After all that exercise and sleeping on hard floors, what better way to ease the muscles than with a massage. So, on getting back to Chang Mai we headed to a place we’d found near to our hotel that did 60 minutes for a bit less than £7. They are massage mad in Chang Mai with many roads having at least one and sometimes having half a dozen in a row vying for trade. We pretty much had one every day and we could always tell how good they were by the level of Fran’s screams as a muscle was aggressively pummelled. These screams were usually met with un-sympathetic giggles from the masseuse. Regardless of the pain, it’s a great way to end a busy week!!

So, whilst Fran loves Yoga, Stuart is bit reluctant to engage in something that doesn’t have a winner and a loser. However, Stuart finally found his inner calm this week, with Yoga in the Park. It’s a great initiative where every morning at 09:00 a Yogi gives free sessions to anyone cares to turn up. The flexibly challenged lie next to those who can go from a Crow to a handstand with ease. A slight breeze blows droplets from a sprinkler over the assembled and the noise of the city is screened by a gentle wall of birdsong…..who wouldn’t be able to find peace in this environment. It didn’t stop Stuart bragging about his ability to perform the harder positions but from little acorns 😊

So from the serenity of the yoga, we found ourselves immersed in the aggression of Muaythai. A very traditional form of martial arts that we more familiarly call Thai Boxing. Despite Fran being a bit concerned she’d find the whole thing repulsive, we thoroughly enjoyed the evening. We even tried betting with the local tout, but you could only bet against the tout’s chosen fighter and as we always seemed able to correctly identify who was going to win, we could never get anyone to take our money. Not so for the German man behind us who lost time after time until we suggested to him that the outcome may already be known.  

It was Christmas this week and whilst we were sad to be so far from our family we were going to try and make the best of it. Initially we considered just ignoring it, something not hard to do here, but then decided to go the whole hog and try to find somewhere that did a full Christmas dinner. Unsurprisingly therefore we found ourselves in an American bar called Dukes, which served a full five course meal and we even splashed out on a bottle of wine, our first of the trip. The meal was great but let itself down entirely by swapping roasts for mash potato, something which even now one of us is still complaining about.

The highlight of the meal was meeting Hannah and James, a young couple from the UK who were unfortunate enough to sit next to us. They were indicative of so many of the people we have met on this trip, young, energetic, intelligent and just fun to be with. Most are at a crossroads in their lives and are a bit lost as to where they are going, but five minutes with them and you know they’ll work it out one day. At the end of the meal, they suggested that we go to the Red Lion pub (yes really) and so after first dialling home, we met them again and talked late into the night. Whilst the video calls home were hard, everyone seemed to be having a great time and the benefits that modern technology brings mean you’re never truly apart.