Hello - What a week! I arrived in Bangkok last saturday afternoon - went straight to bed when I arrived at my hotel as I was so tired. On sunday I met a couple of people also travelling on their own at the pool and went for lunch and a walk round Koh San Road with them for the afternoon. My tour meeting was on Sunday evening where I got to meet everyone in my group. There are 10 of us plus our group leader Aom (pronounced Om). I'm the youngest in the group, there are 8 girls and 2 men - mixed nationalities and ages and its been a really good mix of people so far. We went out for dinner on Sunday evening together and then headed off early Monday morning for the start of our tour. Monday 30th March - We walked to the pier and got on a long tail boat down the river.....this was really good fun and it was interesting to see some of the houses that thai people live in - some of the conditions are terrible. we saw sewage being pumped into the river and then a few seconds later people washing themselves and their pots and pans in it. We were on the boat for about an hour before heading to the Reclining Buddha temple. It was so hot in there I thought I was going to pass out!! You have to cover your shoulders and knees when you are at temples as well so have to make sure your appropriately dressed. After lunch we got a taxi to the bus station (2 hours) where we headed to Kanchanaburi. When we arrived we each got on a rickshaw (look up on google - great fun!!!) and got taken to our guest house called Apple. The surroundings were really beautiful there and the rooms were nice too. We ate at one of the Apple restaurants in the evening and then went to a small night market. Tuesday 31st March - We had breakfast at the guesthouse and then got picked up in a Songtaew to travel to Erawan Waterfall. Here there are 7 layers of waterfall and you can swim at the different layers. Going higher than level 4 meant putting hiking shoes on so most of us stayed at 4 for a while. The water is fresh and clear which was nice and when you get in there are loads of little fish that come and nibble (not actually biting) the dead skin off your feet like a spa treatment!! I went right in the water too!! It was really fun and such a pretty place but I got a bit freaked out after a while so sat on the rocks at the side with a few of the girls. Local thai kids were there and we had a bit of a water fight with them which was fun! Then we went to level 2 for a little while and some of the guys went in there too while the rest of us sat in the sun. After lunch we travelled back and everyone but me and Charlie went Kayaking down the River Kwai. We went back to the hotel and decided to walk to the Bridge over the River Kwai instead. (didnt fancy going in the dirty water!) The bridge was really old and actually quite scary to walk across as there are gaps everywhere but I did it and was quite pleased with myself! then we walked back to the Apple guest house and met everyone else for dinner at the other Apple restuarant. I underestimated how difficult it would be to eat food other than Thai out here so have been struggling a little with food but have had a couple of good currys and have tried a few new things - its nice when you can order English food though...Thai twice a day is really sickly. After dinner a few of us went for a walk into the town to have a look in a few shops and then it was back to Apple for some sleep. Wednesday 1st April - After breakfast we travelled to the JEATH (Japan, England, Australia, Thailand, Holland) War Museum - it was quite sad walking round reading about what the prisoners of war went through because of the Japenese. Everyones spirits had dropped a little when we came out. Then we walked to another temple (temples EVERYWHERE) and then to our raft where we stayed for the day and night. It was brilliant!!! There were 2 big rafts joined together - 1 for eating etc and one for sleeping. There were also rubber rings off the back of the raft (tied to the back) that you could sit in and get pulled along with the raft. I didnt go in though as dead fish kept floating by!! Was really nice to sunbathe a little though and just look at the scenery as we went down the river kwai. We stopped a couple of times in the afternoon to go to temples (1 of which had 270 ish steps to climb to get to - in 35+ degrees heat this is not easy!!). We had dinner in the evening which 2 Thai ladies on board cooked for us (and then slept where they had cooked that night) - they looked after us really well. then 2 Thai men also looking after us put some music on and we danced the night away and had a few drinks. I hardly slept at all on the raft though - too many noises around. A really good day though with lots of giggles. Thursday 2nd April - Got up at 6am! had breakfast and got off the raft at abbout 7:30am. We got driven back to Apple to collect our main backpacks and then travelled to the bus station where we got 2 buses (2 hours each) to get us to Ayuthaya. We got dropped at the Sherwood Guest House (not great) to put our bags down for the day, after lunch, and then went to 3 temples. These temples were really really pretty and actually quite intesresting (some of them arent) so it was a nice afternoon. Then we collected our main luggage from the Sherwood Guest House and headed to the train station for the night train to Chang Mai (13 hours). I wasnt particularly looking forward to this as I had heard mixed things about it but it was the best nights sleep I've had since I've been out here!! We had lots of giggles on this night it was really good fun! Friday 3rd April - We arrived at Chang Mai at about 7:30am (another early start) and got driven to our hotel, The Peoples Place. Its not too bad, our room is big (me and Helena are sharing for the whole 2 weeks) with a little balcony and its in the centre of Chang Mai and everything is really clean. Had a little walk out for breakfast (McDonalds and Starbucks!!) and then back to the hotel ready to head out for the days activities. We headed to the Elephant riding place first. It was 2 to an elephant - plus the Thai man sitting on its head - mine and Helenas was called Tuma and was 60 years old. Some of them were huge!! The one I was on had its baby elephant there too and everytime we went anywhere near it, it would then start following us it was so sweet. We were on the elephants for ab out 40 minutes - I really enjoyed it and glad I have done it but it was also a little sad to see how they live. We bought a huge bunch of bananas that we fed to Tuma which I really enjoyed and also got a photo at the end. Then we stopped for lunch and headed to the bamboo rafting. They are long thin rafts where you sit one behind the other and then a little Thai boy does the punting whilst you travel down the stream. It was absolutely brilliant - probably my favourite thing so far - we spent about an hour on the raft just floating down stream and then every now and then little local children would be in the stream and we had a water fight with them as we floated by. I got a photo of this too as we werent allowed to take camers or camcorders with us. then we got changed and headed back to Chang Mai where we went up a mountain to get to a huge temple. Here we climbed 306 steps!!! (I'm going to have legs of steel when I get home!!!) Then we walked round the temple which overlooked the whole of Chang Mai - a great view. Then we went back to the hotel for showers before heading out to dinner. After dinner we went to the night bizaar which was absolutely massive!! So big we are going round tonight as after a few hours we didnt get round everything! Saturday 4th April - We have a free day today so going to probably get a massage have a swim and a wander round - had a really busy week so its nice to have a day at a slower pace. Next blog coming soon!!!