Well after taking the night train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai which took a whooping 18 hours! This was mainly due to the point changing engine just outside Chiang Mai breaking down so we had to wait on the train for and extra couple of hours, this was made easier by playing cards.

Once in Chiang Mai we headed to our guest house SK, it was rather nice with a pool!!! Whilst walking round Chiang Mai we were pleased to feel that it had a slowly pace to it than Bangkok ... we even dared having a fish massage. This was not the highlight of my day haha ... as my feet are tickly this was not a good thing, the fish swam round your legs and feet and bite all the dead skin off them. I gave it 5 minutes and decided it wasn't for me, whilst David kept his in for 30 minutes and added this hands to the mix. In the evening we headed to the night market, this was where to snapped up some bargins, we got some Chiang beer tshirts and Singha beer tshirts for as little as 2 pounds! We bought some trousers for our trek that we where going on the next day as well. After many bargins were hand and much street food was eaten it was an early night to bed to prepare for our trek the next day.

We set off for our trek at 9am, our guide for the trek was Sunny and Mr Whiskey! We met our follow trekkers Tim and Janis from German, Sophia and Albert from Belgium, Thibaut from France and Patrick and Gemma our follow English! We started off up the winding roads on the back of a pick up. First stop was the elephant riding, they were massive!? and very greedy, we had bought some banana's and bamboo for the elephant to eat along the way. The elephant took us on a route for around an hour, there were two adorable baby elephants following us too! Along the way we went through jungle and river and a near miss of being attacked by some trees after the elephant decided to walk straight towards trees and start pulling massive branches out of the trees. After this we set off for lunch, which was in a local village at the bottom of a large steep hill. This would be a hill we would venture up, it was hard work as we were told you could do the walk in flip flops so there is us both with our toms on. Probably walking boots would have been a better choice really in hind sight. We walked for several hours, up and down steep hills in the jungle as well as been taken to a part of the river to go swimming with a waterfall. It was stunning seeing the beautiful butterflies and interesting bugs (mostly all large)! After an exhausting walk for over an hour up a steep muddy slope we headed to our village for the night. The village had many dogs, black pigs, cows and a lazy cat, there was many smiling faces from the village people. However there was no electricity and the toilet smelt like well you can imagine as it was a glamorous hole in the ground which you put water in to flush to wash your waste away. After a much needed cold shower, we meant the village children, wanting us to buy bracelets made by them for a couple of pence each. Followed by tea, which was rice, which a curry and sun tan (papaya salad) and drinks. As we talking into the evening in candle light we were joined by two village boys around the age of 10, showing us tricks and teaching them tricks, followed by a card game of monkey (which even now we don't know the rules) and 21's. We hit the sack in a village hut, of which we laid on several blankets for comfort and a mosquito net for safety. The first night was rather hellish with dogs spooking (could of been tigers or bears or snakes) and my creative imagination.

The next morning we where greeted with a breakfast of toast eggs and jam, and then off we set for a day of trekking. A trip to the village school, where we drew on a piece of paper things about our country and our homes. We walked over hills (mountains) and through paddy fields, stopping at waterfalls and swimming spots. I was shattered by lunch time, David was holding up better. We had a lunch of noodles in a banana leaf with a fellow "friendly" poisonous spider near by, it was massive!!! I didn't look whilst David and Thabaut took a closer look than anyone else. We set off for yet more trekking through many paddy fields, with orange large spiders, many four leafed clovers and me slipping in the paddy field covering myself in mud. As we walked up steep slopes again and into the jungle we walked over a "stable" bridge one by one, into a paddy field where we tasted guava from the trees and Gemma screamed as if she was being attached by a snake ... but no it was caterpillar. We reached a motorway like road ... oh yes a real road in the jungle to a small village where the man and women of the village where inside, we joined them to shetler from the rain a little. The women chewing a bark from the trees (it gives then a red/black smile but apparently makes your teeth strong). The Thai band this 20 years ago, as they want their people to have a white smile. We then took to walk more (by this time I was shattered and had drank the last of my water) the end didn't seem to be in sight. We continued on up the muddiest slope I have ever been on in my life, then up through the dense jungle, I fell and bruised my leg. After this we stopped in the middle of the jungle whilst our guide looked for a shorter way leaving us alone in the middle of no where. However I was still able to get Thai phone signal?! The guide returned with a bite from a bee and lead us completely into the middle of the jungle claiming to know the way, after much walking we reached a more watery part of the jungle where we warned about leaches and slipping. Once through this living hell as I felt but David seemed not to mind as much we saw an end of sight. Of which we were about to be scared half to death by some walking by cattle, as David ran on the with the rest of the ground me and Gemma had to wait in the edge of the jungle until the cattle pasted. After this we arrived at a village with ELECTRICTY, I have never been so pleased to have such things, basic but cleaner and nicer than the previous village. A Dutch couple who were lovely and told us many things about India and their travels. The shower was interesting as you had to bend over for it to reach your head for washing your hair, but it was refreshing. We eat a similar tea and chatted into the night with a rather fat noisy pig around us and Patrick playing the guitar a little. A local village lady was selling scarves of which I bought one, only about 3 pounds! We all slept very well that night, after our long day of walking.

The third day which woke to a breakfast of eggs, toast and jam. We saw a protestant village church in which Janis played the drums for us. Then set off for a walk, like usual it was meant to be easy but not it was hard work, but much shorter as we reached a main road we waited to be picked up by a pick up truck to take us bamboo rafting. Sunny the guide told us that was the last walk of which I was delighted to hear, only to be teased more by them saying it wasn't the last their was another 2 hour walk?! As we drove of lunch was fried rice by a temple over looking a beautiful view, however the rain was coming, it made the most immense sound as it was reaching us. We took shelter in the temple, then headed to the bamboo rafting. We say a dead Burmese Python which had been killed by the local village people after it eat their chickens. The bamboo rafting was great fun however we got very wet and slightly bruised as David fell in on some rocks! After this we had a relaxing drink and headed back to our guest house SK in Chiang Mai. We had a swim in the pool followed by getting some pancake cakes which cost 10bhat which were lovely! We headed out for the evening with the people we had met on the trek and Mr Whiskey the guide, it was a fun night and we decided to continue our journey with the German boys and the crazy french frog. Next stop Pai.