Heading to Chang Mai

Bangkok, was pretty crazy (almost as crazy as the guy in this picture, who thought he was Jimi Hendrix!).
So the journey to Chang Mai was a welcome relief. The journey was quite uneventful, despite sharing a carriage with a load of very small fluffy dogs, and their very small(not quite so fluffy) owners. One of these dogs, which was no bigger than a household cat, came over as quite intimidating , whilst wearing a collar saying "bad to the bone", and another one wore a nappy!?
So, dogs aside, I woke up on the sleeper train to, what seemed to be the safest choice for breakfast,...a cup of tea and a club sandwich, with more salad cream than club. The tea was very nice, how English!
Having arrived at the station, I met a couple of couples who were heading to the same hotel as me. We grouped together for safety against the very determined trek selling ladies, Nim and Mama Honey(great name huh?)
So began a great game of cat and mouse. We spent all day hiding from Nim and Mama Honey, and they, of course, spent all day looking for us and our western money.
There is a big trade in taking tourists trekking in Chang mai, probably not the exciting, cultural achievement of 15 years ago, almost a compulsary activity. So we kept hiding.
Despite not being too intrigued with the tourist trail, we did seek Mama Honeys discount price for Thai boxing, which was extremely good fun. Watching a load of seriously tough blokes wllie the living daylights out of each other, whilst we drank whisky and cheered with blood lust. See, embracing the culture already.
Went out for St.Patricks day with my new friends, two of whom are Irish, and met lots more at an Irish bar(where I incidentally promised them all a sound thrashing in the rugby, the following day).
Of course, we lost the rugby. I can't tell you how much they all admired my bravery, watching it in an Irish bar. Apparently, I took the sound thrashing that they gave us very well.
Time to leave. Headed out for Pai on Sunday night.
I'll tell you about that later. I appera to be sat next to the loudist Israeli in the world, talking to all his family on the computer. If I were able to think, I couldn't hear it.