After meeting up with Celia and Kristina we decided that we did infact have time to travel up north with them. Everyone we've met also says how amazing it is up here so we thought we'd go and take a look.

The overnight train journey was sooo long, it took about 16hours in the end but we all managed to have a good sleep surprisingly; the train would fail any british health and safety, as to walk in to a different carriage you literally had to hop over a gap.

Chaing Mai is so different from Bangkok, its calmer, less hustle and bustle but still a big city- its also really western, you walk down the street past pizza places, burger kings, mcdonalds, shopping centres...

The hostel we stayed in was just outside of the ciy, and we loved it there, we've met some really nice people which we've been travelling with for just over a week now, and the hostel was like a little house, really sociable.

We've been to a few markets, and we went on a two day trekk (the north is famous for trekking) through the jungle. It was soo much fun, really tough and so hot but the fact that you were in the middle of a jungle and walking to a waterfall made it worth it. We stayed overnight in this wooden shack with no electricity and matresses on the floor- equivalent of camping. Then in the morning we went to another waterfall where you could slide down the rocks and jump into the water (terrifying), later in the afternoon we rode elephants and went bamboo rafting which was so relaxing.

On tuesday we got the bus to Pai, where we are now, and are planning to spend four nights here- again its different to anywhere ive been, its much smaller, barely any traffic; there's not much to do but its so relaxing people and up staying weeks. We've hired mopeds and learnt how to ride them as thats the only way to get around up here as again our hostel is slightly outside the town. The only downside is there is no aircon or fan, the only way you can sleep comfortably is if you go to bed as late as possible otherwise the heat is unbearable.

Lots of Love

Heather and Jess xxxxx