Hello, Chaing Mai has so far been the best place it's quite big which is great, i stayed there for just ubder 2 weeks the first week i travelled up on my own and found a guest house with a pool which was very welcome! was in the old city then ben came and joined me and we did a thai cookery course which was great fun and it's so easy to cook! they have a night bazaar which was good and a sunday market which was better and everythings so cheap so i loaded up with handbags and sent them home

then we wanted to do some trekking so moved furthur west and stayed in spicy thai backpackers which is the best hostel ever! everyones so friendly and it's just a house where everyone gets on and you go out on trips together and go drinking and a couple of times people cooked for everyone i loved it would recommend it to anyone. the trekking was amazing we did a 2 day trek where i rode the elephants which was terrifying! then trekked into the jungle for about 3 1/2 hours got to a tribal village where we stayed the night in bamboo huts and played games round the campfire! (and i ate some more bamboo worms! there actually quite nice!) then in morn we trekked to a lush waterfall that we swam in, then we did some white water rafting which was pretty hairy because ofthe monsson rains it was much faster and fullerthan normal but excellent fun! the jungle was amazing so beautiful.

i have loads of pictures which i will put on shortly but i keep forgetting to bring my lead out with me! forever blonde!! meeting loads of brilliant people, in Laos now which is quite different to thailand everyone stares at you like your from another planet! it's hilarious! and currency is really confusing it's 15,000 kip to the pound! but they also accept dollars and thai bhat! random!

still no suntan so looking forward getting to beach in vietnam which will be next week. drinking far to much beer starting to get beer belly, but it's so nice and its about 65p for a huge bottle! and i've discovered thai whiskey which is delicous! hired bikes today and cycling by the mekong river and we just happened to arrive in laos on their major bank holiday where they have boat races which was fun to watch.

hope everyines well thanks for your messages i look forwrd to them! loads of love Vicki xxxx