A shitty end to a great week

We'd just like everyone to know that this is the third time we have typed the following...
After we reluctantly left Kanchinaburi we caught an overnight train to Chiang Mai. Because we had both had such a good night sleep on the overnight bus from Krabi, we decided to save some money and get seats instead of sleepers (much to the disbelief of everyone, Thais and fellow backpackers alike).
On the train we met Karen, Shane and Louisa, three very cool people who we ended up spending the next coule of days with.
On arrival in Chiang Mai we were confronted by the owner of Chiang Mai Guesthouse, who said she had rooms for 100B. We had heard the cheaper gueshouses in CM make their money from booking tours and treks so we asked her if we would be hassled to book a tour, to which she replied "no". After checking in we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the town and visiting the famous night markets. (Pictured is the ruins of a chedi in Chiang Mai, which was damaged by an earthquake in the 1500s.)
The next morning the two of us and Karen were waiting out the front of our guesthouse for the other two. The five of us had planned to spend the day at a nearby national park, which we were travelling to by puiblic bus. As we were waiting, the guesthouse owner rocked up with a new bus load of guests and saw us sitting there. She started accusing us of going on a tour with another company. We had already paid for the next night's accommodation and she tried to give us our money back, saying "you tour with them, you stay with them". We told her we were mearly waiting for our friends and she said "I know what you're doing, you're waiting for them to pick you us in a mini bus (the transport for tours) and then you go on tour with them". In unison the three of us yelled "WE'RE NOT GOING ON A TOUR". And she backed off and rode off on her motor bike. A short time later she came back, all appologetic (we found out later that she had riden past our friends, who were coming to meet us and were quite obviously not on a tour).
The national park we vistited is called Doi Inthanon and it includes the highest peak in Thailand. We chartered a truck to drive us to the peak and some other attractions as it was way too far to walk in a day. The peak is about 300m higher than Kosciuszko and WAY different. It has the thin, cool mountain air that was wonderful after a couple of weeks of thick, hot humidity. Unlike Australia, Thailand doesn't seem to have a treeline and the peak is covered by thick, lush vegetation, so much so that there is no view from the top. Over sites we visited in the park were some waterfalls and the King and Queen's Chedi's, temple things that were built for their highness' 60th birthdays. The chedis were surrounded by beautiful flowering gardens and man made waterfalls.
That night the five of us had a 500 tournament that lasted many big Beer Changs and three venues, which kept shutting on us during a marathon third game that ended in a draw after the third venue closed. Shane and Lousia walked us home and when we arrived at our guesthouse they needed to go to the toilet (Chang does that to you). So we let them in. In keeping with the warm and welcoming atmosphere at Chaing Mai Guesthouse, a guy who was sleeping downstairs, on guard duty we guess, woke up and had a go at us for letting them in. When we asked what was wrong with them going to the toilet, he said it would wake the guests up (he YELLED this as he SLAMMED open the metal gate, ordering them to leave).
Needless to say, we were quite happy to be leaving Chaing Mai the next day (although we had enjoyed our time there). We caught a bus to Pai, a town about 130km north west. The 130km takes about four hours by bus along narrow, windy and steep hills, actually a lovely scenic drive. Most busses in Thailand have Buddhist flower offerings on the dashboards and on this occassion our driver had rosary beads too - considering the way Thai drivers seem to loosly interperate road rules and have no qualms about overtaking on blind corners, we were glad to see he was covering all spiritual bases.
Pai is VERY touristy. We reckon on any one day 90 per cent of people there are backpackers, but it is lovely all the same. The thing to do in Pai is hire motorbikes and ride to nearby waterfalls and hot springs, so that's what we did. The motorbikes were only 100cc and had a top speed of about 80km/h. We hired a motorbike each, which we reckon made them the only two bikes in Thailand with only one person on them, the most we've seen so far is four. We also must have been in the minority wearing helmets. We hired the bikes for two days and had a great time crusing around. One of the highlights was a waterfall that passed over a smooth, slippery rock surface into a sandy pool, making a great natural waterslide that Carolyn ripped the bottom of her pants out on.
On two of our nights in Pai Niels played with a local jazz/blues band at a bar called the Bebop (pictured). The other sax player asked Niels for a lesson and Niels is playing a gig with him in Chiang Mai tonight.
The rest of our time in Pai was spent lazing around, reading, wandering around the town, eating pancakes, oh and riding elephants! On Niels' birthday we went for an elephant ride. From most pictures we've seen of elephant rides, people sit on chair things on their backs - none of that for us! We went bare back! (Very sore the next day) The elephant ride reminded us of a horse trail ride, but with less control. For example, when a horse decides to try and eat some grass at the side of the road you can generally pull its head up, but when an elephant decides to tear a whole tree out with its trunk, you've just got to let it do it (the guides yelled at them a bit, but, really, how much can you do?) The highlight of the ride (apart from watching a pair of poms getting continually sprayed by elephant snot) was at the end, when we got to take them for a bath in the river. It is so cute to see them totally submerge themselves in the water, with just the trunk, and maybe an eye, poking out. They are also trained to shake the tourists off their backs and into the water, which was heaps of fun, until Niels swallowed some of the water, which led to a shitty end to our time in Pai, in the literal sense of the term.
So now we're back in Chaing Mai. Niels is playing tonight in the street, then in a club (we think), then tomorrow we head north towards the Laos border.