking for Burmese refugees escaping to Chiang Mai for a better life, but I made that up and I really have no idea why they were stopping everybody.

R&R in Chiang Dao remains copyright of the author pythagnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We were meant to arrive in Chiang Mai at 7:15am but we didn't arrive until after 9:30am. At least we had a chance to see the jungle scenery. Our guesthouse here is called Tha Phae Garden Guesthouse. It is fairly new and is clean and confortable but the room is a little small (not too bad).

After settling in we took a walk to the old city and Wat Chiang Man. This is the oldest wat in Chiang Mai. It has a Stone Buddha and a Crystal Buddha. The Crystal Buddha is only 10cm high. Like most important Buddha images they have had their own tiki tour around Thailand depending on whick king has looted which town.

A tuk-tuk driver was having a slow day so we helped him out by hiring him to take us to Bo Sang village. First we stopped off at another Wat to see it's unusual chedi in the style of a series of watermelons. I visited Bo Sang village on my first trip to Thailand many years ago, where I purchased a silver chain at a reasonable price. Last year on my birthday I had a cold and stayed home from work. When I was in the shower the chain came off and I threw it out the shower door aiming for the edge of the bath. It slid down the side of the bath and down the plug hole. End of chain. Now I was back at Bo Sang village where I was able to replace the chain.

As well as looking at silver and gems we also saw lacquerware, silk and umbrella painting. At each place they quickly showed us how the products are made and then ushered us into huge showrooms where they hoped we would spend up large. We managed to avoid this in all but the silver place.

Every Sunday night the main roads in the Old City from gate to gate turn into a night market. Back in Chiang Mai it was time to continue our shopping by wandering slowly along these roads. Katherine was in her element. We ate omelette and papaya salad at a stall sitting at a low table wearing plastic rain ponchos and holding the umbrella to keep the downpour off. The rains have come early this year and it has been grey and wet since we started at the Elephant Camp 5 days ago. The rain doesn't last all day though and it is still warm.

On Monday morning we walked back into the Old City and had a massage by the Thai Healing Arts Association in the compund of a wat. I had a Thai massage for two hours while Katherine had a foot massage for an hour. Then she enjoyed watching me be pummeled and prodded.

Lunch was at the Aum Vegetarian Restaurant. This is also a book store so it has great atmosphere and delicious food. We had kausoi - egg noodles and crispy noodles with tofu and mushrooms in a curry broth, a salad and fresh (not fried) vietnamese spring rolls. Yum.

After that we hired a songhtaew (red taxi truck) to take us to Mae Rim to a butterfly and orchid farm. There are at least four of these farms and I think they must get comission as they seem to favour one farm over another. The tuk-tuk driver was the same. The butterfly section was disappointing. It certainly wasn't as good as the one at Poring Hot Springs. The orchids were quite good as many were in flower.

The songthaew driver convinced us to continue a few more kilometres to see a monkey show. However, when we got there we didn't have enough money for the entrance fee. We thought this was a good thing as we suspected we wouldn't have been happy to see performing monkeys. Much better to see them in the National Park at Khao Yai. Somehow we were left feeling it was an unsatisfactory experience - it seemed a long way to go to see a couple of brown butterflies and a few orchids. If we were better informed and organised we would have made a day of it and gone to the Buffalo Camp as well but it was much further on and it was already mid-afternoon. The Buffalo Camp was more appealing to us than the Elephant Camp and Monkey Centre and Snake Farm that everybody tries to push you to see.

After a rest in our guesthouse we went to the regular night market. There were stalls for several blocks on both sides of the road. After awhile we realised it was more or less the same thing and we (me especially) had had enough of shopping so we called it a night. Somehow Chiang Mai has a way of sucking money out of you.

This morning we are heading off to Chiang Dao. We might not do so much there as the rain may have made all the tracks muddy. It will be a nice chance to chill out away from the bustling city.

Shopping, shopping, shopping... remains copyright of the author pythagnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The Retiring Old Elephants project is designed so old elephants can retire from working and live their final years in a peaceful existence. Retired elephants don't have their own mahout to care for them and don't receive any income unless they are working. Through this project people like Katherine and I care for the elephants and contribute to their food costs so they don't have to work.

When we arrived at the Elephant Kraal we were assigned a hut to sleep in. It was nicely furnished with two beds, a wardrobe, dresser and aircon. The bathroom was outside. Eva explained the elephant program to us and Michelle assigned us an elephant. Katherine's elephant is called Dok Ma and is about 70 years old. My elephant is called Loong Luen and is about 60 years old.

The four main tasks in caring for our elephants were mucking out, scrubbing, feeding and bathing. Mucking out meant sweeping the elephant poo and used pineapple leaves off their concrete pad and into piles ready to be collected to be taken away to be made into compost or dung paper.

Scrubbing involves taking your elephant to a 'shower' - a concrete pad with a hose. You chain the elephant up and give her some pineapple to keep her happy then you hose her down and scrub her with scrubbing brushes. We only scrubbed one elephant a day. On the last day after scrubbing Loong Luen to a sparkly, clean condition she immediately found a mud hole and sprayed mud allover herself. But this is a good thing as it helps exfoliate the dead skin so I take it as a compliment that I did a good job with the scrubbing brush. You can even scrub their tales, trunks and around their faces.

Feeding involves getting cartloads of pineapple leaves and distributing it to the elephants during the day. They especially like pineapples and other fruit so we were careful to look out for pineapples from the pile of pineapple leaves or take other fruit like guava or watermelon as a special treat for our old elephants.

Bathing is not a chore and it was combined with a riding session. We had real mahouts on the elephants with us to make sure we were ok. Katherine always needed to be pushed on to Dok Ma but I managed to walk up Loong Luen's leg and using her ears pull myself onto her neck. We would walk slowly down to the river where the elephants would drink before going all the way in. One time Loong Luen decided to swim far out into the river. Elephants are very good swimmers - they use their trunk as a snorkel.

When we weren't looking after our elephants we would listen to Eva and Michelle talk about the work at the Elephant Kraal or we would observe the baby elephants or the elephants in the nursery. There are three baby elephants ranging in age from about 2 weeks to 5 weeks old. The older two are quite adventurous. They are very cute the way they try to imitate their mothers and hide under them or sleep in the hay.

The nursery holds baby elephants that are a bit older - up to four years of age - and their mothers. Some are characters - they walk forwards and backwards along the edge of a concrete water trough. They are very agile.

In the mornings we got up early and watched the mahouts get their elephants ready for work. They put blankets and seats on the elephant's back and they wear nice red and gold trousers and shirt. The elephants walk onto a truck - four to a truck and they are driven to town where they give rides to tourists. The young elephants put on a show for the tourists too. All natural behaviours are used and the elephants enjoy the social interaction. Elephants have been domesticated in Thailand for 4000 years so it is very natural for them. Also, the mahouts have very good control of their elephants. My elephant knew I was inexperienced and kept her ears pinned against my legs while I was riding her. This is to protect me and also to stop me kicking her, which I am meant to do to tell her to go forwards.

We had a fantastic three days at the Elephant Kraal. I have only written a fraction of what we did and learnt. Now we have moved on I really miss my elephant and I would love to go back to look after them and become more expert at riding. It was a very, very, very good time.

Make Believe You're in a Jungle Movie... remains copyright of the author pythagnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Early (5:30am) Tuesday morning we checked out and headed across the road to the train station and bought our tickets to Ayutthaya. This was on a rapid-express train that didn't seem too rapid. In fact, it was very pedestrian leaving Bangkok but once outside the city it did go faster. We bought some spicy, minced chicken and basil on rice for breakfast. Katherine ate the fried egg and some rice and I ate the rest. We also had a green mango snack. Several people were very kind and informed us that Ayutthaya was the next stop.

The tuk-tuk driver took us to the Baan Lotus guesthouse which is a lovely three story guesthouse with a huge garden. The garden is a bit overgrown but it is very peaceful and lovely to sit on the balcony and watch the squirrels jump through the trees.

Once settled in I hit the wat circuit while Katherine took a rest. I went to several wats by bicycle, all only a few kilometres from the guesthouse at most. Wat Ratchaburana has an impressive prang with very steep steps leading down to faded red, black and gold murals. Wat Mahathat has the most famous sight of a Buddha-head enclosed by the roots of a banyan tree. Most of these wats are several hundred years old but have been destroyed by time and the razing of Ayutthaya by the Burmese.

When I returned we had a brief foray into the main street just to see what there was. We followed that by refreshing watermelon and pineapple fruit shakes. Though Katherine has declared that she will keep away from watermelon after I reminded her that they can carry illnesses.

At 4:30pm we joined 4 Dutch people and 2 other Kiwis in a day-night tour by tuk-tuk. One tuk-tuk for the Dutch and one for the kiwis. We went to several wat again, but these were ones several kilometres from town so it was a great way to see them. The second stop on the tour was the Elephant Kraal to see the baby elephants - one just over a week old. This is the place we are coming to on Thursday. It was very muddy and there were hundreds of elephants (well more than I've ever seen in one place) going about their business, which mainly seemed to be eating. And yes, theh baby elephants were very cute. But also quite strong - look out for your feet.

The tour finished by dropping us at the night market. But it was already packing up so we had some vegetarian pad thai and walked back to the guesthouse. We might go again tonight.

Today (Wednesday) we have been having a quiet day. We started with a visit to eh Chana..[something]..kasem Museum. This consists of three buildings in a compound. They were once used as a royal residence but now they are old and museum pieces themselves. Katherine enjoyed the second building most which housed many different Buddhas. Some stone work was 1500 years old and there was nothing to stop us touching it if we wanted (which would have been naughty so we didn't).

We had a lovely lunch at foodside eatery opposite the guesthouse and now have come back to the main town shops to do some errands. I am now sporting a fancy Thai haircut.

OK, now to answer some of your questions. Katherine is hot and sweaty most of the time but she is not grumpy yet. She may have eaten some meat when the mushroom pastry we ordered tasted like chicken but otherwise has been sticking to her vegetarian diet.

Tomorrow we are off to the Elephant Kraal so might not have access to email there.

Wats Galore remains copyright of the author pythagnz, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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