1 week to go!

So this time in 1 week I'll be back in England probably at Tesco buying food for the week! That's a crazy thought, I haven't even seen a supermarket for a while let alone had to shop in one! We've just had lunch in a cafe for 1 pound which included food and drink for both me and James and English people we meet keep telling me how expensive everything is back home now, I can't say I'm looking forward to that aspect!

Anyway, since I last visited my blog we've covered a bit of the country. From Krabi we took a ferry to Koh Phi Phi and then the boat, bus and another bus up to Chaing Mai in the Northern province and then another bus to Pai which is where I am right now!

Koh Phi Phi was a pretty chilled out island. We did a day of diving there which was quite an experience (and that's not because of the fish). Basically, when diving, it is a common rule that when the first person in the group reaches 50bar (you begin with about 200bar) on their air, the whole group makes their way up to the surface to make a relaxing and safe ascent. Well... the particular diving company we chose on Phi Phi thought it would be a good idea to keep going under the water until the last person had reached 50bar meaning me and another guy were breathing off our buddies secondary regulators (the thing which you breathe through) as our air had virtually run out. So there we were, 18 metres underwater, swimming alongside our dive partners sharing the same air tank, not good practice. Their reasoning was, 'well then you get your moneys worth as you get a longer dive'. I have to disagree completely there and say quality over quantity as being pulled along by James underwater sharing one tank whilst fighting current isn't exactly what I paid for and I was concentrating more on that than actually seeing any marine life!

Anyway, asides from the disastrous finish to both dives that day, we did actually get to see some really cool fish and got close to a large green turtle for a good few minutes while it munched its way through some coral, amazing!

We gave diving a miss the other days as our money is really tight now so spent our time sunbathing on the beach and wandering through the markets. There was a messy night out there involving too many buckets of Thai rum and red bull but all good fun!

Well we left Phi Phi on Tuesday and had a long trip to Chaing Mai via Bangkok, about 36 hours including waiting time between buses but actually not as bad as it sounds! Chang Mai was great, a much nicer city than Bangkok and so much cleaner and cheaper. Our very nice but basic double room with A/C, bathroom, cable TV and balcony was costing us 4.50 pounds per night for both of us, fantastic! There were literally hundreds of temples around the city so we visited 3 and then decided that we were quite 'templed out' by then so spent the rest of the time wandering around the street markets and eating more yummy food!

The highlight of that part of the trip and actually one of the best days here in Thailand was the Thai cookery course we did yesterday. We got to choose 6 dishes each so me and James chose different ones to get the most out of the day. First, we were taken to the local market to buy all the ingredients needed for the dishes whilst our teacher talked us through the various fruit and vegetables which was really enlightening. Tasting of the exotic fruit happened afterwards whilst we got to know all our cooking buddies. After that, we were split into small groups depending on the dish we were cooking and taken to the various kitchens to start cooking. It was so well organised and after each dish we came back to our original group so we could all taste each others food and enjoy what we had just made. I was so full by the end of the day and couldn't manage more than a taste of the last 2 dishes but now I have the skill to make them again at home as we were given a recipe book. All in all, a very fun and useful day!

So now we're in Pai, a small mountain village 3 hours from Chaing Mai which has a bit of an alternative vibe to it. There are quite a few other travellers here and I think it's quite a mecca for some! I haven't got my bearings yet as after 3 hours on a windy road up a mountain I just wanted to lie down. I'm hoping to book us onto an elephant trek and bamboo rafting trip tomorrow so I will keep you posted! Bye for now!:)