I'll start from where the last blog post left off, catching a sleeper bus to Bangkok from Ranong. This bus had massaging seats! We arrived at Bangkok at 5am, caught a ride with the only taxi-shark lurking at that time, and headed for the train station. Luckily, or so we thought, we were able to catch an 8 am train to Chiang Mai. Things went well for about 8 hours. Then the train broke down. After that, the replacement bus broke down. I was dissappointed with the train breakdown, a nice way to travel afterall, but when the bus broke down? After 20+ hours of traveling? We didnt care; we lingered a little longer as travel zombies, arriving in Chiang Mai around 11pm, awakening from the travel coma to a unique city.
Bangkok is not an ancient capital city, you need to visit CM to get that flavor of Thai culture. And since this is Thailand, it is of course a very strong flavor - around every corner in the central old city of CM there is another temple, another stupa, another huge Buddha.
We booked our tickets for Nepal and headed back to Bangkok, stopping at the ancient capital city of Sukhothai. Now in ruins, 45 sq km worth, this was a highlight of our trip. Much, much quieter than CM, this was a very enjoyable stop before arriving back in Bangkok.
We visited a private hospital so Chris could have a full check-up and ultrasound. The baby was crouching, so the sex will remain a surprise! Aside from some crippling pickle cravings, Chris is doing fine travelling while pregnant, at least from my perspective. I know it isnt easy for her!

We've just had 3 days of sight seeing here and are leaving in a few hours for Nepal. I'm looking forward to some cooler weather, after a few weeks of tropical heat with no ocean relief, this will be a nice change.

Just around another corner in Chiang Mai.

 Shopping for the baby in Chiang Mai, pure joy.

 Sukhothai. Surprisingly, very few tourists! 13-14th century ruins.