Rightio then...hello again...i know it hasn't been too long since our last blog but we have a lot to report back!!

Ok so we are in Chiang Mai now, we flew up via Bangkok on Tuesday, and at one of these airports (Bangkok I think) some helpful person must have dropped my backpack in a big puddle or something as it emerged rather soggy - nice.

Our first day in Chiang Mai was spent wandering around the old city and visiting a few temples, of which there are 66 in just the old part of town!! They were pretty impressive, especially one which housed a marble buddha that is apparently 2500 years old and a crystal one that is 1500 years old! Not quite sure how they know that but...they looked pretty old!!

Chiang Mai is Thailands second biggest city, but compared to Bangkok it is just a big town really, in some ways it reminds us of some of the Indian towns we visited in the North, probably because even though it has a lot of tourists, they are not everywhere you look and it is still a proper town in it's own right, not just a tourist trap like Phuket.

For our second day we booked to go on a day trip to experience some of the activities to be enjoyed in the surrounding countryside - and it was a rather full on day!! First point of call on leaving the city was a butterfly and orchid farm, bit of a dull start especially as all the butterflies were sleeping because it was raining! But the flowers were pretty...Mums would have appreciated them we think!

We then drove onwards and seemed to be in a kind of National Park area with lots of activity centres around, we drove past numerous elephants and quad bike places which all looked like fun. For us though it was a waterfall, and quite a hike to get to it! It had started to rain again but not too much and off we went up a quite steep hill, trying to follow our enthusiastic guide who just announced 'now we go walk!' and pretty much ran off... At the top of the hill we were all a bit concerned to see we then had to head all the way down again, on a very thin dirt path down the steep mountain - eek! At least we were better equipped than some of the others in our group as we were wearing our proper sandals whereas they were all in flip flops, the fools. It was a bit precarious but eventually we all slipped and slided our way down to the waterfall which was rather nice, even if I did nearly break my neck when we were all ushered up the slippery rocks to the top for a photo! So, all nicely warmed up for the day and a little hot and bothered, we made it back to the minivan and onwards to the next activity - white water rafting!!

Kitted out in stylish orange life jackets and matching helmets, we were split into 2 groups of five and handed over to the care of our guide and into the water we went. All was fine for about 2 minutes, then as we went over the first little rapid and got quite a bump, the poor girl behind me fell in! All I saw was a little orange bob thrashing around trying to avoid the rocks, but after a second or two she was dragged back in by our guide who didn't really seem to think it was too much of a problem, despite her being battered and bruised! As we set off again I think we were all a little more careful to stay in the boat!! The next half hour or so was quite fun but also a tad scary, especially when we were told that we were coming up to some big drops and we had to get down in the boat and dig our feet under the seat infront. Then as we went over a drop sideways, the raft tipped to almost vertical and nearly sent us all flying! I have no idea how we all stayed in, but the poor girl next to me bashed her hand pretty badly on a rock, which I suggested maybe saved us all as it must have been the thing that pushed us right!

We were all pretty delighted to still be alive at the end of our little trip along the river! Each of us was completely drenched in muddy river water, not helped by the fact that our guide kept splashing us all the time even though he was the only one who still found this funny after the tenth time, which could possibly be due to the rather strong smell of whiskey around him... However even though it was scary Nick and I have both said we would do it again as it was pretty fun, although maybe next time a sober guide might help!

Next we visited another waterfall and then went bamboo rafting, which might have been quite pleasant if it weren't raining so much. As it was though, none of us particularly enjoyed being rafted around for half an hour or so in the miserable rain, as we were all soaked and starting to get a bit chilly. The next bit was ace though, as it was time to ride elephants! The sun came out just in time too which was fab, and we all clambered aboard our beasts and set off for a tramp through the jungle. Our elephant was huuuuge! Now I know all elephants are big, but this one towered above the others, he was a right monster! It was really good as we walked through the river and did a big loop through the jungle with the mountains as our backdrop, although it's not overly comfortable when going up or down hill and you have to hold on for dear life!! At one point our Nelly clearly decided it was break time as he started munching away on a load of grass and reared up to put his front legs on the river bank to get at the higher stuff! It was funny as the little Thai guy sat on his head was desperately trying to get him to move but he was having none of it, and no amount of telling him off and pulling his ear would do any good til he had eaten sufficient grass and we were off again. At the end we fed him some bananas which he greedily grabbed with his trunk, they are really funny close up, there trunks are weird and feel very strange if they touch you!

There was a baby elephant around who of course was mega cute, we were stroking him and he put his trunk on Nick's arm I think trying to eat him! Everyone loved the elephants and it was the best bit of the day, and loads better than when we went on one in India as here they were in their natural environment and seemed to have quite a nice life just ferrying tourists around here and there, they get well looked after and get to stay in the jungle where they should be.

After this we visited a couple of 'tribal villages' which were ok but nothing amazing, it would have been nice to visit some genuine villages rather than just the ones set up for tourists on the side of the main road!! We saw some of the Karen Long Neck tribe, where the women wear those crazy things around their neck to stretch it, they look pretty strange! The girls start wearing them from when they are 5 years old, which we all thought was quite sad when we saw little girls wearing these uncomfortable looking necklaces, which are apparently meant to make them beautiful.

Then it was back to Chiang Mai, we were exhausted and both have very achey legs!! It was fun to get out in the countryside a bit and we enjoyed the day a lot, even if the rafting was a little scary!! Tomorrow we are doing a cookery class which should be good, we are both enjoying the Thai food so it will be nice to be able to recreate it, fingers crossed. We are hoping the weather is going to pick up a bit as it is just raining all the time at the minute which is a bit rubbish for getting out and about, but we are still enjoying it a lot up here and even though it was nice bumming around at the beach we are very glad to be a bit more active for now. I never thought I would say this, but it is nice to be back somewhere where there is a bit more culture...I suppose it is just a bit more Thai than the beaches where sometimes you could just as easy be anywhere in the world!

Only ten days left in Thailand...feel like we've been here forever. It will be strange to leave behind the Baht and change to another currency again, we've just got used to this one! Anyway....that's enough from me, will let Nixon have a word, see if I missed anything out!

Love to all,
Cooper xxxxx

I'll just pop a quick note in from our first day, as Cooper's summise of yesterday is quite excellent I believe...

Just worth a mention though was our stalker!! We had visited a couple of temples and on the advice from one friendly Thai man, visted the oldest one (the first building in Chiang Mai) that houses the impressive marble buddha.

As we were taking in the intricate decor, another friendly Thai man - who for the sake of future reference I will call Bob, approached us and told us a bit more about the temple we were in and asked us what plans we had in Chiang Mai, where else we were going etc etc. Seeming friendly enough, we showed him our map that currently had a few drawings on from previous advice and he wanted to add to that and scrawled here there and everywhere - good temples, views, shopping etc and finally suggested that if were to visit a Tailor shop in Chiang Mai, we should visit the best, and wrote the name of it on our map. We do not want to go to a tailor's but we went along with his suggestion to appease him and off we went on the lookout for more nice temples!

We decided to start making a move towards our hotel, but would stop at one more temple on the way - one quite near the tailor shop...on our way, who shuold appear from a side street, but Bob! He told us he was making his way back to work after visitng the temple on his lunch break from work at a local school. He pointed us in the right direction and we parted company once more.

Finally, after missing out on the temple (because of a funeral or something) we walked past the tailor's on our way back to the hotel and on our way...Bob again!! Now somewaht less amusing as he clearly does NOT work in a school! He asked whether we'd been in the tailor's and on advising him that we...may go another day... (generally the best way to get Thai's off your back) he seemed somewhat aggravated that we hadn't gone. Weirdo!! So we quickened our pace and are hoping to avoid him for the rest of our stay - so far, so good!

Love to all

Nixon

xxx