Hey everyone, we made it!

The flight and journey out was great, fab send off from our friends and family, thanks to every special person who came along.

So, Bangkok, what a city, so so busy twice the size of london, with 3 million motorcyclists alone!! - photos to follow when we work out how to use it all.... The hotel was lush and was a great idea to chill for first night without hassle of sorting a guest house out.

We booked a trip up to Chiang Mai pretty quick, and after a visit to the legendary Khao san Road we legged it on the 12 hour train ride north. Not a nice journey, train was pretty ricketty, and stopped at every cattle town and pit stop on the way. After 9 hours travelling we were a bit pissy, but made it eventually....

Then, non stop action for last 5 days.... visits to temple, 306 steps up to amazing Doi Suthep temple, with loads and loads of tourists and people selling everything - it takes a lot of getting used to people really hassling you to buy something all (and I mean all) of the time. Good for assertiveness training!! evening of dinner and dance, and the food is out of this world up here, so, so lovely and varied and tasty. Already eaten about 2 pounds of rice each!! Curries, noodles, all sorts.

Nothing could have prepared us for the trek to come. 3 days in the national park nearby, (tigers live there!!) and well, it was just awesome. Day 1 was up up up, a proper physical challenge climbing up vertically for 4 hours in the mid afternoon humid heat. we sweated half our body weight for sure. We arrived later that day through rice fields and jasmine smells to a Karen hill tribe village, where we were greeted by cockerels, chicks, puppies, pigs and all kinds of animals wandering about. Kids playing, and upbeat friendly locals. About 10 families living in the middle of nowhere. We stayed in a bamboo hut, and we both had THE most uncomfortable night sleep, woken by roosters at 4, and honestly, I have never experienced a darkness like it. You open your eyes in the middle of the night and can see nothing, no light anywhere, and start to think.... "are my eyes really open?". Wierd.

Next day up down up down for 3 hours trekking and then we arrived frankly minging at a waterfall. A very refreshing swim and shower and a hair wash, jusdt like the timotei (??) advert, then a lovely nap. The group we trekked with were also mostly really friendly and kept all our spirits up. The pictures we have taken are still on UK time, adn we made it to the waterfall 8am Monday morning UK time!! Just as you were waking and getting ready, we were done and starting to chill and not smell!! A very relaxed evening with Chang beer, banana leaf jungle fags and a fire, we thought we were burning that midnight oil, chatting and drinking. Turned out jungle time is different, and it was only 10 to 10 ten to 10 when we got out heads down!!

Day 3 - downhill, and the climate changed so much, rice fields, high trees, we just saw the most amazing thingsd. Sometimes it felt tropical, other times, like Shaugh Prior on a very hot day. Creatures that you would not ever believe. What a lovely group though, feel like we have made some friends, and they really made the whole thing a pretty good experience.

Next was the elephant ride... short, sweet, great animals, but its hard to see them being smacked with metal claws, kinda made us shudder as well.

Home, and night out - what a relief to shower and change - like you can't believe.... we agreed to go out to a bar, get some food and have a night out as a group. Believe it or not, was the first night out proper. Carnage.... utter carnage. Photos to follow. Some things stay in Thailand.

The poker cup has been everywhere with us, we may start a separate blog for it - it has been in waterfall, on the piss, hanging out with elephants, all sorts!! Also, look out for where's wally style spot the cup pictures. Honestly, it is so glad Em won and that it is with us.... Next its coming to the islands for a chill then full moon parties on 24/25/26 Nov. Just in time for Dad / Sharon / Ant's birthday celebrations... we'll be there in spirit XX

SO, tomorrow we fly to Phuket, hope to see Hayley and Dan and catch them and share stories and good times. Sorry to our mum's for not being in touch sooner, we love you loads. Watch this space for photo download uploadarino, and well, how are you? What's going on with you? I hear its cold.....

Love to all, Em, Sar and the Cup XX