day 5 continued...

we were at the huay-nam-dang elephant camp where we were able to wash, feed and play with the elelphants by the riverside before lunch. brim also bought a beautiful breacelet to add to her collection! then came the elephant riding!!!!!!!! we climbed aboard our elephant, pa som boon, and headed into the jungle!!!! we rode through jungle, rivers, cliffs and whatever else we crossed in a tiny seat, held in by a rope! kim was invited to sit on the elephants neck, then brim swapped....going down a steep winding cliff she became TERRIFIED!!!!! absolutely hilarious!!!! surprisingly comfortable to lie on their necks! unfortunately we reached the end and dismounted for our little walk to our next "hotel". we spent the whole time slipping around with no shoes on in the mud! during which brim was asked by a drunken lady if she ahd a baby-kim sees a pattern emerging here!!!!!! its a prophecy!!!!!! arrived at pa-khao-laam and brim dumped her stuff and ran into the mae-tang river which had amazingly strong currents....kim decided to keep her bites away as they were already re-infected! whilst the girls slept, brim chilled out with sanit, arthid, monty and gerrard playing some songs and eating jungle corn before sani insisted on again attacking kims bites and newfound 1 inch blisters!!!! MORE iodine!!!!!! brim again found this hilarious! as did the village children! brim helped a little to prepare dinner and we sat down to eat a very tasty feast! the best meal we had in thailand! poor pete did not quite agree as he was forced to eat about 20 spring rolls in order to find the "lucky" one.....the chilli infected spring roll! guaranteed luck for life?!?!?!? really?!?!?!? afterwards we were introduced to our enw favourite game, ping pang pong which involved face charcoal painting! kim then spent the evening chatting with emma, tash and lucy about girly stuff and getting to know eachother, while brim spent the evening with sanit, monty and arthid playing cards and drawing and generally being silly.....again! we were the introduced to petes -5-in-1 personal alarm, provided for him by his mother (he's 25 by the way!) which prompted bouts of hilarity and in her dilirious tired state, brim acme out with "maybe it will go off when it stops raining" as it acts as a smoke detector....explanatino please anyone?!?!?! COMEDY! everyone was in stitches for hours

day 6 3.08.08: Pa-khao-laan

we awoke in the morning to joyous shouts, our emails to buddha had paid off, the rivers were not too high to go bamboo rafting :D instead of another 6 hr trek, including DADDY hills!!!!! this morning was when we learnt about reto's coffee pants-afraid that is another joke none of you will ever find funny, so we wont bother explaining: pete you better laugh!!!!! climbed aboard our rafts on which we were seperated after sad goodbyes to monty :(

brim: i was on the raft with tash,lucy and emma and our drivers were sanit and arthid! we set sail last and in high spirits were soon singign songs along the lines of the spcie girls adn river realted tunes! after a bi sunny and atrhid swapped positions, we thought this was normal untill sunny exclaimed that it was because arthid was a learner...yes we were on the learner raft!!! our first minor of the day was when we floated into a large bush (they could not see it coming?!) and then we had our FIRST major of the day, we rafted directly towards a log in which arthid stuck the bamboo stick and couldnt get it out, onto the spare stick and as emma proclaimed "if we lose another were f*****!) thigns went well with sanit allowign me to do soem fo the pole pushing :D clearly the boys ahd in midn however that we were o the adventure raft anf instead of going roudn abush like everyone else we went thru the bush....bush whipping did not impress us! arrived at sangs village for a break and to add mroe bamboo for the rapids. all was going well untill with no warning my leg randomly slipped between 2 of the poles in the middle of the raft. it was funny seeing me sitting on the raft with one leg through it...not so funn that i coudlnt get it out! we then headed into the rapids standign up coz were hardcore untill we hit some realyl fast ones and heaed straight for the bank and some massive trees, we nearly capsised and everyone fell in the water, me a tash literally grabbign on for dear life, apparently according to buddha max it llooked like a movie! we then had a slightl chileld bit and we all jumped into the river and bobbed alognside the raft with sunny dunking me a tash untillw e rounded the corner to mroe rapids and reaised there was none acctually on the raft...we thought we should get back on!!!there were onyl 2 more icnidents on the way to lunch, where we rode overa log...(mini waterfall apparently!) and also where they managed to get us stuck in the bank...yes they definitly failed their rafting test!!!

kim: with the learners raft falling behind some sharp rivalry developed between the remaining two rafts, we spent a huge amount of tiem gathering large apples to aim at one another, testing various slingshots and abusing eachothers aims! poor max who did not join in the throwing got hit square on the head, but laughed it off as expcted!!! reto however was not so impressed when my fine armed throw hit him right on the forehead and war was declared. at this point i was allowed to steer the raft...possibly not my future job, and we raced through the rapids. as we reached the bigger rapids, i was allowed to stay on with natalie while everyone else trekked through the forest and rejoined us after "titanic"!!! a number of huge rocks caused big drops.....which we went around much to my disappintment! when everyone rejoined us we continued our games until fiery stephanie and reto began their fun.... me and pete jumped into the river and were swept along by the rapids, then realised a huge one was literally a few feet away and jumped aboard. after this, stephanie managed to push reto off, then immediately flung herself onto the floor of the raft and clung on while reto tried to throw her off, but in true spirit she clung to his leg....another rapid came and they behaved, then stephanie ran to the front of the raft and reto followed her, sinking the raft altogether! at the same time stephanie caught reto off balance, and the war was won!!!! finally, richard having been called a lady boy by another driver engaged in the biggest apple war of all, which he lost quite considerably much to our entertainment and abuse was contious between the drivers, with sang trying to catch up with us to no avail!!!! all in all, fun times! only one down side....a large black insect of some form attached itself to my ankle and stung me, leaving me screaming and hopping only to be caught by natalie....5 minutes later severe swelling caused great concern to the group, and the stinging wasnt too pleasant either!

we had lunch at sob-kai before climbing aboard the trucks again for the journey back to chang mai. we had fun bumping about and even managed to wangle some free jungle bananas from a man on a moped, the other group had to buy theirs!!!! we finally arrived about 4 and immediately took all our disgustingly dirty, sweaty, smelly, wet clothes to the laundrette and went straight for a warm, enclosed shower!!! we got ready with the girls and met at 7 to go for ou group meal. the restaurant turned into a bar at the end with a live band where we plied ourselves with vodka redbull and cocktails and caused general havoc....joining in playing with the band and taking ridiculous amounts of photos! then headed to spicy via a tuk tuk, chanting tic tac tuk tuk the whole way there! found it to be empty and left, walking in the wrong direction much to kims protest for about 15 minutes! another tic tac tuk tuk back and had just got in to bed when good old pete burst in the door....he proceeded to rugby tackl our chair and at over 6 foot and rather well built....it was quite a tackle....prompting the girls next door to come running in wondering what was going on!!! he then literally leapt onto brim and tash off the chair...pain! he also fell asleep on our floor but we insisted that although we were having fun ringing other rooms and again causing trouble, he should go to bed and we should probably follow suit!!!

day 7, 4.08.08: chang mai

brim woke up early and headed to the post office (yes mum you will receive a box!) before finding kim awake and confused about her absence when she got back! we headed out with pete for some lunch to cure brims hunger pain in a trusty local italian! us 5 girls then went for a thai massage where the masseuse proceeded to twist and crack us in ways we thought impossible!brim also purchased a beautiful elephant hair entwined ring from sang. headed to the station where we boarded the f****** train...according to reto! spent the evening laughing at pete's bad luck as his table collapsed and a woman trod on his food to add insult to injury and reto's general hilarity! again were packed off to bed early, with noise complaints from other passengers, and brim fell asleep writing her journal, kim reading her book-nelson mandelasautobiography which dropped from the top bunk and woke pete up!!! poor pete!

day 8: bangkok

we were both woken by sunny climbing into our beds and shouting to wake up at 5am! we sai our goodbyes to reto and stephanie before searching for another hotel. we found diamond guesthouse and shared a room with pete. we headed to khao san road for some shopping and well deserved pampering! we then prepared for the night out and went to a lovely restaurant where we introduced ping pang pong!!! after dinner we said our goodbyes to max, alice, richard and natalie and the rest of us headed into the bizaireness of khao san road! we found an illegal bar where we sat on tiny plastic stools and drank cocktails from buckets, literally! we then met marco-one of the richest guy we have ever met in our lives! brim and luce went on a mission to try and find a moped to hotwire...unfortunately this did not occur, however, crazy dancing in the street from those two, kim and tash definitely did!!! after a crazy night out we made our way home and went to bed.

day 9: bangkok

we got up at 6.15 in order to leave for a day trip at 7. we boarded the bus and headed first to the floating markets. we bought more in the standing part than actually on the water, but was very entertaining to be pulled in by crazy boat owners to see their identical wares! back on the bus to the tiger temple!!! tigers are hand reared and are therefore tame and we were able to have our pictures taken with lots of big tigers and two 2 and a half month olds!!! vvv cute! never actually saw the temple, as the two are only associated by the monks! next was the river kwai bridge, known as the death bridge due to the 100,00+ lives lost building it in the second world war, when POW's were tied to it to try to deter the allies bombing it again. laughed at pete's phrasebook for thailand which includes a romance section.....guaranteed to get u either nowhere or a slap in the face!!!! after HOURS in the bus, a long day and not much sleep we decided a subway and a chocolate hunt were necessary before bed and goodbyes to pete as he was leaving early the next morning!

Day 10: Bangkok

woke up after 10, realising pete had left us an as we had adopted him this was a very sad moment! checked out later and hit an alleyway off khao san road to find us a guesthouse for the night. very basic but all we needed. spent the day milling around, made a few more purchases including some fantastic art, before goign back to the guesthouse, chatting to some random guys (one v weird....typical northern chavvy monkey!) went off to find some dinner at "oh my cod" a british cafe....theres only so much noodles and rice you can possibly eat in 10 days before the sight makes you sick! went back for a spot of relaxation and reading, then watched the bourne ultimatum with everyone downstairs.

Day 11: Bangkok

here we are, sitting doing this having changed money-massive mission, discovered yet ANOTHER large fee we have to pay on our trip, getting bad passport photos for visas we need and finding out bits and pieces about cambodia from a guide. we have a meeting in half an hour to give details of our trip....we are finally up to date!!!!!!!

note to all.....photos from egypt are a v small percentage as they had problems uploading, not edited at all as there are no incriminating ones.....as yet!

love to you all and we will update whenever we get round to it :)