It's been a while since I wrote in my travel log, but that's because I haven't done a whole lot in the last few days.

I was pretty excited as my bus drove into Chiang Mai, because I've been there before, and I know the city reasonably well. After travelling through places where I generally had no idea where I was, this gave me a lot of confidence.

The bus arrived at the bus station at around 9pm, and I got a tuk-tuk from the bus station into the Tha Phae Gate area just outside the walls of the old city. This is where the Happy Guest House is.. or rather was. I figured out that it was no more after searching for about half an hour. Once I realised this, I walked to a restaurant called Aroon Rai, which I ate at several times last time I was in Chiang Mai. It was here that I started to realise how many westerners were in Chiang Mai. After consulting my guide book, I decided to try for the Fang Guest House, which is where I ended up staying for the next three nights.

The next day I didn't really do much. I spent four and a half hours at an Internet cafe fixing up my website and uploading photographs. I was there so long that the owner gave me free water - I think she was worried I would develop deep vein thrombosis from sitting so long. She also gave me a discount of 30 baht when I eventually left. After I left the Internet cafe, I got some food and wandered around a bit, despairing at the number of farangs (westerners) there. It was really depressing to learn that I was just another bloody tourist.

On my second full day I got in contact by email with some friends that I made in Chiang Mai the last time I was here - Mamiaw, Kae and Ball. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to or not, because I hadn't maintained regular contact with them since my last visit, but true to the Thai reputation of being hospitable to visitors, they were glad to hear from me. Last time I was in Chiang Mai, all three of them were studying at Payap University. Mamiaw and Ball lived together in a student area near the University, and Kae lived in the old city. Since then, Kae has left Uni, married and has a 3 month old baby. Mamiaw still lives in the same area, but Ball now lives with his two brothers who have come to Chiang Mai from Ubon Ratchathani.

Mamiaw and Ball took me (by motorcycle) to visit Kae, who now lives out of town on a farm with her husband, mother and grandfather. Two of Ball's friends also came with us. Kae's house is one of the traditional style teak houses on stilts, like the guest house I stayed in in Sukhothai. I have to admit that these buildings are very comfortable, even in hot weather, despite the fact that they do not have aircon, and are usually fully open to the outside. There were several other smaller teak buildings around the main house, but I'm not sure what they were for.

Within minutes after we arrived, Kae's naked baby was thrust into my arms. Her name is "Im". That's the Thai word for "full" - if you've eaten too much you might say "Im laew" which means "full already". Thai's usually have two names, their nick name and their real name. Mamiaw, Kae and Ball are my friend's nick names. Im is Kae's baby's nick name. Sometimes Thai nick-names are chosen arbitrarily. For example, when I did a Thai language short course in Australia, the teacher's nick name was "Dtoo" which means "cupboard". My teacher told us that her sister's nick-name was "bed". I guess her mother wasn't too imaginative.

After we went inside, Kae's mother brought us all water to drink, and then kanom (desert) of a cooked maphow and coconut from the palm trees growing outside. It was pretty tasty. Mamiaw and Ball hadn't seen Kae for a couple of months, so they had a lot of catching up to do. I mostly just listened, and tried to keep up with what they were talking about based on the occasional Thai word that I could understand.

Kae has put on weight since last time I saw her. Mamiaw told Kae that she was "uan" (fat) which was a bit surprising to my Western sensibilities, but Thai's see fat (within reason) as being a good thing. It's an indication of prosperity and health. After telling Kae that she was fat, Mamiaw and Kae both turned to me and told me I was fat too, to which I protested "mai uan! mai uan!", but they assured me it was a good thing. They said that last time I was in Chiang Mai they thought I was too skinny. Maybe I should cut down on the fried rice.

Today I left Chiang Mai, and took a nightmarish bus ride to Chiang Rai. It's only 180 kilometres, but the trip takes about 3.5 hours due to the mountainous and windy route. On some uphill slopes the bus slowed to less than walking pace. I felt sick most of the way there, and by the time we entered the outskirts of Chiang Rai, my arms were tingling, which I know from experience means I was nearly blacking out. I passed out gently a few times - so gently that I wasn't sure if I was fainting or going to sleep. Once I arrived at the Chiang Rai bus station, I staggered off the bus and layed down on a seat for about 15 minutes. I got a room at the Mae Hong Song Guest House of Chiang Rai, where I went to sleep for the rest of the afternoon.

My room here in Chiang Rai is the cheapest I've had yet - 100 baht, about $AUD4.54, per night. They had a smaller room for 75 baht, but I figured I'd splash out and get the big one. I'm yet to work out what I'm going to do in this part of Thailand, but I'll read my guide book now and find out what's available.