Bngkok to Chiang Mai

I won't mention owt about Ayuthia - we had a very nice time there, but I think the photos will do (When I get those up).  From there we caught a bus at 8 ('turn up at 7.30 please' bus actually scheduled for 8.30, arrived at 9) to Chiang Mai because the train lines were down as a result of protests in Bangkok.  This wasl es than ideal but at least cheap at 500 baht.  At about 1am we stopped for a break - and to use the loo (although there wa sone on the bus it didn't have running water, so there was a big tank of water next to it to flush it with, and the door didn't close so you had to hold it shut). Another hour of fast driving on and the bus started t o stutter - not a good sign.  From 2am until when we eventually arrived in Chiang Mai at 10.30 (supposed to be 7.30) the bus was going at most at 2mph.  The last 80km was done in taxis.  On our eventual arrival we caught a tuktuk from the guesthouse the taxi had dumped us at to Julie's guesthouse (recommended by lonely planet) and managed to check in.  VEry nice place, only a fan but that's all you need, and 220 baht ($7ish) for the room.  Night market here is fantastic - and as we're slightly worried about money (don't want to get more baht) as we overspent on some meals (lonely planet lied about cost of a dish) we imagine we'll eat there some more from now on!

Yesterday we went on a 1 day trek for 1100 baht (almost $40) which was expensive but included a trek to waterfall (verrryyy nice) to swim in (nicer), an elephant ride (surprisingly fun), white water rafting (too short but very good), and bamboo rafting (bamboo canes tied together...these do not take our weight well and the raft was near the river bed at some points with our knees below water standing up, but never mind.  The low point was a trip to a 'mountain village' which was the most pointless 'hey, you go spend money on these tourist stalls' trip ever.  The village didn't even have a good view really!  So, now we have a few more days in Chiang Mai in which to relax, maybe have a Thai Massage, buy our last bits at the markets before heading (by train this time) back to BAngkok for our flights.