I'm emotionally drained from my life improvement programme (and drinking until 3am with a friend from back home). Funny how its takes going into therapy to make you realise how screwed up you are!
Anyway Chiang Mai is very nice - a bit like Edinburgh to Bangkok's London - and the press trip people have been spoiling me (inbetween ravaging my soul and playing chess with my innermost demons). I've had a tour of their other three partner hotels, a hot oil massage from a very small but freakishly strong and somewhat sadistic woman, and high tea!
Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Man City owner, is from Chiang Mai and is still quite popular here. He is generally seen as a bit of a scoundral but reveered as a great intellect. A lot of the Thais up here would like him back as prime minister. However, he is nowhere near as popular as the king. People wear 'I love the king' wrist bands, there are picture of him on every corner. Mention his name to a Thai guy and he suddenly appears like a love-sick teenager... 'We have such a wonnderful king,' he'll say, smiling away to himself. Did you know he invented a kind of fake rain that single-handedly saved Thailand's rice farms. I'm a little sketchy on the details but you understand he is a modern day Da Vinci and apparently a hell of a trumpet player to boot. There are rumours that Thaksin, the old devil, was trying to dilute the king's powers when he was in charge and this - as opposed to the corruption - is pretty much seen as his only fault in Chiang Mai (not in Bangkok, there they hate him). The dark cloud on the horizon is that the prince and rightful heir to the throne is not as popular to say the least, the Thais say he is cruel, a womaniser, and has several illegitimate children in the US and UK. Now I've been told this in confidence so don't tell anyone else but apparently there's naked photos of the prince's latest wife on the internet. Fortunately we don't think the king knows about them, but it's a worry.
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