As of yesterday, I am back travelling solo so to get away from the city life and the stress of the rabies incident (by stress, I mean having to fork out excessive money for a few jabs that will apparently "save my life"...pfft...), I decided to seek out the nearest public pool and spend the day soaking up some Thai rays. This was when I discovered one of the hardest struggles of travelling alone and that is applying suncream to your own back... Having not managed to find a solution to this issue, I spent the day lying on my back, accepting that I would have to deal with the awful tan lines that would later be heading my way. It was such a relief to be able to finally cool off in some other way than a cold shower in a grubby hostel! I went all out and got myself an ice cream too, which cost me a measly 45p and tasted like heaven.

In the evening, I stopped for dinner at the same restaurant I had eaten at the night before and stuffed my face with yet another over-sized portion of Pad Thai. Whilst eating, a local man serenaded the customers with the well-known song "waverdie", which just happened to be to the same melody and rhythm as "Valerie"...

Walking back to the hostel, full to the brim, I witnessed the scariest site of all; scarier than a 2-year-old on the back of an 80mph motorbike and even scarier than the vicious stray dogs. It was a stumbling middle ages British man, lady-boy on each arm, being dragged to a cash machine and forced to get money out... Welcome to Thailand.

I am so eager to get to Pai now that I am disappointed to say that I am still sat in the Chiang Mai hostel, with no spaces on the bus until tomorrow morning. Although, on the bright side, I've now had all my required rabies jabs and have moved to a hostel which not only has a pool but a few other guests as well (which is more that can be said about my previous pad).

Aim of the evening: to try sticky rice and mango for pudding!