Before I start talking about just how much I loved Chiang Mai, both the city and the province itself, I think I should share about my trip there. I had flown in BKK because it was significantly cheaper from the Philippines and I had heard that the bus to Chiang Mai is fairly cheap. I took one of the government buses and I was the only person on the bus who was not Thai and at the same time the only person who spoke English (which was more of a problem). The bus had a stewardess, a middle-aged Thai woman dressed in turquoise and wearing a turquoise cowboy-hat who spoke less English than someone working for the Deutsche Bahn. Long story short, my backpack and I made it to Chiang Mai after spending 10 hours on a bus not quite sure whether it was really going the right direction. After a lovely Chicken Penaeng Curry (Yellow Curry with a very peanut-y taste) for dinner, I went to an internet café to find out where Martina, Gergana and Nora were staying. Turns out they were staying nowhere, but still on the 17-hr bus from Laos to Chiang Mai. Luckily, I had already met a French girl who currently volunteering in the Philippines on my flight to Thailand, so the next day, Eve, ‘her English’ (as she lovingly called her occasional inability to communicate herself), me and a map set out to wander through the old of Chiang Mai. After a delicious breakfast in a little artsy café we saw many monks, temples, tourists, massage parlors, restaurants and gardens. At night, Martina, Gery and Nora arrived and we decided on giving Chiang Mai’s night life a shot. Unfortunately, the mix of drunken tourists and ladyboys was not so much to our liking.