In the morning we awoke around 5am to some thunder and lightening but I found it soothing so fell back asleep again. When we finally woke up properly we enjoyed a scrambled egg and pepper breakfast and some strong coffee before saying our goodbyes to the tribe and making our way down for the second day of our trek.

We soon discovered it was even harder walking downhill as it was slippy and really tough on the legs. I fell a grand total of 14 times on the way down. An hour later, we finally arrived at a waterfall and had a quick dip. The water was like a whip on the back as it was so powerful but it was still amazing and definitely cooled us off well. The second and last hour of the trek turned into a 2 hour slog through monsoon rain as the heavens properly opened for the first time since we arrived and it poured it down. We were wetter than before getting into the waterfall.

I ended up falling behind with Sam and Henry sharing the burden of keeping me vertical as I decided that the best strategy for scaling the countryside was on a muddy hands and knees. I finally arrived at the bottom covered from head to toe in mud with maybe a tiny but of elephant poo as I skidded into a pile of it when I couldn't stop.

The next stop was the river where we attempted white water rafting. They gave us helmets and a safety briefing which we assumed must be really needed in the water if Thai standards of H&S warranted such a fuss. Turns out the Rapids were more of a gentle swirl in the water and we gently meandered down, hitting the bottom of the river several times. Adrenaline filled it was not.

As the river got too shallow, we then transferred to bamboo rafts which weren't much better. Especially as they put Paul and Will the French guys on the same raft as Sam and Henry. 4 rugby built lads and 1 raft = rookie error. They didn't as much float, but bob along on their bottoms half submerged in the water while their punter struggled to pull them along. Charlotte, Gem and I shared a raft and fared only slightly better, reenacting the Titanic 'My Heart will go on' beautifully much to the amusement of the locals at the edge of the river.

When we finally made it to the water edge we were thankful to find some showers waiting for us (I still had elephant poo on me somewhere) and then we had a yummy pad Thai. We were reunited with our bags which had been locked into the shop there and had a scary few moments when the tour guide found some big spiders on Henry's bag and then proceeded to misplace them so we had no idea where they were.

After that, we were driven back to Chiang Mai in the same pick up truck, though this time Gemma and I rode in style at the front. Our new hostel was really nice as all 5 of us were in the same room that had 5 beds and a decent bathroom. We decided to go out for some drinks and a meal at a place that had been recommended called Yellow Bar. After several strong cocktails, including one that contained 6 separate alcohols, we moved onto the Yellow Bar club where we proceeded to dance like loons for the next few hours. When it shut down, everyone was very drunk, though me less so as I'd drank less due to my antibiotics. We then somehow managed to find ourselves in a club called Spicy that was pretty commercial and really air conditioned. In here I had another beer and then played babysitter for to Sam and Henry who were increasingly getting smashed. Henry kept on wandering off with the only hotel key and Sam was led off by a lady boy who he was naively chatting up for 5 mins beforehand. Bless him, he had no clue and blatantly denied it the next morning. After a bit more dancing it was clear that I needed to take the boys home to bed as they were starting to wind each other up and I spied trouble. Somehow we managed to navigate our way home but then I panicked that the girls had no idea where they were going later so had to waste some credit texting them.

All in all it was a very good night but everyone was nursing hangovers the next day and we all slept until 11:30, only 30 mins to check out!