First days in Asia

We left on Saturday on a Qatar airways flight from Edinburgh, the first leg into Doha in Qatar was ok, plenty legroom and a few drams to keep me happy, even the food was ok. One thing that did worry me briefly was the route of the plane, it skirted by the Ukraine, Syria and only briefly passed Iraq, it was strange to see the plane passing areas who's names have become synonymous with horror and war, it does make you realise how much strife is going on literally on our doorstep.
After the change in Doha the plane was busier and the cabin crew although small and petite seemed to have the grace of an elephant and the voice of a sergeant major hence no sleep, we were also near one of the toilets so the area behind my seat became a place for people to chat throughout the night, luckily because i have great diplomatic skills i was able to let one particular Arab gentleman that I was displeased with his talking whilst I was trying in vain to sleep, it was quieter after that.
So after no sleep we then had a speed walk for around 2 km around Bangkok   International airport to get our third and final flight into Chiang Mai. Its no wonder I prefer to ride my bike across continents rather than fly.
A taxi from the Airport into our Guest house where we were greeted and shown our room, we immediately crashed out for 3 hours before freshening up and going for a wander. The streets were buzzing, Sunday night being market night, a invasion on our senses a step to far after the previous 24 hours and the step change from life back in blighty. We found a bar restaurant and were amazed at the prices, my Green Thai curry and rice was 100 Baht the equivalent of 2 pounds, Fionas meal was a similar price, the resultant bill of almost 30 quid tells its story, as I always say when asked about travel costs it depends on how much you drink, story told.
Today we've been getting acclimatised to the heat and I've also been a mobile bloodbank for the mozzies, so far their winning. We've  been down to Tony's big bikes to say hello and gleaned lots of useful for our tour
We pick the bikes up Wednesday morning then the fun really begins.

Apologise for the picture size and the text at the bottom but its proving a right pain using the ipad to Blog

Our B&B for a couple of days

 

Bamboo scaffolding

Very colourful

bought a cheap mobile for emergencies and translation was problem 1, Fi fixed it

Night market, Chiang Mai

Free entertainment