Hello,

We left you in Bangkok before we took our sleeper train to Chiang Mai. It was such good fun, it was a real novelty sleeping in beds on a train. We both had top bunks facing each other, it was like being kids again. So after a very bumpy nights sleep we arrived in Chiang Mai.

We booked ourselves in on a Thai cookery course for the next day. It was great fun, the teachers were real characters. They took us around the food market and explained about all the different fruits and veg and how curry paste and coconut cream were made. We made about 6 dishes in total, and i can say that the spring rolls we made were the best i have ever tried! We're planning on opening up a Thai reasturant when we get back, now we've got the certificate!!!

The following day we embarked on our 3 day trek of the Chiang Mai jungle. It was a definite highlight of the trip so far. We started it with a Elephant ride, and then we headed in to the jungle for our 1st night in a Hill Tribe village. We slept in a bamboo hut and the view was amazing. We sat around the camp fire and the guide got his guitar and we had a good old sing song, so i was a very happy person! Some of the local men joined in and one of them fancied himself as a bit of a popstar, it was very funny though. The next morning we were woken up by what seemed like hundreds of cockrels 'cock-a-doodle-doing'. The stars were amazing as there was no light pollution.

After a hearty breakfast we set out on day 2, heading to a waterfall to wash and cool down, it was really refreshing. We then walked to another village and arrived at lunch time, so we took a couple hours out of the mid-day sun. Our guide 'Bond' introduced us to Banana whiskey, so we all walked very 'merrily' to our next village where we were staying that night. We had another waterfall here so we all had another swim and a wash. That evening we had more good food, singing and party tricks.

Day 3 we walked to a point where we could see the highest mountain in Thailand, firing a cross-bow, airgun and catapult on the way. We finished the day with some Bamboo rafting which was so cool and such a good laugh. We had lots of water fights with all the other rafts and the local kids who decided to pelt us with water too. And finally some sugar cane whiskey and a night out in a reggae bar.

'Bond' was such a great guide, he was able to tell us lots about the village tribes as he came from one, and all about life in the jungle and how to hunt food etc. You will see from the photos when we up load them how he climbed a tree!

We're having a lazy day today, so after we've had some breakfast we're heading back the guest house to relax by the pool. Tomorrow we head down south to the Islands and the beaches - looking forward to it. We have it all booked, the tourist lady at our guest house has been very helpful. Unfortunatley we're not going to have time to do Malaysia but will drive through it on the coach to Singapore.

We have had more invites from some more friends in Australia to visit them too, so we're not short of places to stay in Oz!

Again we were very lucky with our group, they were a really good bunch and our guide enjoyed trekking with us, hence why he gave us so much whiskey!

Anyway must get some food and head back to the swimming pool - hope you're all having a good time at work ;-)

We'll put some photos on soon.

Loads of Love,

Emili and Tim.