Dear All.........(advance warning have been busy, its a long one.....!) Well.......a busy week my end..........think my last update came to you all from sunny Bangkok after our island relaxation.........well, we left Bangkok via the night train heading up to Chang Mai last Saturday. Before leaving we met two fellow Brits at our hotel........ Michelle, 28, from Manchester and James, 19, from Wales - both of whom landed in Thailand from Heathrow only 2 days prior, and it turns out they were on our train, so struck up conversation and got a taxi, the four of us, to the train station! Boarded our overnight train.....these trains are pretty luxurious actually......Western toilets (yeay!), comfy beds and plenty of space to walk about.........Stephen and I immediately met Austin, 23, from Texas and Shawn from America who were in the beds opposite.....ordered some beers, or Chang as they are known out here, and before we knew it Michelle and James had joined us, along with Alan, 26, from South End who was next to them on the train.....and we had ourselves our very own train party going on!! We were up, drinking and talking of past travels and home life until 5 am.......was fantatsic to meet more people and exchange stories, and get advice on my future destinations...........at midday we pulled into Chang Mai....the Northern capital of Thailand.......and already it is a million times nicer, cleaner, and less polluted than Bangkok............and the travelling two of Stephen and I has now become the travelling 7! We had to say goodbye to Shawn, but we met up with a lovely German girl called Elisa, and now the seven of us have spent nearly a week together, and are having a fantastic time! We checked into a fantastic Guest House called Same Same..........the staff are so so friendly and helpful, and our room is spacious, cool, and has a FANTASTIC (this appears to be a common word in my trip so far!) shower! The plan now was to arrange our trek for the next three days. It is what Chang Mai is known for, its jungle terrain, and fantastic trekking sites throughout the National Park up here, so within minutes we had it sorted, booked, and we were leaving 8am Monday morning! Woo woo. Sunday night allowed us time to go to a fantastic night market, completely different atmosphere to the markets of India and Southern Thailand.......quieter, calmer, a lot higher standard of purchases....i could have bought everything there.......and we all treated ourselves to a Thai foot massage in preparation for the trekking.....wow, was fantastic! We literally lined up along a wall, all seven of us, while these Thai ladies came along and we all indulged in a 30 minute massage for 60 baht.....about 80p!!!!! Monday morning saw the start of the trek, early pick up and we stopped at our first destination........bamboo boat rafting....................perhaps the most exciting, funny, amusing and throughly exhausting 2 hours of my life!!! We built and boarded these bamboo rafts, binded together with old tyres, and sailed ourselves down the river......we were warned that we may get a little wet, so no cameras etc, but still all fully clothed.....but we had a comedy act of a driver, a little Thai man, who thought it would be fantastic to tip the boat and with minutes Michelle, Austin and i were all waist deep in the river, attempting to scramble back on, but submitting to the fact we were going to spend most of the journey in the river rather than sailing down it! Was fantastic.............and at the end of the journey, we all jumped in, and saw a 160ft waterfall, that was suitable for jumping off............and the seven of us clambered to the top and one by one jumped from this waterfall into a pool of water at the bottom..........i succeeded in crashing to the water on my knees, accompanied by a high pitched screm......was fantastic!!! After a quick dry down, the trekking commenced...............HOLY MOLEY..............5 and a half hours of walking up hill, through jungle, blazing midday sun.......i was as red as a tomato........and jeeze were we struggling.....so half way took a welcome stop at a beautiful waterfall, for dip and a cool down, before continuing on the walk to a hill tribe village deep in the heart of the jungle mountains..........wow. This village was something else.....was a village of 60 people and 14 different families, all living within a half mile radius camp.....full of pigs and chickens and dogs and all sorts of livestock, along with stilted houses and lots of children, with their own little school, they were very welcoming, and cooked and provided for us for the entire evening.....including the kids singing for us round a camp fire....very cheesy but pretty special! ha The following day.....aching legs....but we battled on through a much flatter trek of 3 hours to a giant waterfall, where we were camping and relaxing for the afternoon....we washed, swam, and everything in the clearest water ive ever seen from this waterfall.....was cold but just what the doctor ordered......and we camped directly next to the waterfall in a mini shack type building, the seven of us created our own campfire, found a tribal guitar, and had our own kareoke session......the chang was flowing and the songs were slowly getting cheesier, louder and more out of tune.....it was fantastic! The final day of the trek.....,by now the fitness levels are higher and we dont want the trek to end, so we do a final 3 hours and arrive at our final village, where we board the local elephants for a walk around the hills, and afterwards get to bath them and feed them. Although this was fun, if a little uncomfortable, the elephants were shackled from their necks to their feet, and i couldnt help but think they should really be in the wild. They are well looked after, but seemed a little wrong in some ways, as they are such big animals, but hey, they had a good bath in the river, and i got some good pics, and our tour guide reassured us that they were well cared for. The tour ended there, and we had a truck bring us back to central Chang Mai........so much happened in the three days, we were constantly busy, constantly entertained, and constantly laughing. My trip has really come into its own now, especially as we are all now travelling to Laos together tomorrow, and from there, although we split up, some people heading home, some people heading South, Austin is also travelling Vietnam and Cambodia, so i have found myself another, very experienced traveller, he has been away 9 months already, to complete the remainder of my Asia experience with. Last night we went to a series of Thai Boxing matches.......wow.......so exciting......and there was a Brit fighting too.....so we were rooting for him....and he won!! We also indulged in some time in the ring ourselves once the fights were over, and it certainly wasnt hard to spot the seven tourists, prancing around the ring attempting to thai box..........but the locals here are so so friendly, and found us pretty amusing! So today, have just booked our trip, and we leave tomorrow morning via minibus to the Laos boarder, where we then pick up a slow boat ride over the course of 2 days to get us through a few of the Western towns of Laos, before eventually reaching Vietenne.....the Capital........and it is here that we split and the seven of us go our separate ways....including Stephen and I splitting :-( ......have grown used to each others company for the past 2 months, going to be very strange to leave him! But anyway.....dont want to think about that yet....its ages away.....so here's to Laos! I will be in touch once we arrive and get a little settled, and plans may have changed again.....who knows......hope you are all well......and hopefully these emails are keeping you suitably informed of what im up to....its so hard to make these any shorter as there is so much to tell you all, and i am missing so much stuff out already, but hey, read them in installments if necessary!!! ha ha Lots of love to you all, i am having a fantastic time, but miss you all too. Lots of love me xxxxxxxx