Warning- this is a long one!

We arrived in Chiang Mai early in the morning and we were setting off to do the trek the following day. The hotel had a pool so we got involved and then went to the sunday night market which was amazing! we ate in the food square where all sorts of wierd and wonderful things were cooked on little stalls. I had pad thai followed by sweetcorn in sugar& salt- delicious, and a fried quails egg-wierd but nice, followed by a chocolate crepe! i could barely move after that! yum! Then to watch the football! England won woo hoo!

Now onto the main event: my hill tribe trek! Gosh it was hard!

We set off in the back of a van-type thing, 13 of us- unlucky for some and stopped off in a market so they could get food for us. The entire three days was catered and cooked for- so they picked up supplies. We had a wander around and i wish i hadnt...the market was boiling hot and they had meat counters with meat that was just out on the table- no refridgeration and flies galore- yuk! needless to say i was glad id been eating much like a vegetarian (bar a few occasions)!

We had about a 2 hour journey til we got to a village where we ate lunch. it was really nice but the heavens opened and it poured down! literally loads. Glad to be under shelter and glad id bought a poncho at the market (just in case).

It stopped raining and we set off on our trek. It was through tiny tracks, v. muddy and slippy. some very steep downhill and some a real steep climb! Of course it decided to rain again- but monsoonal rain- thunder, the lot. So these narrow steep tracks became like rivers and me in my little pink pumas didnt fare very well! in fact just imagine a taboggen run and that was me- but in mud! i was saturated and my bum hurt from falling over so much. NOT good fun! but all we could do was laugh or id have cried! Ha. It eventually stopped and i was muddy beyond belief- right thru to the pants and soaking wet. The poncho was made of bin bag material- but not just any bin bag material: it was the kind of plastic used in the cheapest of cheap crappy bin bag material the world has ever seen- so of course the trees i was whizzing past at high speeds on my ass ripped it all down the side! GREAT! ha.

We stopped walking after about 2 hours and stayed over in a village for the night. As soon as we got to the village we were shown our room and it was a large hut where all 13 of us slept together in two long lines! It was only 3.30 in afternoon when we stopped so i got STRAIGHT on the beer! see pic of me looking saturated and wet with sweat...gorgeous!

The night was filled with dinner (which was nice) and then entertainment with the village children performing a sing song etc. Really good night considering how gross we all felt! No shower in site and squat toilets with no roll or running tap...imagine!

The following day we were off again for a full day of trekking. We had scrambled egg and toast for brekkie and i decided to wear a change of clothes as couldnt bear to put the saturated ones back on! however the pink pumas laden with mud and so wet you could ring them out had to go back on! boo!

We trekked for EVER in blistering heat and it really was hard! we stopped every now and then to get water etc but it was pretty intense! The girls and i were walking through one particualr part and all of a sudden the girl at the front started flapping about saying she was stung- then one by one we all realised we had all been stung by a nettle type thing- so we are stopped dead on the track flapping about and knowing we would have to keep on going and i looked down to see loads of ants on me also! DISAST! we ran ahead and came to a clearing and complained bitterly to the guides who barely spoke english and didnt know what we were talking about! the stinging was not like an english nettle sting- this was something else! awful! and it didnt subside it just kept on stinging and if anything brushed our legs it intensified! Everyone whipped out their creams and antihistimine etc! to no avail- we just thought it would go after a few hours.

We continued to walk and came upon another village where we were stopping for lunch. It was a little like a farm with chickens and pigs padding around everywhere! Before lunch we trekked a bit further to a waterfall where we could swim etc. it was really really nice- i got straight in armed with shampoo to wash my rancid body and hair! felt so so nice!

We then had lunch (noodly soup) and then continued to trek onwards for a few hours until we found the elephants. I was really looking forward to this part of the trek but when we saw them i was bloody petrified! i had to climb up its head to get to the seat. Three of us had to squeeze into the two-person seat as BELIEVE i was sitting on the head! I literally clung on to the girl next to me (catherine) for dear life and didnt even think about what i was doing til 10 mins in when i said ' sorry do you mind if i hold onto you'!!! ha! luckily she is lovely and didnt mind at all! It was a very hairy ride in and out of rivers etc! i had to do deep breaths a lot of the way. We were on them for about 45 mins then did another hour or so trek! spiders galore YIKES i had to crawl under webs so as they didnt fall on me! i was nearly sick doing it- they were HUGE!

We eventually stopped at another house/hut for our second nights stay, it had been a very very long day. we were all exhausted! This time they had a shower thing and a bucket so we all managed to wash ourselfes- bonus!
The leg itching had not stopped at all at this stage! we aere all in agony...well 7 of the girls; strangely enough, all the boys didnt get it. We dont know wherther its coz we warned them or whether their hairs stopped it. we put everything we had on the stings but nothing helped at all. No rash was visible either- very odd!

Again, we had dinner and drinks and went to bed- no one sleeping well due to their legs killing!

Next day...final day...thank god- we had all pretty much had enough. We trekked for an hour and a half and part of it was rally really steep downhill. Hannah managed to fall really badly and hurt her knee to the extent she couldnt walk. So she had to sit and scoot down on her bum in agony and crying her eyes out! awful! The guides were appauling and were so far ahead all the time we kinda made our own way. One should have been at the back and they'd have seen hannahs fall...not that it would have done any good as they didnt have so much as a plaster between them never mind a first aid box! fuming we were!

We were supposed to be going rafting for 2 hours but dipped out obviously, more concearned about getting han back to civilisation as soon as possible -but we still had to wait for the group to finish it. So glad i didnt go as there were tree spiders jumping on the rafts and the guides were throwing them at the lads. Also dirtiest water i have ever seen and snakes in the water! how happy am i i chose not to do it! eek!

We had a 3 hour ride in a van home and hannah called her dad who is a doctor re her knee. Basically he said it cant be broken as she can weight bare slightly on it so an xray wouldnt help- but to rest it and see how the swelling goes! God- really concearned re going to a thai hospital All praying it wont come to that!

It was SO unbelievably nice to get back to the hotel. We all went out for dinner and had a few drinks then hit the real bed! wow!

Thursday, i got up and did a morning thai cookery course where we cooked 5 thai dishes. We had to do it so early so as to fit it in before we left (at midday) so me, mc and fi went off to do it at 8 in morning. poor han had to forfeit it. It was so so good. We were taught by one woman and it was only us there- usually there about 20 in a class. We did pad thai- a very very popular thai dish we have all eaten loads of here, green curry, chicken in cashew, tom yum kung soup and sticky mango rice. It was amazing! However being given 5 meals to eat before 10.30 was a little much- i didnt manage more than two properly! got the book and a certificate though so i can cook thai on my return!

In the afternoon we started our long journey to Laos which is a three day trip! It started with a 5/6 hour mini bus ride. Not comfortable at all! Then we stayed overnight in a town on the border of thailand and laos.

See Laos journal for next installment!