We've just spent 4 days in Chang Mai, northern thailand, and had an amazing time. Its a lovely clean city, full of Thai culture that places like Bangkok and Koh Phangan have lacked. We organised a tour for our first full day there and spent the morning riding an elephant through the jungle, this was far better than the elephant ride we did a few weks ago as this actually trekked for an hour through the wilderness so we could see for miles around us! the elephant wouldnt stop eating the bananas we bought him so we kept having to buy him more! we were then taken to the river to do bamboo rafting- me being naive didnt realise that it would take you through rapids and involve getting very wet so i turned up in denim shorts with nothing else to change into- whoops! it was so much fun tho and pretty scary as the water is quite deep at the moment and so the rapids were quite rough! next we we trekked around the jungle for 2 hours to see the waterfall! i was knackered but the water was so rough we werent allowed to go for a dip to cool down as it would have swept us away! next stop was to visit two hill tribe villages, the hmong and Karen tribes, which were both really interesting. It is amazing to see how some cultures live in contrast to our own way of living back home. These tribes still dont have electricity and their houses, which fit 2 families, are no bigger than an average living room back home and are made form bamboo. They dont have many clothes and most look like they have been donated and belongings are sparce, the most extravagant thing i saw in the house was a radio alarm clock and a calender (there is a calender featuring the King of Thailand in every guesthouse, pub, restaurant, hill tribe village, literally everywhere without fail!). We spent the second day looking around various temples in the Old city, chauffered by our very own eager tuk tuk man that would only charge 20 baht (30 pence) as long as we wrote a review of our day at the end so that he could learn more english- we paid him 40 baht to say thanks for being so friendly! The next day we booked to go on another tour to visit the long-neck hill tribe village. I remember reading about them years ago so to finally see them was amazing. The young girls from the age of 5 are made to wear incredibly heavy copper rings around their neck and legs that are lengthened every year so to create a longer neck to look like a swan's. You would think the girls look quite odd but in fact they do look extremely pretty and all of the tribe except the youngest children still wear the traditional colourful tribe clothing. I felt how heavy one of the neck rings are and i honestly dont know how these girls can adapt to wearing them but they seem to be able to do all the normal things such as bathing and swimming. The girls/women spend most of their day weaving and essentially posing for tourist's pictures and you can tell that although they make the most of their money from farming, money from the tours plays a big part in the survival of the camp. A few of the elder ladies had long ears (their ear lobes had been stretched using tunnels) big enough to put a glass through - so as you can imagine Ben was quite impressed! We also got to walk through a cave that the King has onced stayed in and supposedly has a footprint of the Buddha, but i was a bit scpetical. We learnt about buddhist prayer and saw how they make wishes to the buddha whilst shaking a jar of sticks with numbers on each. When one of the sticks falls out you check the number and read the forecast on the wall. Mine was number 27 and said 'just like a dying tree, suddenly refreshed and soaked with rain, reviving back to life. Just like a teenager who never knows sorrow. Legal case is favourable. Patient fast recovering. Good supports. Overall this is good.' So i was pretty pleased with this. Ben's was much better, saying that he 'would be successful in whatever he did, and that overall it was very good'! We spent the night at the Thai boxing ring watching amateur boxers which was fun but also a little awkward cos we were sitting next to a bar full of thai ladyboys and although Ben found it funny, i just found them irritating as they were so over the top and screaming so loudly to get everyone's attention! they then got on stage in their sequin dresses and performed celine dion and cher hits - great! we've been staying in a really pretty hostel so it will be sad to leave as you never know where your next bed will be - a dump or somewhere decent! im getting used to the moving around now and tend to take as little out of my bag as possible so that i dont have to spend an hour re-packing it! when its on my back i always think about what i can chuck to make it lighter but when it comes down to it i cant think of one thing i dont want! I use my metal mesh secuirty bag all the time when travelling around and have a few people ask where its from and say how useful it is so im pretty glad i invested in it. I have to say the one thing im still not used to is the showers- we always get private showers but they tend to be a little scummy, the thai style is to have a toilet and then a shower head right above it so that when u shower water goes everywhere and all over the toilet, bit annoying but at least they dont put the thai style toilet - or simply a hole- in hostels or i'd really be in trouble! i still cant work out how u're meant to use them! and one tip for any traveller, do not ever go out without a pack of tissues and baby wipes! there is never any toilet paper anywhere you go and no where has soap (it seems to be the norm that thai people use the bathroom then leave without washing their hands) so babywipes are essential!

We leave Chang Mai tomorrow and head for the border with Laos so next time i write il be in a different country!xx