Up bright and early for our one day trek. We got picked up as planned and the first stop was to pick up a gorilla shaped woman, with the gruffest voice, no smile and was smoking a fag - well, not really smoking it, more like sucking it like it was the last fag on earth. We looked at each other and thought 'smart'. Thankfully she was in the wrong van and was asked to leave!

After picking up the rest of our group, 8 in total a father and daughter from Ottowa, Canada called Wilf and Casey, 2 lads also from Canada and a couple who were both foreign. Our first stop was Karen Hilltribe Village, where we just surrounded at all times by young kids showing us their handmade bracelets and saying "hello 5 baht". I eventually gave in! We had a look round the village which was on stilts and women making clothes. No men to be seen. There was also a huge pig in the middle of the tiny village which has something to do with their religion and is sacred to them. Absolutely stunk though!

We then started our trek through the jungle to a waterfall. As we were making our way down to the tour guide was telling us to go for a swim as it's beautiful - so we were all getting ready for a swim and he then told us but before you do, be careful as a japanese man drowned a few months ago - we for some reason, changed our minds!

After stopping at the waterfall we carried on trekking through the jungle to Mae Wang Hilltribe Village, which was all made of bamboo and was tiny! Probably about 3 houses in total.

We then stopped off for lunch at a roadside cafe, soup, rice and mixed veg - not bad really! Before going to our next stop - the elephant camp.

The trip involved meeting your elephant with the mahout (elephant trainer) and then an hour trek riding your elephant through the jungle. We rode on oxcart, which is a seat on their back, it doesnt hurt them. It's funny how stubborn and naughty they are, as much as the mahout wanted them to turn left or right, the elephant would stop, have something to eat, sometimes trying to eat planks of wood, and then turn in the complete opposite direction! Next we got to feed them banana's and watched them bathe in the river.

Our next stop was to go bamboo rafting which was fun! The raft was made up of 9 thick pieces of bamboo strapped together creating a 15foot bamboo plank. We drifted down the river, with a raftsman at the front, me and Casey in the middle sat down and Dave got the chance to stand at the back and steer it too. As usual to all our transport drivers we have had in Thailand, we got the crazy, doesnt care for his life raftsman!! Instead of a relaxing cruise down the river, we overtook 8 other rafts, bashed into them as we passed, crashing into rocks, almost tipping over and flying down the rapids! Luckily the river was only a couple of feet deep but we didnt manage to stay dry like we wanted too.

It was time to head home and on getting back to our guesthouse we arranged to meet Casey and Wilf who we had become quite good friends with for a beer later that night.

Following tea and a one day delayed pancake we met up for some beers! Learnt quite a lot about Canada. Casey is planning on spending 6 months in NZ working so if we are there at that time then we are hopefuly going to meet up!