Ah, finally I made it to Chiang Mai, after over 30 hours awake, about 20 of which were taken up in travelling from Kathmandu to New Delhi to Bangkok to Chiang Mai. But it was worth it and even if I am in this so-so place in the city at least it has a little, clean pool and I've already chatted up some people. The most exciting thing, and funny now that I've survived it, was that I thought I was so good at driving a motorscooter, after all of those years in Italy, that I rented one of their motorbikes. This turned out to ba a MUCH LARGER VERSION, with the gears managed by your left foot (1, 2 , 3, 4, N) and the brake with your right and so on and it was a miracle I made it back to the Hotel! I had a helmet and all of the Thai drivers were very patient and never honked once at me, but they drive on the wrong side of the road and I was too afraid to cross the busy streets so I kept driving in circles to my left, my left, my left... despairing of ever finding the hotel again and being far too concentrated on my driving to see a damn thing: marvelous temples whizzed by, monastaries came and went, canals and fountains passed unheeded. I almost gave up and was going to ask a rickshaw driver to guide me back but I stuck with it and eventually, a miraculously, ended up back at the Lai-Thai Guest House, on a very busy thouroughfare and handed the motorscooter guy the keys and the helmet! he grinned but I think he was rather surprised that I did as well as I did and brought it back in one piece! but I will try again in the next few days perhaps when I want to go outside of Chiang Mai to explore in the hills. It's hot here but not terribly so and after Nepal it feels wonderful. I've ordered some Thai whiskey, to mix with lemon soda, and it's horrible, and some fried prawns, Thai style. When I asked him if it was like Goong Saroong he looked at me as if i was speaking Greek so I desisted and reverted to "fried prawns please". I think this is men's paradise: it is full of "western" men wandering around that probably haven't been very successful in finding a mate in the States... but there are also many couples, obviously retired, wandering around, as well as young people. I can't wait to explore tomorrow and get some photos...