You'll be pleased to know that we arrived in Chiang Mai safe and sound and even with some sleep! The journey that was supposed to take 11 hours turned into 16 but we're beginning to learn that this is just the Thai way, pretty laid back!

The hotel we stayed in was pretty minimal but very accomodating, starving hungry we had a buffet breakfast and soon headed for our amazing Thai Full body massage! 120 baht (approx 2 pounds!) for over an hour.... and my God it was well needed!!! Quite a funny experience- Katie had 'King' apparently his nickname but our attempt to ask why only failed miserably! Jemma's giggly lady was very firm in the buttocks area- but she grinned and beared it for the sake of embarassment!

The night market in chiang Mai was brilliant- sooo many stalls (most of them pretty similar) but very colourful and we were bartering on top form! Had lovely meal and few beers with a frenchie and two Germans from our group but suprisingly conversation was good and was great night!!

Set off with just our small day packs ready for our Trek. Pitt stop at the Mork- Fa Waterfall in Doi Suthep- Pui National Park, and as you can see in the pictures it was amazing!

Onto lunch- so far we've had only Thai and its all been pretty damn good! We anticipate that our guides will be very generous with our meals as they wait on us while we eat and try and feed us more and more!

GUIDES ARE:

• Sanit- main Leader, originally from Karen Tribe, lives in Chiang Mai we LOVE him!
• Funky Budda- Local guide was a budda for 20 yrs- very sweet/innocent- laughed at his own jokes, the type you wanna put in your pocket!!
• Cheeky Monkey- Cheeky grin 24/7 and always in search for adventure and mischief along the way!!

Beginning of Trek.... not quite what we were expecting!!! Straight in the deep end we were soon amongst the forest watching every step we took as it was so uphill/downhill and very very slippery!! Met a young lad along the way on his way home from school- couldnt believe how dangerous his journey was or that he did it for an hour and a half there and back everyday! We needed some practice!

3 and a half hours later and a down pour of rain, we were happy to arrive at Baan-Mae-Jog for our overnight stop. Once again this wasnt what we expected at all- I think we were assuming we'd be greeted by people with neck braces or loads of tattoos in robes and singing round the fire!!... but unfortunately we never even got to 'meet' any of the tribe and they just wore tshirts and sarongs!!! This however, didnt dampen the experience as we realised it was just more realistic rather than planned as they just went about their daily lives. The guides were very informative about the culture and answered all our questions, also taking us on a short tour.

We can't write about this evening without including the 'shower experince'!! Nightfall had already set in and the German guy had already been in the shower/hut/toilet/manky wooden thing for half an hour after the water stopped on him half way through- 'is anybody there' he kept saying in his German accent as we were all doubled over just outside! Then came our turn... so tired and cold we decided to brave it together to get it out the way- was the funniest experience ever! jem squatting while I'm under the 'leaky' shower, freezing cold, giggling our heads off, naked and with one tiny torch for a light!!!!!!

As for the evening, we had a gorgeous meal cooked by our leaders with help from a few local kids!! Sanit played guitar, we had beer and chats round the dinner table and headed for bed (i.e a thin matt on the floor of a wooden tree house with a mosquito net) quite early as we were knackered!

Early rise from the roosters that roam under the shacks and the squealing of pigs that each family own and off we set.... Through Rice paddys and forest, up down- sometimes so steep it was scary, jumping streams- and in the sweltering heat! and did we bring enough water?!.. no of course we didnt haha! Luckily we had a very generous guide in tow. The trekking was definately more challenging than we thought it'd be- very physically demanding and harder than a spinning class could prepare you for! One of the girls struggled so much she nearly dropped out- but group morale was high!!!!

4 and a half hours later and we see something through the trees- a smile on all our faces as we approached the elephants playing in the water!!!! The trip never failed to surprise us as our expectations could not have been more wrong- the elephants were free to roam around where we were eating and the camp was literally a few shacks and a toilet (if you could call it that) much more natural and un-commercialised than we thought...

Once Mogli the young boy who was riding the elephants willy nilly helped us on and our 'drivers' were in place we headed off on the journey of a life time!! It was so unbelievably scary at first and really really wobbly- we were literally holding on for dear life, especially when we were going downhill and had nothing but a thin rope to stop us going arse over trunk!!!

Now... Somwang was a very naughty little elephant and as the youngest male of the pack was not afraid of trying his luck!! It became an ongoing joke as every two minutes he would be going in for his next snack from the surrounding trees and took us off road on more than one occasion!!!!! But hey, he definately had character!

After the ride of our life we had the bath of our life- in the Mae-Tang River!!! With no shower facility in this new village, it was that or the 4hour trek body odour option! Thanks to Emma and Sian we still managed to bathe in style with our own personal John Frieda Salon- the whole group wanted in on the action!!

Around the camp fire for our last night in the forest- another lush dinner (the best yet- pumkin with fried egg- sounds weird but wow!) and a sample of fish soup caught fresh from our wash in the river that evening! Drinking games round the fire and off to bed- this time all 12 of us in one room- obviously we were last to bed and got the giggles as we were trying to be quiet!! I think that was just after Katie had to do a number two in the squatter (literally) much to Jemma's amusement!!

Last day of trek and we ended in style! We set off on our bamboo rafts made fresh that morning and at first we were a little dubious- it was quite slow and we had to stand up in a line- bear in mind this was for 3hours or so.... as we got more into it the funnier it got, and we would even go as far as saying on par with the elephant trekking.

It didnt take long for Katie to be the first pushed in the river by 'Cheeky Monkey' (had a bit of a crush!) But she coped in style and took him down with her! In competition with the other raft we waded through the fast rapids barely managing to stay on and keep our rucksacks dry (oh yeah they were on our raft too- cameras/money etc!!) we both attempted to row with the long bamboo sticks but Jemma managed to lose the stick under the raft haha!!! We had an encounter with a water snake and as a raft of 4 english girlies you can imagine the screams! We witnessed the other raft jumping trees that were in their way and falling in as a result/ male pride water fights and legs going through the rafts!!!!! All in all a very funny day.

So happy to get back to Chiang Mai and have a normal warm shower and an actual toilet... with a seat!!! after a short nap and scrub up we headed for the Riverside restaurant for our farewell dinner looking half decent and feeling good!! Nobody recognised each other!!

Luckily we'd hit the fire festival in Chiang Mai- fireworks every 5 mintues and lanterns galore! They also had lanterns you fire up and let into the sky- a tradition where its supposed to take the bad thoughts with it up up and away!! The meal absolutely lovely and the wine was flowing fast! we then headed for a roof top bar with an amazing view over the square and cushions for chairs. One sang Som bucket (Thai Rum/coke/red Bull) later and we were very merry! Our first proper night out and we did it in style-after the others headed back us and another girl headed for a club called 'Spicy' which said it all when we read the sign outside saying 'NO LADY BOYS ALLOWED' haha!!! a very dingy dive we only stayed for one and got our first tuk tuk home- 3am.

So that really completed our trip- we hope you enjoyed reading as much as we enjoyed doing it- was truly amazing, cant even describe which is perhaps why we've written so much so apologies!!! So we find ourself now after yet another overnight train in Bangkok, waiting for our overnight bus tonight to head for Koh samui and the Full Moon Party in Koh Phangan- and we cannot wait to hit the beach as you dont tan too well through the trees... it's a hard life!!!