Well we made it. - By Andrew Day

After a very hectic day we made it back to our hotel just before 5pm. Today was the day of the wild animal adventure.

We decided earlier this week then when we had the chance we would go on a safari. It started early this morning (about 9am) with an hours drive north of the city to the camp. When we arrived it seems that an open ivertation had been sent to every tourist in Thailand, the place was packed. But our little group of 7, 2 Brits, 1 German1 American living in Paris and 3 French set off. We headed straight for the ox cart rides. It was great I think who ever invented the wheel should come to Chaing Mai and tell them that wheels are round not a funny square shape. We dump our way up the hills and down the valleys to a little village. The ride was good but, but the leg room was poor, maybe in years gone by people had smaller legs. In the village we and many more people walked past the stalls they had set up just saying "no thanks not today, maybe later or in Andy's case, I'm a diabetic". After a short wait we heard the sound of elephants coming through the trees and in all there glory they had come to save us from the savage locals and their cheap nik naks. We climbed aboard with only one small incident involving a sharp spike and my backside. Our elephant was called memo or meeemooo. The trustee stead took us through the woods, down a very sharpe bank and it to the river where he had a great time spraying water everywhere. Riding an elephant is actually really smooth and we had a great laugh. When we arrived back at camp it was time to eat and as we were really hungary we made the most of the all you could eat buffet (believe me when I say we ate enough for 3 if not more). After lunch the natives were stiring and we made a hastey retret to the river. Again luckly there was a bamboo raft which we jumped onto to sail down the river. What fun prentending to be Hucklebury Finn and Tom Sayer. The scernery was outstanding and as luck would have it there was a man in a boat selling cans for 20 baht apiece. When we found a decent docking point we headed for land. After such an exciting time we were glad to be back in the mini bus which then took us to an orchid farm, should have been good, but can you really spend 2 hours looking at some orchids and the patch wasn't really very large, bout the size of an average garden. The driver then said he would take us to see where they make paper ftom elephant poo, interesting!!!, it just needs a lot of soaking and pushing though a sieve.

What a day no wonder my spelling is all over the place i'm dog tired.

Almost forgot, their was an elephant show as well but that sort of spoils the story.

Love to all reading, it the next time xx