Got back safely to Chiang Mai this afternoon and have booked my sleeper train this evening to Ayuthaya which is the old capital city and just outside Bangkok.
Had an amazing time on my homestay. Stayed with Susanan and her family who belong to a Lisu hilltribe. The village was so peaceful and right up in the mountains and the family was so lovely. Decided to spend two nights there just reading, walking around the village, helping with the cooking and gardening and playing with Susanan's 3 month old granddaughter. It was the perfect place to just take time out from having travelled constantly for 5 weeks and to just think about what an amazing time I have had.
I should point out though that despite being in the middle of nowhere the village was not what you would imagine. I realised this on the minibus to Soppong which I was sharing with 3 hilltribe women. They were dressed in their traditional clothes and speaking Lisu not Thai and then one of them pulled out a mobile phone about 5 times nicer than mine! Susanan said that village life has changed a lot recently as they now have televisions, electricity and mobile phones. The lovely thing about the village though was that the traditional way of life was still being preserved and it seemed that technology was having a mainly positive, not negative effect.
I left the village first thing this morning and went to the market in Soppong. From there I went to the Tham Lod caves which are among the largest caves in Asia. They were absolutely amazing and because I got there by 8.30 none of the tourist groups had arrived and me and my guide were the only ones there. The only way i can describe it was like something out of Lord of the Rings. There was a river running through the caves and we had to get a tiny bamboo raft along it. And at the entrance there were thousands of bats and swifts circling around and hanging from the ceiling. It was really really incredible.
Then lots of buses: one back to Pai and then a minibus from Pai to Chiang Mai. There were no problems though so it was only 4 when I arrived here. Train leaves at 9pm and arrives a 7am so hopefully will just sleep through that journey. Will spend one day in Ayuthaya and then head to Bangkok tomorrow evening or the following morning. Not going to spend long in the city though as am planning trips to the death railway, the floating market and maybe the beach :)
Nearly made it back to the start which means it's nearly time to go home. Going to make the most of the last few days.
Lots of love,
The ever-happy traveller xxx
