Chiang Mai

Well as much fun as the noise and clutter and scams of Bangkok are, we got a train up to Chiang Mai. Got to the train station at 8pm, boarded at 10pm left the station maybe around 11:30pm had several random stops for a few hours along the way in the middle of nowhere and eventually found ourselves in Chiang Mai at 3pm the next day! We are definitely gonna fly out of here when we leave but it could be a while, this place is pretty nice and relaxed.

I have consumed several books now: The intruder, Count Zero (same guy as Neuromancer - loved it!), Memnock the Devil (Anne Rice - Loved it!) and now a much meatier non-fiction on comparative religion. I could easily lose a month just reading - there are so many great books in the 2nd hand shops that I'd love to read.

The night markets here are pretty cool and I picked myself up a Go board. I've been intrigued by this game for ages but never had much opportunity to play. I had grabbed a nice little wooden travel version of Connect 4 (or Bingo as they call it) about a week ago which has been a nice little diversion. But unfortunately the gazillion little stones of Go will have to wait until I am home before I get to have my fun with them.

The climbing here also looks promising but is around 45min drive away. So tomorrow, weather permitting, we'll hire a couple motorbikes, try not to die on the roads (nowhere near as bad as Vietnam though) and hit up Crazy Horse buttress. It's been a while since I've climbed properly between the rain and being sick and weak so fingers crossed it won't rain and I'll be close to 100% percent tomorrow.