Sawadeeka from chiang kong! We arrived here this afternoon and are staying right next to the mekong river, with laos on the other side. We've just come from chang mai which was loads nicer than bangkok. To get from bangkok to chang mai we took a 13 hour sleeper train on which me and 3 of the others found the party carriage where they served thai beer and played music! However even with alcohol I didn't manage to get any sleep, although I did enjoy watching the sunrise (and finally see the sky after being surrounded by nothing but smog in bangkok for 5 days).

At Chang Mai we did an elephant trek in the morning which was fun. I happened to get the patty of the bunch which kept pestering me with its trunk for bananas which I kept getting from little stalls up in the trees! In the afternoon we went bamboo rafting which was awesome, we got soaked right at the end when we went into a waterfall bit. All the little south east asians are so cute, the guides don't speak much english so it's fun trying to communicate with them! At night we went to the famous temple up on top of a hill in chang mai where you could see the sunset over the whole city. We saw a load of monks praying in the temple, although I never know how to act when I see a monk (which is quite often) because I don't think women are supposed to look directly at them, or even sit next to them. Just like I have to be careful when I'm in a temple not to point my feet at buddha, and to make sure I'm on my knees if I'm taking photo's. It's only a matter of time before I get told off for doing something wrong, haha! After the temple we went to the night market in chang mai, which sold loads of crafts (I loved the handmade soap), fake handbags, fake tiffany jewellery, scarfs, and clothes (a lot of cotton which is good in thai). Surprisingly I bought nothing!

We set off to chiang kong this morning which is 5 hours from chang mai. On the way we stopped at a huge white temple which was absolutely gorgeous. It was decorated with silver and was so sparkly but photos really couldn't capture it! It was completely different to all the gold temples we keep seeing. We also stopped at a rice paddy field and helped the locals pick some of the rice! This involved taking off our flip flops and going into the sloppy mud up to our knees, which actually felt quite nice- I was tempted to put it on my face and have a mud mask! I might be getting a thai massage tonight but I'm a little scared as apparently they can be a bit painful but you feel the benefits after a couple of days. Tomorrow we cross the border into laos and spend the day going along the mekong river!

I've not bought my cable with me so can't upload any pics, so I've just put one of the one's already on the website up (of chang mai night markets).

Bye for now xx