We were a bit apprehensive about getting the bus from Hua Hin to Bangkok as the foreign office had advised again "all but essential travel to the city of Bangkok" owing to the flooding. However, with our Thai visas running out in a week, we decided that our travel through the city definitely was essential so we could get closer to a border crossing! We arrived in central Bangkok to absolutely no sign of any flooding and got a tuk-tuk to the station. The overnight train to Chiang Mai was also still running, although with a delay of unknown timescale. We think it was due to slow progress through the floods on the outskirts of Bangkok.
We had decided to treat ourselves to a first class air-con cabin on the train in the hope of getting some sleep on the 15 hour journey. We had dinner served to us, and then the stewards came through and made up the, surprisingly comfortable, bunk beds....what luxury! We did get some sleep, despite the rickety old train and arrived in Chiang Mai after an extended 18 hour journey (note: when a Thai person tells you an ETA, be sure to add on at least 2 hours to account for "Thai time").
We had not long been in Chiang Mai, and were having lunch at a restaurant on a tiny soi (street), when Sarah looked up to clock a person she recognised walking past. It took a while for the brain cogs to whir round, when she realised it was Gemma, a friend of Adel's who we had met a few times in London, and who we knew to be somewhere in Thailand! We've spent the last couple of evenings meeting to to drink tea, swap travelling stories and generally put the world to rights.
During last night's tea-drinking session, Sarah again looked up to see an old schoolfriend, also known to be somewhere in SE asia (thanks Facebook!), walking past! We're beginning to believe in fate to be sure!
Having spent plenty of time lazing around in Southern Thailand, we decided that some form of action was required......so we booked ourselves on a white-water rafting trip. We were driven deep into the jungle in the mountains surrounding Chiang Mai to the rafting camp where we had a huge delicious lunch (perhaps not ideal, just before plunging into white water on an inflatable plastic raft!). On the river, we went through some pretty serious rapids, the level of extreme rafting denoting by the volume of Sarah's screams! Bizarrely, half way down it started raining but we were soaked anyway so it made little difference! John swam in the river for a short while, through "swam" is a euphemism for half-drowned as he appeared to just fall off the side of the raft and drank half the river! To be fair, we were actually encouraged to swim at this point, and John says that it was totally planned!
After we had dispensed capably with all the rapids, the river slowed down, and we floated for a while. We floated round a corner to the amazing sight of 3 elephants enjoying being washed in the river.
We think that the Thai new year is about to begin, denoted by random fireworks going, day and night, in the street around us! We are meeting Gemma tonight close to one of the city gates, where we think there are celebrations going on.
