Sa-wat-dii khrap! Darren and Kerry again here from Pai in Thailand in the last week of our crazy adventure. The 1st of November already! Hope you all had a good Halloween. Both of us can't believe how fast the past couple of months have gone and are both pretty scared about coming home after the experiences we have had. We've been pretty determined to have as much fun as possible though in our last week so read on and find out what we've been up to!

After our last update to you all we left Chiang Mai and headed to Chiang Rai on a VIP bus, which was really swanky with huge armchair like seats, loads of legroom and they also gave us a whole pack of biscuits each! Easily pleased we are! We arrived in Chiang Rai fairly late in the evening and checked into a fairly basic room in town, although the staff were really helpful and sweet. We decided to enquire about treks in the area and were shocked to discover they were twice as much money as the city we had just left! Feeling pretty gutted we hailed a tuk-tuk back into the main centre of town and wandered around the night market for a while, enquiring at a few more tour operators but still not finding any treks as cheap as Chiang Mai so we made a decision to enjoy the next day havng a look around Chiang Rai and then to head back to Chiang Mai and book the trekking from there.

The following morning we woke up early and rented out a motorbike to investigate the surrounding area around Chiang Rai. We headed out towards a waterfall that was a fair distance away only to discover as we got nearer that the road disentegrated into a dirt track. We attempted the track for a while but it soon became obvious that the poor little bike couldn't cope with the off road nature of this destination so we headed back to town passing some beautiful countryside along the way. We spent the afternoon checking out the river, which is strangely named Chiang Rai Beach(?) and then looked around the night market again for a few hours before heading back for a early night to be up for our early bus in the morning.

We headed back to Chiang Mai the next morning by normal bus this time and checked back into the guesthouse we were previously staying in, much to the amusement of the lady at the reception desk! We dropped our bags into the room and headed over to another guesthouse that we'd originally been quoted a trek with and booked a two day-one night excursion with them for the following morning. We then rented another motorbike out and enjoyed the rest of the hot afternoon looking around Chiang Mai Zoo, which was pleasantly situated in shady, landscaped and hilly grounds. Despite the majority of the animal signs and information being only in Thai, we still managed to enjoy wandering around the different enclosures and Kerry even got to feed a couple of Jaguars! Check out the photos in the NEW PHOTOS section.

The next morning we were picked up bright and early by our trekking guide Bat and we also met the rest of the group we would be trekking with, which consisted of a Malaysian couple, 3 German couples and a really nice Dutch guy called Eric. Thankfuly everyone was really nice and friendly, which was really good considering we were going to be spending the next two days trekking through the jungle with them! Our first stop along the road was to see a local waterfall where we all grabbed our swimming costumes and waded around in the lagoon created by the huge waterfall. Needless to say the water was fairly cold but we did get some great photos. We then bundled back into the pickup truck and headed to a spot further up the road where we grabbed some lunch and then finally we arrived at the Huay Nam Dang National Park. We all had a backpack each filled with necessary clothing and equipment and to this we also had to attach a life jacket, which we would need to use the following day on the bamboo raft.

The first part of our trek had us visiting a natural hot spring where the water comes bubbling out of the ground at between 90 and 100 degrees C. After this brief sidetrack we got well underway with the actual trek, which consisted of a four hour hike up and down the jungle covered mountains. Along the way we had incredible view-points of the surrounding valleys including at one point a view of the Myanmar (Burma) border. Our guide, Bat, was really funny and informative along the way telling us about all the different plants use in tradtional medicine, which he understood really well having been born and brought up in a hill tribe. In the final part of the first days trek we crossed over a bamboo bridge spanning a river and walked into the hill tribe village deep in the jungle where we would be spending the night. Needless to say accommodation was pretty basic as we were all sleeping in the same room with only a matress and mosquito net to call on for comfort. The village wasn't entirely without 20th century technology though and we were surprised to find electrical points being supplied with solar energy and the toilet actually had a porcelain finish! (complete with spiders of course). Dinner for the evening was an amazing chicken curry cooked over a natural fire and then we all gathered around and played guitar and Bat showed us some pretty neat tricks and brain teasers.

The following morning we woke early for breakfast and began the second day of our trek through the jungle. The first part of the trek involved us walking through the rest of the village where we got to see traditional farming methods being put to use and then we were soon off deep in the jungle again. After about an hour and a half we arrived at another hill village where we boarded our next mode of transport, huge 11,000 pound elephants! Kerry and I were seated on a wooden platform upon it's back while Eric got to sit on it's neck. Once everyone had mounted their elephant we were soon lumbering off through the jungle, frequently zig-zagging across the river where the elephants got a chance to drink through their trunks as we waded across. It was a great feeling being transported along on one of the magnificent animals back and it reminded us both just our incredibly lucky we are to have these opportunities.

After about an hour on the elephants we then dismounted for the next awesome part of our trekking experience, a journey down the river upon a bamboo raft. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect before seeing the rafts but I wasn't quite expecting something that pretty much consisted of bamboo tied together with vines and only three poles to keep all our bags from being soaked! We all had to take off our shoes as the rafts literally only float on the surface of the water with no clearance whatsoever. One of the german guys and I had to do help steer the back of the first raft with huge bamboo poles while the guide shouted orders at the front. The only problem was that the guide on our raft didn't speak particularly good english so only 30 mintues into the experience we hit a huge boulder in the water causing everyone on our raft to go sprawling over. The raft then became lodged amongst the rocks and we all had to jump overboard into the current of the river and scramble on top of a rock in the middle of the river as we laughed histerically! Finally Bat, the guide from the other raft managed to wade in and help the other guide get the raft positioned back on course and we all swam back and scrambled aboard. Fortunately there were no more accidents and we finally got the knack of steering the raft through the rapids of the river like pros. After about two hours we arrived at our final destination where the pick-up truck was waiting to take us back to Chiang Mai. Along the way we all laughed about the crazy experiences of the past two days in the jungle all feeling happy with ourselves.

The following day we left Chiang Mai for the final time and headed further North through the mountains to Pai by minibus, having to breathe in the drivers stinky bottom burps along the way. We had heard good things from other travellers about Pai and had been told it was a place full of live music and a chilled out vibe. Upon arrival it reminded us a lot of the island Kho Phan Ngan where we had visited two months previously. We found a fairly nice but basic place to stay for dirt cheap and went to rent a motorbike from the local rental agency. After an amazing dinner at the local restaurant we were hoping to ride around to some of the local bars to check out the music but unfortunately the weather had other ideas for us and it chucked it down with rain forcing us to have a few drinks at the nearest bar which was only playing a DVD of the Eagles, good but not quite the same as seeing a local band playing live.

Today the weather was a bit brighter this morning so we decided to take a chance and drive the 111km though the mountains on our bike to the Fish Cave, a natural cave inhabitated by huge Soro Brook Carp. The drive there was incredible with lovely winding roads revealing views of the incredible mountainous region. Upon arrival we parked the bike up and wandered along the river to the place where the fish could be seen. Usually these fish eat insects but the locals are convinced that they are vegetarians and sold us some fruit and nuts to feed to the fish. The fish were really beautiful with an incredible blue hue to them and some of them were approaching a metre in length and once we threw the food in the resulting frenzy explained why they have got so big! We retured to the bike and began the return journey and it wasn't long before a huge rain cloud descended down the mountain and dumped a sky full of rain upon us. Even with our ponchos on we were soaked within minutes and when the rain finally cleared we stopped by the roadside and wringed the water out of our socks!

Tonight we are hopefully going to see some local music and then tomorrow we begin the 16 hour bus journey back to Bangkok, which we are pretty sad about. Only a few days left now to squeeze a few more things in and then we will be home! We'll update you all before we head home though with probably our last entry and in the meantime we hope you are all well and I apologise once again for making these entries SO long! Thanks to Duncan, Michelle and Cherry for your comments on the message boards, always appreciated! Take care.