Chaing Mai, Northern Thailand

This is a place I find hard to leave, the food is fantastic, there's plenty to do and the climate is perfect. But time is finite and we're catching the sleeper back to Bangkok this afternoon. Been jungle trekking, where we had a social with the varied travelling types of assorted Western nations. And climbing at Crazy Horse where I finally achieved a long-held ambition to climb Blood, Love, and Steel (6c+/5.11c, 27m), which has a technical first half, a sketchy crux, then a steep haul to enter an easier 15m tube-like feature followed by some very steep jug pulling to finish. It's been bugging me for the 3 years since I was last here, when sticky heat added to the difficulty and I fell off the crux half-a-dozen times. This time I wasn't sure if I'd be going well enough, but it had to be tried and now it's in the bag, first time too. Relief.

Phase I complete. Or will be when we wake up in Bangkok. Incidentally, the trains are cheap and efficient: the sleeper train journey is clean, comfortable and pleasant (if a little slow and punctuated by stops - there's only one line) and costs only around 20-35 pounds return (Postscript: pay the higher fare ane avoid a potential bedbug incident); and from Bangkok we took a train to the old capital city of Ayatuyya, a 30km journey, for 15p. We also went on a trip from Bangkok to the River Kwai and travelled on the 'Death Railway' - well, you have it to do.

On the public transport theme, in Bangkok it's easily possible to use five different modes of transport in a day, e.g. bus, tuk-tuk, river ferry, underground and Skytrain, for example. The bus system is especially baffling, but practicable if you procure the right map. Everyone drives as if they own the road. Literally.

Phase II will be a return trip to Cat Ba island in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam (where, incidentally, there is plenty of climbing, canoeing, mountainbiking and hiking) via Bangkok and a flight to Hanoi. Phase III will be a flight from BKK to Phuket on Dec 22, and a poke about the southern Andaman coast. There will follow Phase IV and V, one of which will involve a hop from Malaysia to Sumatra and back, and the other will be climbing at Krabi.

Next door to the Internet cafe from which I write there is a TV repair shop - you don't see many of them back home. Other signs of a totally different economy: gasoline is 50p/L, Internet is 20p per hour, a decent meal for two with beers costs about 3-6 quid, and a clean, double ensuite room with a balcony is 8 quid/night. You can easily grow to like it here. We'll see how Vietnam compares - expecting scamming and hawking for sure.

Most shops, cafes and bars are open to the elements here, and you wonder how they cope with the torrential rain that must come at other times of year...