My last day in Chiang Mai I chilled. Uploaded some pictures, sent some postcards (any arrive yet?), worked out when the buses were. Couple of beers and a movie and an early night. Unfortunately a local bar had there 'open mike' night and I was kept up a few more hours than I wanted.

Following day I'm up early and out to the bus station, only to buy a ticket for a private bus that left at 12 and not a government bus that left at 11. I had a drink (lemon juice) in a 'tropical' themed bar whilst reading the paper and watching 'Murder She Wrote'.

Near 12 I head for the bus. Although looking rather worn, it was probably on a par with national express (although this had a TV and VCD player!) The curtains were shut for the first part of the journey as it was blisteringly hot. They put on a Thai comedy parody of the weakest link so I put on my mp3 player and got comfy. They put on the 'Italian Job' (new one) after, all the trailers were in English, but no, the film was dubbed not subtitled. I watched it anyway.

The scenery as I peeked out behind the curtais was amazing. The steep hills and valleys covered in trees and bushes seemed from another time. These gradually gave way to the well-watered rice paddies of the central plains.

Just after 6:30 we arrived in Phitsanulok. I thought the hotel was close by but I'd misread the map (City Bus Centre is NOT the Central Bus Station). An old spindly looking fellow with a bicycle rickshaw was desparate for my money and although I didn't want to overexert him (me being a big fella and carrying a big rucksack), he was the only transport around so I jumped in. The poor old sod struggled through the streets at a very slow rate, being overtaken by everyone. He eventually deposited me outside the hotel (and demanded more money for it was '4km'. He didn't get it it was only 1km!).

As usual the reception area looked very nice (although it did have a strange smell), and the room I was shown was tatty but clean and cheap enough. So I took it, dumped my stuff and headed out.