Wow! What a full on day!..... Another incredible experience,.... We arrived in Chiang Mai late last night, approx midnight as the Easy Jet style flight was delayed. So not much was done , just unpack then sleep..... We did have some plans in mind for the day but got up at 6am with nothing planned... We headed for breakfast which was average and spotted the tour and info desk.... So headed across and found a day tour to the Mea Ka River, to the north of Chiang Mai that had everything we wanted to do..... We booked it straight away and the car picked us up 30 mins later.... The car of choice was a Toyota Hilux with two bench seats in the rear, and all open.... Quality..... We were in a small group of about 11.,,. which just about fit in the back. A really funny group, which we are actually heading out tonight with for a few buckets of possibly mojitos, again,..... Love to party.... So we headed out and after about 20 mins we stopped for the butterfly farm and orchid house,... Which was a little dull to be fair, we saw 1 dead butterfly and lots of orchids, but once you've seen one,.... We then headed further out to the hills where it became much more rural and how I expected Thailand to be. We got to the point where the roads were running out and soon enough we arrived at our first port, the elephant trek... Emma was definitely most excited, I mean I don't think I've seen her more excited. There were about a dozen massive elephants and one baby which I think Emma fell in love with. We jumped aboard and headed into the ruffage for an hour trek, it did start a bit crazy as we headed down to the river front and what looked to be a dead end turned out to be a quick turn and climb up a cliff, I mean I wouldn't have chose to walk that way let alone an elephant getting up, but it did and with ease... One elephant couldn't stop eating all the way round and kept going off the beaten track. The hour seemed to fly by as having this view of all around was just incredible, everything looked tiny... We got back to the dock and sat down for a noodle lunch, nothing special but it's fuel... We had 30 mins then headed off to the next stop, this included an hour trek by foot into the forest, and not an easy walk, look at one of the photos and in Toms wasn't a good idea but we soldiered on, over rocks and strip bridges, climbing rather high and near cliff edges. We on came through to see what we were actually trekking for, a fresh and natural waterfall, beautiful... especially after the hour walk through the jungle in the blistering heat, well it didn't get through my factor 30 but it tried... We got there and there were a few tourists there mainly Eastern European, a refreshing change from all the Americans in Bangkok. So we had a swim around for an hour and a dip under the waterfall which was powerful then headed back to the truck, going back didn't seem anywhere near as bad and we seem to get back in a much shorter time,.... This wasn't the end the though as we had a short drive to our next stop,..... White water rafting!..... Amezen!,........ We were on the rafts for about an hour, and got soaked! There were some really rough parts and there were a lot of rocks to contend with. Emma's got the bug now, and wants to go in the UK too. We stopped off on the river, and transferred ourselves to bamboo rafts, which looked like something from Castaway, and a literally just pieces of bamboo tied together. Ours wasn't floating very well at all, so we were asked to sit on the raft from before, which was on top of the bamboo raft, to help it float. From this more peaceful way of travelling down the river, we could take in some of the scenery which was stunning. When we stopped, Emma had an ice cream, and it was back on the bus for our journey home. Here, we all got to chat more and get to know each other a bit and the Canadian guys invited us all to the Reggae bar tonight. So now we're back at the hotel, after enjoying a hot shower. Amazing after the hotness and wetness from today! I fancy steak, and we have been recommended a good riverside steak house, and then we're off to meet our new Canadian and Australian friends for a bucket or two!
We'll update tomorrow,

Moon and Emma x