After a couple of days in the city checking out the temples and markets we headed off towards the Myanmar border for three days trekking. On the first day we visited the village of one of the hill tribes in north Thailand, then trekked through bamboo jungle to our "guest house" It was actually just a bamboo hut with some blankets. Our Thai guide, Map was a total legend and kept all 10 of us entertained around the campfire at night with his hilarious stories. On the second day as well as walking we did some elephant trekking. Everyone else got a guide except us so we had to sit on its head and take control with the comands they told us. At one point he(the elephant) went a bit crazy and Jahmez was on his head. He wanted to eat a tree right on the edge of a 20m drop, and leant right over it. It was a near death experience for Jahmez the two of us riding in the seat just about managing to hold on to him. A little bit shaken we reached another hill tribe tribe village where we would sleep for the night. Although we were essentially on a tour it was a seldom used route and the villages were really seperate from the influence of modern society. If anything is likely to change us during this trip it will be the amazing experince of observing the lives of the people here and how happy they are. On the third day after some trekking we bamboo rafted down a river back towards Chaing Mai. It turned in to a bit of a race and by the end our raft had totally fallen apart. Great times!!