Sleepless Nights

We spent the day in Siam on Monday, the metropolis of Bangkok, more designer shops than you can imagine (you would LOVE it Dee) ! We had a "fat burning" shake in the Paragon (see picture)after having had a Starbucks (yes very Thai we know). Having arrived at around 19.00 in Ayuthaya on Monday we made our way straight to the guesthouse, which was recommended by the Lonely Planet. We had to take a boat to the main island and when we pitched up, it looked really nice from the outside. But.......when we were shown the room it was a bit of a different story....you couldnt swing a kitten in it and it was like a sauna as there was no air conditioning. Also no mosquito net. So we consequently spent our night in terror that some massive beastie was going to kill us or at the very least crawl in our ears or something. I then told Silvia someone could break in with the rubbish lock we had and that was the end of that. No sleep was had by us both. We promptly bought our own mosquito net the following day :) The hostel did have a lovely terrace though, where we shared our dinner table with some very friendly lizards on the night of arrival.The temples at Ayuthaya were

amazing however (see pictures) and the sun was shining all day :) We took tuk tuk's to get around and wrote some postcards in between. After the temples we made our way to the train station to catch our train to Chaing Mai, the Thai "national treasure" and "symbol of nationhood". When we got on the train we were served by the most hilarious ladyboy ever - he was lovely! He told us "I want your happiness!", so he gave us two Singa beers and we were indeeed very happy :) We shared the cabin with another 30 people, so another sleepless night ensued - because apart from all the people, the noise from our rickety train was unreal - and this was first class! It was amazing to watch some of the families, and see that this was a big occassion for them to be on the train, the ladies were putting on their makeup and doing their hair, and us, well we looked exactly the opposite...... Anyway, the best thing had to be the breakfast in the morning, our little guy brought us sandwiches, french fries and pineapple - wierd combo, but strangely, very nice!! We arrived in Chiang Mai at 7.30 and went to the guesthouse which has been a welcome surprise. The lady at the desk is mental and has been talking to us all day, she's like our mum or something, she has arranged trips for us and massages (which we have just had by the way - looooovely) , she is laughing all the time. In fact, all Thai people laugh and smile all the time, they are the happiest people we have ever met - must be the Buddism or something......So hopefully tonight will not be another nuit blanche for us :P

P.S. Amy lost her credit cards... would you believe it??? After a moment of panic, they were found in the thai massage place, and the girl took them back ... pfiu!!!!!!!!!!! Ah, also to be mentioned that the hairdryer was finally found and tonight we could finally look nice!!!! (speak for yourself Silvia), we went for a beer ... many actually ...in a MEXICAN restaurant!!!! hihihi and then to the only rock bar in Chiang Mai, the only one without prostitutes!!!!!!!!! Though we think many people thought we were as we were sitting outside like the rest of them :(

In realta', ci stiamo divertendo un sacco, davvero. Forse stasera riusciremo ad avere la prima notte di sonno decente da quando siamo partite, domani ci aspetta una lezione di cucina thailandese e poi un altra sessione di massaggio... stavolta piedi e testa!!! Torniamo come nuove!!! Venerdi si parte per il Laos, in autobus e in barca, speriamo di non perderci!!!