Well hello from Chiang Mai! getting here was absolutley a p of p, as there was a travel agent over the road from our hotel in bkk, booked flight with bangkk air (25 quid each) and also booked three nights in hotel, c.30 quid per night. Flight was at 12.40 so no early start. Chiang Mai airport titchy and efficient. Taxi to hotel- ten minutes. CM looked superficially the same, althought its been 8 yrs since we were last here - with Andy and Cally. Hotel is quite posh - hugh reception area. Room is ok, but not special. Went for a walk and found the place we stayed at before - not so far from where we are now actually - and then went for a rest. When we got up later (11ish) nothing much open - ended up in awful karaoke bar over road from hotel where we were the only people in there - they said everything shuts at 1.00pm.
Wednesday - Mark decides we're going to the zoo! really nice day. lots of animals (including giant pandas) and because its sort of an old fashioned sort of zoo - the animals were really near. There was a family of hippos that were only about 10 ft away from us - amazing. Had a rest earlier due to last night's experience, and decided we'd go to the Riverside rest/bar which was in the LP. Really nice old place on the other side of the river. Food was really good, we were seated actually on the riverside - lovely. Later we went inside to listen to the band, who were really good - no hotel california in sight. I would say that all of them were mixed race Thai, I dont know whether that makes a difference to their taste in music!
On the way back we stopped in another karaoke bar (at the behest of a very nice lady boy) and then a streetside bar with an obnoxious aussie) got back really late.
Thursday - legacy of last night - missed breakfast which is a real pity because its fantastic - and spent most of the day by the pool, which is very nice, and hardly anyone there!
Went for wander later, tried the Irish pub, not bad - called Mum from internet cafe that offers Skype (15b per minute) and then back to the restaurant near hotel for king prawns. Deciced to go back to hotel to get changed, as its a bit cool! turning into right girls!

Saturday 10th December - Greg (and Gill) take us to Bham Airport, which is like a - deserted airport! I have never seen it so empty. quite possibly it is because they were going to be on strike today, and people have changed their plans. Anyway, check in and get told that for the amsterdam - bkk leg they can't seat us together, but maybe we can change it at amsterdam. Go and get a pint in the also deserted bar. Except for a large gang of blokes in kilts presumably also headed for amsterdam. flight on time, arrive c.5pm, cold and misty. so misty that we circled round for a bit before landing - to arrive amongst chaos and delayed flights. Amsterdam is as busy as Birmingham was quiet. After queing for about 20 mins to see if we could get our seats changed, we gave up and headed for the bar. Our flight was delayed about an hour. On board the plane, we ask all four blokes who were all travelling alone if they would swap seats with us - none of them would. Mark got his own back in various ways - tipping water on one bloke whilst he was asleep, sending another's breakfast back whilst he was similarly indisposed and generally making a nuisance of himself. Flight went very quickly but would have been more enjoyable had we been sat together. Oh well.
Sunday, 11th December - arrive BKK c. 13.15 - blimey it's hot, even in the air conditioned airport. Painless journey through passport control/baggage reclaim and soon we are in a taxi. First change since last we were here - expressway finished and for 60B cut journey by 75%. Also - it doesn't seem as polluted, and there are definitely less tuktuks than I remember - although it's about 4 years since we were last in thailand, it's probably more like eight since we stayed in BKK. Zenith Sukhumvit quite nice - especially the rooftop pool which has a cracking view of this part of the city. We go and have a sit up there until about 5.00pm, when we both start to feel a bit tired, and go and have a kip.
9.00pm - starving now, go out to find food. we are right in the middle of the arab quarter of BKK so if it's middle eastern food you want - you're laughing. But it isn't - so we walk up to sukhumvit road (we are on soi 4, Nana Nua) and find a nice Thai place. Mark has green curry, I have rice noodles with pork and prawns and papaya salad. Very nice. Walk back to near our hotel and have a couple of gintonics watching everton draw with Man U. Now I feel relaxed!

One week to go. Everything going swimmingly apart from the fact that Birmingham Airport have decided (or Amicus workers anyway, or some of them at any rate) to go on strike, starting next Thursday 8th December and including Saturday, 10th December the day we are due to go away. KLM have nothing to advise us at the moment, except keep in touch, and we will probably have to depart from another airport. What a nause. Bhx is just up the road from us, a short taxi ride away. The next nearest airport which KLM fly out of is Manchester. Anyway, apart from that, all systems go. Have a new job which is just starting to get busy (out three days this coming week) but can't be helped, I finish on Friday no matter what! Our lovely dog still doesn't know that we are going away, and this is probably for the best.