Chang Rai was only a 3 hour bus journey north of Chang Mai. The buses in Thailand are cheap and efficient and also air-conditioned, which is essential in the current and typical heat. Booked a hotel with a swimming pool which proved to be an excellent choice and only a 30 minute walk into the centre of town. Met a couple of fellow travellers poolside and spent time in the evenings visiting the night market that also had a cheap and cheerful food court in the centre with free entertainment. This market is cheaper than Chang Mai with a larger selection of food and is set in much pleasanter surroundings with more space and less hassle from stall holders! The Hilltribe Museum was a worthwhile place to visit, not only informative about the various tribes but also specialised in providing 'ethical' treks that tried to avoid exploitation of the hilltribe people. Booked a 3 day/2 night trek with 5 other trekkers from Germany, Holland and a couple from Eire. The guide, Goy, was a member of the Yao tribe and very knowledgeable, and also spoke good English. The trek was mainly through tropical forest, much up and down hill climbing starting with a long tail boat ride up river to the elephant camp followed by an elephant ride (my second also left me with a tender spot on my backWe stayed in 2 villages at night, in mixed dormitories, and ate tasty basic Thai food, cooked by our guide. One lunch was had in the forest cooked using bamboo utensils and plates etc and followed by a swim in a waterfall. We all played cards in the evenings and generally got on well together as a group, drinking a lot of beer together. The final day was spent journeying to the hot springs, and relaxing there followed by a pick up truck ride back into Chang Rai. Though a bit more expensive a trek than the Chang Mai based one it was very worthwhile experience with a better quality guide and organisation. Am unable include pictures of this trek until return to Chang Mai.
Photo 1. The Akha Hilltribe village were we stayed the first night of the trek.
Photo 2. Swimming in the waterfall visited on the trek.
Photo 3 and 4. Our guide made utensils from bamboo for our forest lunch on the final day of the trek.
Photo 5. The jungle view from the first hill climbed on the trek.
Photo 6. A boatload of intrepid trekkers.
Photo 7. Wat Phrau Kew, the principle wat of Chang Rai.

The weather varies very little and continues to be sunny and warm, usually reaching 30C most days. Everyday have made full use of the local outdoor swimming pool which also has an excellent restaurant serving good Thai and English food at a very reasonable cost. Whilst in Chang Mai have managed to find a reasonable optician where I have been able to replace both pairs of specs (one pair lost while trekking in Nepal) at a fifth of the cost in England and this included a free eye test.

Staying in Andreen and Martin's condominium has provided me with a good base for Thailand and also boasts a bistro on the ground floor with free internet access. Our respective stays in Thailand overlapped by a few days , this enabled my hosts to show me significant places in the city, including the night market and good eating places, for example the Gekko Bar, run by an ebullient American, and some riverside restaurants. Having a base in Thailand that is situated in the north of the country whilst staying here makes a lot of difference enabling me to relax between travelling to other places such as Chang Rai, Laos or Cambodia. Northern Thailand is also cooler than the more popular southern part of the country and slightly less 'touristy'. Whilst in Chang Mai I managed to acquire a ticket for a piano concert which was part of the Chang Mai Music Festival. Met a number of ex-pat Brits who gave me some useful ideas for places to visit in Laos. The concert was a showcase for 3 music students from Korea, all of whom played to a very high standard in a concert of music from the Romantic era ie Grieg, Tchiakovsky and my favourite composer, Chopin.
Trekking in Thailand tends to be for shorter periods than Nepal so a 3 day trek to the hill tribal areas in the mainly jungle area typical of Northern Thailand was a great experience, but with less trekking than I have been used to.Experienced my first elephant ride , swim in a pool by a waterfall and finally a bamboo raft ride through rapids as well as trekking, all in the space of 3 days. The first night was in a hill tribe village of the Karen people, where we were made to feel very welcome. The villagers lit a bonfire and gave an impromptu rendering of their traditional songs, and we were expected to reciprocate with some of our own (I sang 'Amazing Grace' jointly with a Canadian fellow nurse). The second night was in the jungle in huts at the side of the waterfall, falling asleep to the sound of the fall.
Finally before leaving Chang Mai for a visit to Chang Rai I visited the flower festival which took place around the old town moat, the parade taking most of the morning to complete! A really spectacularly colourful occasion where I was able to take lots of photo's.

Photo 1 Tuk-tuk 'float' at flower festival

Photo 2. Start of parade , somewhat disappointing!

Photo 3 Waterfall close by Karen village. We slept in huts at the side of the falls

Photo 4. Chang Masi flower festival, leading float.

Photo 5. Sue at waterfall pool, cooling off.

Photo 6. Karen House (slept here) , hilltribe village.

Photo 7. Sue and fellow trekker feeding elephant.

.

Again an uncomplicated journey to Chang Mai, however would have travelled by train were it possible but Chinese New Year meant all sleepers booked out and sitting for 15 hours on a train had little appeal.Before Andreen and Martin left for England they gave me a guided tour of the city and we enjoyed a number of excellent meals, usually in restaurants by the river, excepting their favourite bar 'The Gekko' managed by an ebullient American by the name of Rudi and situated downtown.
Photo 2 Andreen and Sue enjoying cocktails at The Riverside Restaurant, Chang Mai
Photo 1 Martin and a beer at same venue.

Arrived on the 21st following a punctual flight from Delhi. Stayed in Holiday Inn where stayed 10 years ago with colleagues on way to a conference in Melbourne. Was immediately struck with how much Bangkok has changed. It is now much cleaner with an efficient transport system, a metro and a skytrain and walkways (linked to the skytrain) that separate pedestrians from traffic. The hotel had a decent outdoor pool so swam twice a day, in my 2 day stay in Bangkok. A useful means of staying cool as the temperature was in the 30'sC and humid, though every building has airconditioning to compensate. Also used the river ferries to travel around and visited Wat Pho, the reclining buddha temple, very beautiful and also many elaborately decorated Stupas.Food was fairly cheap and Thai food as good as I remember, as long as you check the spicieness when ordering!
Flew from Bangkok to Changmai on the 23rd to meet Andreen and Martin from England and stay in their condminium when they return to England on 26th January.

To me a new city excepting the previously bad experience of the transit lounge on the way to Kathmandu. Good news, the hotel sent a car to collect me from the airport. Smarter hotel than previous cities with comfortable facilities which sadly did not include a swimming pool, but that would send it into a higher cost bracket and Delhi is very expensive these days.
Managed to visit the last day of the Faberge exhibition at the National Museum, very well displayed and accessible exhibits which were breathtakingly fine examples of jewellery and artifacts which naturally included the 'eggs'.
Second of the 2 full days in Delhi was able to find a travel agent who gave me a good deal to Agra and the Taj Mahal. Spent day being driven to Agra (400km round trip), and with a guide was shown round the Taj. Many predominantly Indians also visiting but managed to appreciate the beauty of this monument and the story behind it, spending 2 1/2 hours there. Resisted the temptation to buy momentoes of visit (an awful lot of tat)but guide took many photo's with my camera. On returning to Delhi had a pleasant dinner with the owner of the travel agency at a restaurant off the tourist beat. Delhi is on a parr with Kathmandu for being crowded and extremely dirty, which provided me with the perfect 'excuse' to stay in a decent hotel. The next day flew to Bangkok.

A brilliant 10 day trek and am now back in Pokhara for 3 days R&R before flying to Delhi on the 17th January. The trek was with an excellent guide, Hari, an ideal companion for a venture that took us up to 3,800m to Muktinath, through and above the alpine region to barren open landscapes with the most amazing rock formations I've ever seen. Across ex-glacial river valleys were you had clear views of some of the highest mountains (Dhailagiri, Nilgiri and Annapurna1,2,3,4 peaks) in the Himalayas. The whole area, previously a seabed, was very reminiscent of the Dorset Jurassic coast, and the stones lying everywhere were identical to Dorset. Most of the gift shops in the towns and (mainly) villages we passed through sold fossils collected from the surrounding hills and river beds. Hand made scarves from sheep and wool were sold directly from the wooden looms, often placed outside the houses, so you were able to watch the scarves being woven as well as the wool being 'carded' at the beginning of the process.
I purchased one such scarf and wore it round my waist to keep warm, particularly in the mornings, which were often below freezing at the beginning of the days trek. This trek forms part of the Annapurna circuit trek as you would often see trekkers going up or down from Muktinath to Jomsom or Beni. Sadly people were not trekking on this section as much as going by jeep on very basic roads to start trekking higher up from Muktinath. The local villages were adversely effected, economically, by this change and many of the tea/guest houses were seeing significant falls in the number of trekkers/tourists staying overnight. Muktinath is a destination for Hindu pilgrims, rather akin to Mecca for Muslims. A very large and impressive shrine rivalled only by the Buddhist shrine and monastery next door. Muktinath as a place was disappointing and Kagbeni, the next town down, far more memorable and I took many photo's of this town with it's ancient mud walled fort. It also snowed in Muktinath so we beat a hasty retreat the next morning before the paths became icy. We spent 2 days staying at Tatopani on the way down, spending as much time as possible in the hot springs, this time I remembered a swimming costume!
Given that the general recommendation is not to eat meat the higher the altitude as it is not very fresh, arriving back in Pokhara was celebrated by a large meal of meat and much fresh salad.
Photo 1 Hari My excellent guide on trek. Sitting on a rooftop while waiting for lunch. The roof is used to store wood for the winter - the more wood the richer you are seen to be.
Photo 2 In Marpha, the center of apple growing in Nepal. They make an excellent cider and an apple brandy (very potent)
View of Mount Dhailagiri about 7th or 8th highest in world.
Photo 3 Sandstone rock with many caves, some occupied until 16th Century.
Photo 4 Local weaver in village on way to final stop at Muktinath. Many women weave out in the open as even in ainter the afternoons are warm, with temperatures reaching the low 20C. Bought a yak and sheep wool scarf from her.
Photo 5 & 6 Views sown the valley from Kagbeni with Nilgiri on the left (no 5)

Back in Pokhara today and will be flying to Jomsom for a final 10 day trek in Nepal before flying to India on the 17th January. Previous 4 days spent at the Osho centre retreat sitting on my backside and meditating alongside a once a day session of yoga starting at 07.30. The centre is situated in the subtropical forest surrounding the Kathmandu Valley, very beautiful and lush within the sound of a waterfall. Many westerners as well as Nepali people staying. The accommodation was very comfortable and even included air conditioning, unheard of here, though availability was dependant on 12 hour a day power cuts (referred to here as 'power loading!). The 20 euro's a day included 3 meals albeit vegan, but managed to adjust to the lack of meat and dairy products. We celebrated New Year with a bonfire and music in the forest, this included an excellent cake made without eggs or butter, baked for the occasion.
After 4 days felt suitably relaxed and ready to cope with the final trek and yet again made the 6 hour + bus journey to Pokhara.