Sooo i'm now in Chiang Mai! Its been a really busy few days so sit tight! This blog will not be as good until ive uploaded some pics which I will do when I get back so its a work in progress ok?

On our last day in Bangkok Me Matt and Hanna went to see the grand palace which is a bit of a must when in the area. Having seen about a zilion temples etc etc in the past two weeks I must admit this one was very impressive. Bit too hot to wait around though so we kinda blitzed it and then headed back to khao san road for some lunch and a sit down. In the afternoon we all headed back to my hotel where me and Pauline said goodbye to the other 2 and left for the train station. I'm glad Pauline was with me or I would have been hopelessly lost because the train station is crazy! Think India and you're about right- people sitting or lying al over the floor, lots of random stuff going on and a whole loada white people looking very lost.

We reached Chiang Mai at about 7:30am and I got to meet Pauline's parents! They were both really nice- her Dad spoke a bit of English but I just smiled at her Mum and kinda yeah... Luckily I was able to check into my hotel early and had a quick snooze before heading out with Pauline to buy supplies for my trek!

In the afternoon I was feeling a bit crappy- all on my own in a totally new city having said goodbye to the only people in the entire continent that I know and feeling extremely sleep deprived and generally a bit ergh. Also the guide for the trek came to see me at the hotel in the evening to get passport photocopy etc and told me that there were only two other people booked on the trip; an english couple in their 30's. I was like URGH! Really craving someone to talk football to...

So in the morning I wasnt really looking forward to it, especially since Pauline had made me buy masses on bug killer and warned me about Ants and alll sorts of stuff. The guide had said to meet at 9am and by 9:45 I was very close to phoning GAP and being like 'errr refund perlease!' but then he turned up so yeah... was actually slightly dissapointed?

But I shouldnt have been- Aidan and his wife (her name kinda escapes me) were both realy nice and there were also 2 french girls in the mid 20's as well. The first thing we visited was a waterfall but I couldnt be bothered to go in so got some really cool photos instead. We then had our first lunch of egg fried rice with chicken which was nice and then headed to some hot springs which were absolutely boiling! It was from here that we started our trek...

The first leg was quite short- only about an hour and a half (doesnt feel that short in the afternoon heat of the jungle) but was fairly easy going. I think I drank about 8 litres of water by this point? After a while we reached the first hilltribe village we were going to be staying as. As i previously mentioned this will not be as impacting as if the pictures were uploaded already but all the village people were really friendly and was fascinating to see how they lived. We had out own seperate hut where we could sleep on really thing cushions on the wooden floor with a mosquito net each. We had a home cooked dinner of erm... rice (!) and then played some cards before heading to bed. Getting up for the toilet in the night (as you do after so much water) involves finding your torch, fighting with the mosquito net, heading outside and trying to be quiet on the bamboo floorboards, falling down some wooden steps, trying to put flip flops on the correct feet, trying not to wake the possibly rabid dog, trying not to disturb the horny raping cockerel, checking the toilet for bugs, snakes, other people? etc etc before actually doing the deed. You then need to flush with a cup full of water out of a garbage bin before repeating the first half of the process on the way back! Fun times? Add on to this the fact that the horny cockerel woke everyone up at 4am and it wasnt a particularly comfy night. Did i mention that we were sleeping on wooden floors? I really dont mean to moan though because surprisingly enough i loved it! Breakfast was toast with jam (and a bit of cockroach but no-one else saw so didnt want to mention it :-s) and a hard boiled egg. We set off at about 8am to try and avoid the midday heat as it was quite a long trek ahead.

From the village it was thick jungle straight away and was actually difficult going as the path was intermittent to say the least and lots of slippery hills and steep slopes left some people on their ass a lot of the time. Oooh what I forgot to mention earlier and I cant now be bothered to go back and insert it is that when we reached the village on the first day Aidan found a wound on his foot that would not stop bleeding and the guide said it was a leech bite! So when we desnded into this valley the next day there were LOADS of leeches! They're a lot smaller than I thought and climb up your shoe and into your sock without you feeling it at all. At one point I had about 3 on each ankle but we couldnt really stop for long each time or more would cling on! Was pretty hairy for a while and the english lady was not having a very good time of it at all. At one point I looked at my watch to check the time only to find one clinging onto my wrist! They are so hard to pull off as well! For some reason though none of them actually managed to get through my skin which was good :) We also saw a load of other bugs and jazz before we reached this little waterfall where we gladly had a quick shower. My shoulders were peeling really badly at this point mainly because of the sunburn they sustained on koh samui and wearing a backpack and sweating like a moose all day didnt help- they really did resemble an ordanance survery map i thought- dad would have been fascinated.

By this time we had been trekking about 2 hours or so and people were starting to tire and complain and whatever else. The jungle more or less stopped at this point and instead we climbed up the other side of the valley along the very edge of the wooded area so in full sunlight. It was stil only about 10-11 am but already absolutely baking. I'm actually really used to the heat now so whilst it was uncomfortable i was ok but like I said, others were really starting to struggle. After about 3.5 hours one of the group just more or less collapsed and just couldnt go on. A mini mars bar from my bad that resembled... well not a mars bar helped slightly and she managed to go the extra half hour before being sick when we reached the village.

This second village was much bigger but just as uncomfrtable to sleep in. We had a quick bite to eat, no need to tell you what it was, and then headed straight back out to do some elephant trekking. This bit was really surreal because we started walking into the jungle again, expecting it to take about 30 mins but stumbled across 4 elephants after about 10 so jumped on them and got taken back to the village in style! They are such clever animals- at one point the guy riding mine got off to take a piss and mine snapped off this massive branch, held it in his trunk and smacked me with it over his head! I was like ARGGHHH!!!! scary stuff, wonder if its covered in insurance? By the time we finished elephat trekking it was only about 3pm so head a quick shower (bowl and bucket of cold water) and then just relaxed really! I discovered that tiger balm is AMAZING (it can actually be used for ANYTHING!) and erm yeaaahhh. For lunch we had these amazingly gorgeous banana fritter things which were made like srping rolls but with banana inside! All the fruit over here is much sweeter than back home so tasted gorgeous. Also had some noodle soup (mmm noodle soup) then played some cards while it rained monsoon style (also had a rainbow! got awesome photo) Some people headed to bed about 8pm so I stayed up and played cards by candlelight with the frenchies and spoke my best french wilst they spoke their best english and with a small amount of spanish thrown in we actually got on very well! After nearly setting the table on fire I headed for bed and slept erm... about the same as the bight before but this time it was the pigs who woke me!

So now we reach today! (this morning seems AGES ago...) Another early start, ths time 7am saw us eating the same breakfast- toast and jam but with any left overs from the night before chucked in for good measure. Again there were a few creepy crawlies around so picked around carefully- stomach was already feeling slightyl off... After brekkie we headed down to the river for our bamboo rafting! Awaiting us was this maybe 20ft long pile of bamboo tied together with... bamboo! Was crazy.. again you gotta see the pictures! I had a go at driving it along with one of the villagers who came along and off we sailed/rafted down this jungle river. At one point we were going quite fast and came across some buffalo in the river cooling off. They made a pretty sharp exit though so didnt have any head on collisions but saw loads along the way. Also saw a couple of little snakes, lots of mahussive fish and some other bits and bobs... This rafting went of for about 4 hours (bit too long in the sun but my now black skin was fine with it!) and towards the bottom end of this river there were loadsa smaler villages, more authentic and untouched by tourism where they were fishing, bathing,playing, casually smoking opium... usual kinds of stuff! Got a little bit borning after a while though so i named our boat 'ThaiTanic' (the other english were feeling sick so didnt think they would enjoy my amazing play on words and was too hard to translate into french so chuckled to myself). By about midday we reached another small village where we had lunch (noodles) and a few cokes before getting into another taxi van thingy and driving 2 hours back to chiang mai along some crazy bumpy road alongisde the mae tang river. Overall i'm so glad I did the trek- was a brilliant experience if not a little hairy at times. Mum- you would have loved it.

So now i'm sitting in chiang mai wondering where the two cockraoches I have had my eye on for past hour have gone. Its better when i can see them... Got whole day here tomorrow before flying back to Bangkok for short overnight stopover and then off to Shanghai where I meet up with my new group. Will probably write again from there. Millions of details in this blog that I have forgotten so going to add a couple in now-

The shower in my hotel has two shower heads- one freeezing cold and the other boiling hot so shower now takes the form of an irish jig with the lyrics 'ooh ahh ooh aah' also had to buy another bag for the trek so now have 3 :) big one on back, smaller backpack on front (clasic european tourist style) and shoulder bag to carry. Fun stuff. Anyways im tired so im going to go sleep. Good night xxx