Day 8 Chiang mai

So to get to Chiang mai we got the over night train that took 12 hours and was quite a good experience I will write a separate blog post about the sleeper train at another time but I would recomend it, it's cheap clean and a new wat to travel. 

We arrived in Chiang mai at 8:15am and took a short taxi ride to our hotel around 20mins had a quick freshen up and chill by the pool before we went off as a group to do our Thai cooking class this is a must it's cheap around 1000 bht £30ish and you learn a whole new style of cooking even if like me your pallet is not quite up to the taste of the food it's still a fun and interesting thing to do whilst your in the food capital of Thailand we made 4 dishes - spring rolls, Thai soup, Thai green curry and pad Thai the pad Thai and spring rolls were my fave :) we got to eat it all to by the way so that was dinner sorted. 

Some of the group opted to look around the area and stay by the pool and me and some others decided to go to tiger kingdom what was amazing the tigers are well looked after and very much awake and not sedated may I add if the didn't want there photo they simply walked away lol a few did this but it was such a fun thing to do and have some great pictures and memory's from it! If you don't mind things like that I would say go do it it cost us around 200baht return taxi and I did the big tiger what was 420baht there was all different sized down to little baby cubs all at different prices and packages to do if you wish to do more than one type of tiger. I loved it and was well worth my money but if it's not your thing then I'm sure it's fine to give it a miss but like I said they were not sudated or in bad conditions they were well looked after. 

6pm we are now having a meeting with our trekking guid for tomorrow telling us what we will be doing what we need etc. 

Tonight we went to the night bizarre had a look round some market stalled I bought myself some really baggy trouser bottoms to be cool and comfy on the trek and traveling what ever really I just felt like I needed some on this trip as I haven't got any really comfy long bottoms.mwe then went to get some food for like a food hall you paide at a till and got a check for that amount to pay at the food stalls but I wasn't that hungry and wanted my sweet fix so I got some ice cream and Nutella bannana pancakes they were sooooo yummy it's unreal! Me and 3 others from the group then went to watch a lady boy show it was free to enter but you had to buy a drink so we got the cheapest Chang beer 100baht it was good more like a cab array show than anything else not quite what I was expecting but I'm not sure what I was really but it was ok, we then come back to the hotel to get a some what early ish night been 11pm already for tomorrow is the start of our jungle trek and that is going to be a lot of hard work and effort lol 

I won't have connection for the next 3 days as we are in the jungle so I will post my blogs and videos as soon as I am back to having wifi so do bare with me a little bit I'm sure you can understand :) night guys x 

Day 7 relaxing before the sleeper train

So today it's still erly so far it's 10:30am I've had my breakfast free all you can eat with the hotel I'm in for my group tour to Chaing mai the group is really nice and have all gone out sight seeing 2 have gone to find there baggage at the airport and chilling by the pool with me later but the rest won't be back till 5 ish to get there bags ready for the train, I'm like I said relaxing by the pool as I've already done everything they are going to do today see the temples and the river etc and I need to save money so it's nice to relax before the train tonight. 

My view right now ahhh so relaxing I don't have to check out till 12pm 

Day 6 Thailand

So after an early start again to head to the floating markets I am now shattered and tired and just want to sleep not a good thing for a backpacker wanting to see things I even have a free massage today and it looks miles away on the map and I can't be bothered to walk it there so I am just sat having a drink now and going to try and get a taxi to my next hotel as it's about 20 mins away hope it doesn't cost too much lol last night I didn't end up going out but I went to the restaraunt in my hotel and had a grilled cheese sarni and a drink n skyped my family. 

Floating market 

I really enjoyed the floating market it was outside Bangkok about 1 1/2 hours there and back I got hotel pick up and drop off and then we got a long tail boate to the market itself where you then had the option to stay for an hour and go on other trips or stay the full 2 hour whitch I did I just sat had a coffe next to the river and took it all in for 150 bht you could get the paddle boat around it what would have been better but since I was on my own and not with more people it would cost me 300bht not that that's exspensive but I was quite happy walking and looking around and sitting I would really recomend doing this as a half day trip if you have some time spare it really is nice and hectic but calming at the same time. 

All I did after was stop for a drink after taking my bag to storage and get a taxi to my next hotel and meet the group, we went out for a meal and some drinks too I tried something new and did not like it lol it was black bean noodles and chicken, the chicken was nice but the black bean noodle was not it was like green absinthe tasted jelly lol eww not my thing. 

Day 5 traveling | 1st full day in Thailand |

So today I over slept first of all lol not a good start but I believe if you sleep in it's because you need it and I did do a full day of traveling yesterday and then out look for koh San road anyway so I first went to the stray Asia place to book my free half day floating market tour and my massage I then got took in by a tuk tuk man and he took me to his friend for a boat trip that I did not want I soon got wise to this and just played ignorant I hate doing this but as soon as you say hi back there on it like I take you hear that temple is not open when it is one man tried doing this in front of the gate of wat po when people were clearly going in! 

So that was my first stop after walking what felt like miles and it was amazing I loved it I even just sat for a bit to take it all in I even got a free bottle of water lol there really so much to look at there and it's a nice place to sit and relax for a bit before going back out to the hectic ness of Bangkok. 

The next place I set off walking to again the same things happend I got stopped and walked miles I'm sure you get the picture now lol I went to grand palace from what I saw on the outside it looked really nice but after walking all that way I was not going to pay 500 bht not that I think it's a lot but all the other places are like 100bht or lower and I only had budgeted so much today and I still wanted to see wat Arun so I just sat down for a bit and started looking for the river to find tha tian a river dock as all different ones do different things apparently so be sure to look for this if you just want to go across the river. This only cost me 3bht each way not bad at all! Wat Arun is right next to the river unlike the other 2 things I went to see that looked like they were on the map but not in real life lol. I decided I would walk up all the steps to this temple they were really steep and really scary and my legs still hurt to climb up the steps now they were shaking so bad the worst part was walking back down them as you had to look down to where you were going scary stuff if your like me and have a slight night issue lol. It started raing and after all that I was knakered so I decided to get a tuk tuk back to my hotel where I am now writing this ( Bhiman inn ) I finally found the free internet so I can upload my blogs and videos so I did that earlier then re organised and packed my bag as I'm using my free lugage storage to store my big bag whilst I am on my trip to Chaing mai so I had to re pack my back pack hand lugage one and if I have to go in my big one one more time I will cry lol 

I don't mind living out of a suitcase but living out of a back pack is horrendous having to re organise every time to make things fit plus it ways a ton! 

I am now waiting for 3pm English time to skype my mum as I haven't been able to get in touch with her so for without internet and I don't want people worrying about me on my own lol I went on earlier to see but I just ended up uploading things as she wasn't there I haven't had anything to eat today so I'm really hungry and was planning to go down koh San road but I'm really tired and i have to wait for 9pm Thailand time to skype my mum and I have to be up early tomorrow so I duno what to do I'll let you guys know tomorrow what I decided. Night all x 

Day 4 | traveling to Thailand |

Ok so there isn't much to say about what I did today other than it felt like all day of traveling! Decided to save money and carry all my bags to the metro and even at 6am the heat was horrendous and then get the metro to the airport this is a lot cheaper if you are near a metro it cos me 4 dh and taxi there cost me 52 dhr so a big saving. And then I was delayed on the plain again an hour late good job I had no connecting flights but I managed to stay awake and watch 3 films on the plane in tears watching the fault in our starts people must have been looking at me like omg why is she crying lol then the grand Budapest hotel and finally malifisent all 3 were amazing I love them plus I got a whole row of seats to my self so I got to be comfy and got more free drinks and hot towels this time plus I got my meal as I wasn't asleep lol. I had transport booked for when I arrived to Thailand much more hassle free I must recomend doing that and then had a quick walk to koh San road to see where it was and I was shattered so I went to sleep and didn't get up properly till 12 lol.

Day 2 Dubai | day 3 traveling |

Ok so I know it's took a long time to get this up but I've only just found the internet at my hotel in Thailand and this was about Dubai so I was only there 2 days and only got to see a limited amount of things but I loved it all the same and would love to go back. I stayed at jormand hotel apartments and the room tour is up on YouTube now as well as footage from other things I did in Dubai. 

There wasn't much to tell during the day that wasn't on YouTube as I just met up with my friends and we chilled by or in the pool as it was soo hot and I am already sun burnt :( but on the night for the second day I had book a desert safari I had booked mine with sta travel like it says in my earlier blog post about what I will be doing in Dubai but there is loads of different ones and all do a simaler thing just depends on price I personally loved my trip I had booked had lots of fun dune bashing and had lots of opportunities to take pictures and my guid was very nice to offer to take them all the time lol I would recomend trainers ans you can't walking in the sand in flip flops and the sand is red hot!!! And water make sure to take that too if your stood taking pictures for too long it gets to you. After seeing the sun set and taking yet more pictures we went to the camp where everything was included unlimited drinks water, soft drinks, tea and coffe alcohol you had to pay for. Also free henna, sesha, dress up in Muslim cloths for pictures and 2 20min shows 1 belly dancer 1 spinner man also had free camel riding. The food was amazing lots to pick from you get a starter and a main BBQ what was so yummy then some fruite and buns I had such an amazing night and all this was one set price £45 including hotel pic up I would highly highly recomend this if you are going to Dubai. 

Day 1 in Dubai

So I arrived in Dubai and the airport is huge I had to get 3 walking escalator thigs 1 lift and a train all just to get my lugage. I got a taxi to my hotel and checked in and got freshened up and then went over to my friends apartment hotel (Sophie and Luke I posted there blog the other month) and we chilled around the pool till around 3 and then got showered and changed and ready to get the metro to the burj Khalifa we managed to get there just on time for 5pm as it was a long a very long walk using the walking escalators to the Dubai mall and to the entrance to go to the top. We picked that time and I would recomend that time as you can get to see the whole of Dubai in free stages day light, dusk/ sun set and night time as you can stay up there as long as you like but do take a bottle of water! 

We then went and got a coffe (very exspensive lol) and waited for our time slot to go on the lake ride to see the musical fauntins we got such a close up view I would highly recomend it when it's only around £11 anyway you get a much better view and experience. When then went around the Dubai mall a quick look as you could spend a month in there no joke lol and then back I was extremely tired when writing this as why it's very quick I will do some better ones and more detail about things at a later date but I had been traveling all day and then sight seeing.

The view from the burj at sunset.