Back in Chiang Mai Kim took the opportunity to do a Thai cooking course - great fun and the food was very tasty! Though the giant straw hat that trainee cooks had to wear seemed a bit over the top for hygiene requirements!

We both then did a one day trek which included elephant riding through the Thai countryside. We bought bananas to feed our elephant which Mark managed to drop while getting on the elephant - the bananas were gobbled up in one fell swoop - complete with bag. We bought some more later on and fed a few to the elephant before - yes you guessed it - Mark dropped the bag again and it was again gobbled up! It was great fun - though we had a very grumpy mahout who kept hitting our elephant with a hook which rather distressed us.

After elephant trekking we visited Karen and Hmong Hilltribe villages and then walked to a waterfall. Mark got in and swam...well waded ineffectually against the current and then gave up! Finally we did bamboo rafting (basically sitting on a loose arrangement of bamboo poles that are continually half underwater!) in the pouring rain which was quite random. Mark had a go at steering with a big bamboo pole; Kim's raft nearly sank going over a waterfall; the mad, but very sweet, tour guide kept calling Mark 'Hollywood Guy' because of his spiky hair and sunglasses - she must be deluded!

In the evening there was a reunion of the Pai gang (with Air, Dave and Steve coming down to Chiang Mai). Together with a few others (including Andy and Oil) we went to a great bar with live music, tucked in to tasty Thai food and played pool at a 'girly bar' (Kim was quite relieved that there was no dodgy goings on!)