Just when I thought yesterday was the highlight of my trip to northern Thailand, today smashed it out of the water.

We were picked up by a songtaew in the morning for our one day elephant trek. The shops sold two day and three day treks but we thought these were a bit too long (and pricey) for our liking.

We arrived at the least cruel looking elephant park we saw at 09:30, an hour later. No babies tied up with 1m chains, no elephants left in the sun and an endless food supply, as long as the tourist kept feeding them bananas that was.

For 20 baht you can get a good sized bunch and feeding an elephant is an experience in itself, in fact I personally found it more enjoyable than the ride that followed.

The ride lasted an hour and rice was served straight away, before we were whisked up the road to begin our 1 hour trek to the waterfall, this time on foot.

The walk was enjoyable, the waterfall was blissfully cold and the white water rafting that followed was fun. We even got the chance to ride on a bamboo raft. £16, 9 hours, what a day!

Upon retuning to the guesthouse we had two options, book the bus to Chiang Rai or Chiang Khong. CR offered a white temple, which is picturesque and is something I'd like to see, but CK was a boat ride away from Laos, the cheaper and easier option and ultimately what we did.

Our guesthouse had no bus availability (lies) to CK and wanted to charge us 460 each for the privilege anyway, so I headed to the bus station to see when the next bus we could catch was and how much it would cost. Tomorrow morning and 261 baht.

It felt time to leave Chiang Mai, but I could have happily stayed longer. So many day trips, cooking classes and more we could do, but they're expensive and we have Laos, Vietnam (visa begins on the 22/2) and Cambodia to do before returning to Thailand at the end of March.

There's so much to see in SE Asia and yet so little time - even though it's only my second trip to Thailand, it's starting to become one of my favourites. It's charm, it's personality, it's craziness.