Well, its been a busy few days here in Chiang Mai so I'm afraid I'm just going to have to go right back to where I left off and start from there!! The night before we went off on our trek we went to the night markets. They're very similar to many of the other markets we've been to in Thailand, but they were still very cool. Not quite as near to the hostel as we'd been promised though! Decided not to stay out too late as we wanted to make sure we were on top form for the next day! Sadly, this didn't go quite to plan as I didn't sleep very well and woke up feeling distinctly groggy, and trekking through the jungle was pretty much the last thing I felt like doing. Bit late to back out by then though so off we went! First stop was a local market, where we spent the grand sum of 50 baht (about 70p) on very sexy across the shoulder water holders - they may not have looked cool but these things turned out to be a godsend! Another couple of hours in the back of the cattle truck and we reached the first of the hill tribe villages - starting point for the trek. We had lunch there, feeling as much like the exhibits in a human zoo as the spectators, and then we were off. And straight away, the trek was tough. The first 20 minute or so was a solid, steep, downhill clamber. Within just a few steps my shoes were caked in mud and every step was perilous! I was very glad of my faithful hiking boots at that point, three of the girls on the trek didn't have trainers so had bought them at the market.....needless to say the grip on them wasn't brilliant! No sooner did the downhill even out to flat, it started back up the other way, and that was pretty much it for the next 3 hours - intense uphill climbs followed by frightening downhill slides! It was severely hard work, my legs were screaming on the way up and wobbling like jelly on the way down! But the brief moments of achievement felt every time we reached the top of a hill or stopped for a breather were worth it, and we managed to keep smiling the whole way.....just! The same girls without shoes had just got off the night bus that same morning, and unsurprisingly were feeling it a lot more than us - whoever booked them on that combo should be shot!! The main prize (and the thing that kept us going) was to be our arrival at the waterfall camp, where we could swim and where we could camp if we wanted. However, when we got there it turned out to be a bit of an anticlimax - I don't know if we've just seen one too many pretty waterfalls but this one just did not meet the grade! It involved a life threatening scramble to reach it, and when you did it was shallow, freezing and kinda grubby! But no where near as grubby as we were, covered in bug spray, sun lotion, sweat and half a forest of dirt, so of course we jumped straight in! I did feel better after that, but the feeling didn't last that long - the waterfall camp wasn't that nice so we decided to carry on for another hour (what were we thinking?!?) to reach the elephant camp, and therefore not have much walking to do the next day. I thought this final stretch was going to be the death of me, it was a very hard climb up, and on the way down it started to rain, so every step was more dangerous than the last! But, finally, about 6pm and after 4 solid hours of walking, we arrived. And it was worth it, the elephant camp was beautiful. Perched on the top of a hill, in the middle of a rainforest surrounded by lush greenery and valleys were half a dozen bamboo huts, our home for the night. Nothing has ever looked so welcoming! And we finally got a chance to appreciate the scenery - you're so busy watching your step on the trek you don't get much of a chance to look around! The elephants had gone for the night (they're free to wander off) but we were promised they'd be back for the morning. Much to our relief, we were not expected to do anything more that evening, dinner (which was delicious, and to our great relief, plentiful) was provided for us, as was a fire to keep the mozzies away. So we all ended up sitting around the fire with our 2 guides (Tom and Speedy Gonzalez) chatting, singing (!) and learning the finer points of opium smoking - don't worry Daddy, not for us!! Unsurprisingly, after all that we were pretty exhausted, so it wasn't a late night. Bed was a fairly open bamboo hut and a few blankets...not the comfiest! A huge spider was removed for us (thankfully before I saw it) but I still saw a mouse and a few chickens came wandering in. And best of all was when I woke up at 7am thinking my head felt a bit itchy to find a nice long line of ants crawling up over my pillow and into my hair......lovely. We were able to have a leisurely morning as we'd walked so much the day before, so we got up about half 8, to one of the most incredible sights of the trip so far - brushing my teeth at the top of a hill in the middle of a rainforest, looking down at 4 (and a half!) elephants milling around in the stream at the bottom of the slope. Breathtaking - the general misty air of the morning just added to the atmosphere! While we had our breakfast the elephant keepers went down to give the Nellies their bath, which really was a sight to behold. Particulary the baby, who was quite possibly the most adorable thing I've ever seen. If they could just invent an elephant that stayed that size I'd have to have one! So after breakfast it was time for more trekking - but this time it was the elephants doing all the work, we just had to sit there and keep our balance! Sarah and I got on Kappian, and despite a strong start at the front seemed to end up right at the back at every moment after that! We set off, the 7 of us spread over 4 elephants, with 4 of the elephant keepers and the baby to keep us company. We trekked for about an hour and a half and it was brilliant. Not the comfiest - the seats and pretty hard and the elephants have a distinctly lurching gait, but it was so worth it! We got a couple of good photos, so I'll be sure to try and get those on the site when I can! After the elephant trek we had another half hour walk (this time mostly flat - phew!) to another hill tribe, where we were picked up and driven to our bamboo rafting start point. I had in mind (and I wasn't alone!) that this would be a nice relaxing float down the river to recover from the trek - not so. The bamboo rafts sit half under the water, so you get absolutely soaked, and the water is pretty scummy. We had to power the raft and steer ourselves, and this is fairly strenuous - so much so that Pino managed to break her bamboo pole, and bamboo is pretty strong stuff! And, finally, the river is full of spiders. Big, leggy ones that swim, walk on water and generally don't die, no matter what you do. I surprised myself by being able to brush one off Sarah, and I thought that would be it, but it was not to be. I was constantly having to fight with the little b*****ds, I tried flicking them off but they kept coming back, so in the end I resorted to frantic bashing with a flip flop - harsh, but it was either me or them! At the end of an hour's rafting, the van was waiting to drive us back to the hostel, where we just about fell into the showers and stayed there for ages! Having not slept well for 2 nights, I took straight to my bed, and felt better after a few hours kip. We had some dinner with the Irish girls from our trek, and then Sarah and I went to watch the footy - I'm sure you all know how that turned out, made a disappointing end to an otherwise pretty cool day! And then today, proving that there's no rest for the wicked, we went on our Thai cookery course! And I have to say, I think it was one of my favourite things of the whole trip! Our teacher, Yaow, was excellent - she explained things really well and she was very entertaining. We made Pad Thai, spring rolls, spicy prawn soup, Thai green curry, chicken and cashew nuts and mango with sticky rice for pudding. We even got a taster session of exotic Thai fruit! And of course everything that you cook, you eat. So we have been absolute fatties today, and have eaten like kings! It was so good, the pad thai was the best I've had out here, even if I do say so myself! The set up is fantastic, all the difficult bits are prepared for you, and all the washing up is done for you, so you just get to do the fun bits! And everything tasted like it should, so its really satisfying. We loved it, it was a great day - we even got a certificate! We were meant to get a recipe book but they'd run out - hopefully we'll get one in the post otherwise I won't be able to recreate it all for you!! And so thats it - a lot has gone on over here! The trek was really hard work, but it was very worthwhile - now that its over I can say that I loved it! (But I'm not doing it again!). And the thai cookery was great, I would recommend that to anyone. So now we're off out into Chiang Mai to meet a friend we made back in Kanchanaburi - no doubt we'll have a lot to catch up on!