Well hello again. Hope you are having fun!! The night train was cool, we met up with a German couple who were on the seats next to us. They are the only Germans I ( Glenn ) have ever liked. Although they were a bit too security concious padlocking, tiewrapping and tying our bags up - before we got what we wanted out of them. The views were amazing and will be posted soon ( the internet is slow here ). We all jumped in the back of a taxi, well it was more like a pick up with seats and a roof on, and got taken to our guest house called the Jakawan guest house. The lady who ran it called herself our mum and really looked after us well. She gave us a map, told us where stuff was and how muchto pay for stuff too. She was so nice to us it was unreal. After an afternoon of getting lost we slept well and got up early to go trekking. The breakfast was really nice and our guide was on " Thai time ", a concept we were to learn fast - even though it got us to actually seem early for stuff :) Our guides were called June and July ( brothers ) with a guy called Sam who helped too. There was an Irish guy, a canadian lass called Alyssia, a few Germans and Jodie and I all couped up in one of those pickup trucks again. We stopped for some supplies and headed off out of the town up some dodgy hill road. After a while we parked up near a load of elephants. We didnt really like the fact these poor massive creatures had to go round in circles all day with overweight westeners stuck on there backs. We bought loads of banannas and fed the beast on the way. It was cool to be that close but wished we had seen themin their natural environment though. After that we headed off in the truck to a river and began our trek to a waterfall. It was quite big and really beautiful, had lunch ( rice and banannas ) then went for a swim. Some boring people didnt swim. It was cool with a current that acted like a slide, Jodie did it too, her confidence in water is increasing all the time. Then came the walk - ALL UP HILL - in the heat. It got a bit much but we plodded on finally reaching a tribal village of the Karren people. This was a village high up in the hills with native people living in wooden huts. We ate rice and curry, it was very tasty, and drank beer. The local kids sang songs to us accross the camp fire. Then it was our turn, only the Brits and one Canadian got up. The Germans and others were too boring. We sang the wheels on the bus, happy birthday and other dodgy songs we knew the words too. It was cool. A couple of people played guitar and we all sang along, until the opera singer started and didnt stop for an hour or more. She loved her self but the less I go on the better. The sleeping accomadation was rustic to say the least. A raised wooden floor with mosquito nets and blankets, sleeping us all in 1 room in sets of 2. It was raining and a load of people decided to go back and not spend another day trekking, they regretted it. The sun came up and we set off. A bit up hill but mostly flat. Until we came to another tribe whos name I forget. We rested, ate more rice and met a few locals. After more trekking through the amazing hills and jungle ( With a tribes man called buffalo bill in tow and his two dogs ) we arrived at waterfall camp. There were shacks that they called bungalows and a huge shelter where they cooked more rice and we played games. It rained loads but we still went for a swim in a bigger waterfall and showered too. The rain got so heavy that the walk down was crazy, we didnt care about our shoes or clothes getting muddy which made it all fun. Sadly the bamboo rafting was cancelled as the river was crazy, but it didnt faze us as the trip had been cool. We had another couple of days in Chiang Mai. We hung out with Alyssia and as couple of German lasses. It was nice. There wasnt much else to do except drinking and visisting the night markets. We booked a two day one night trip into Laos. We had to get a mini bus to Chiang Kong, we stopped on the way a a nut selling place where some really important ( and ignorant ) guy arrived in a huge entorage. We were quickly ushered back on the bus and got to our small hotel for a good nights sleep.