Probably the best view I�ve ever had on a toilet was on the train to Chiang Mai. It was an 11 hour journey from Ayuthaya and we went over rolling hills and through dense rainforest. Just as the train climbed to the top of a plateau with views for miles, and the sun started to set, I needed to use the toilet. Luckily the window was open (for the views).

Tourist information at Chiang Mai train station turned out to be a man trying to get people into his hotel. He told us every other hotel in the city was fully booked and we believed him.

We didn�t stay long at the Winner Inn. We checked into Chiang Mai Garden Guesthouse where they also do a 3 day trek.

There were 12 of us on the trek, 10 Germans and us. Sometimes they spoke English for our benefit, but most of the time they spoke German whilst we sat there and looked stupid. When they did speak English we felt obliged to join in the conversation because they were only doing it for us.

On both nights we stayed in Hill Tribe Villages. We played mind games with the villagers and Chang our guide told us his elephant jokes. It got really cold at night.

We visited a waterfall, went for long hikes, went elephant riding, went swimming in rivers, and we went bamboo rafting.

The elephant riding was really scary but probably the best thing we�ve ever done in our lives. The scary thing was when the elephant went down steep banks because if we didn�t hold on tight we would fall off and possibly be trampled to death in the river. As you can see from the photos, we were riding the elephant on autopilot for a while when our guide jumped off to rescue a lifejacket that fell off the elephant. Luckily for us it didn�t take the opportunity to go on a stampede. Katie wanted to tickle it's ears; I had to restrain her.

The bamboo rafting was funny. We all stood on the raft and it sunk so they tied more bamboos onto it. It sunk again but only slightly so we stood in half a foot of water. It was my job to steer the raft away from the rocks as we went through the rapids, using a big bamboo stick. I wasn�t very good at it so I kept getting shouted at.

On the cookery course we did in Chiang Mai we made five meals in five hours and had to eat all of them. Some of them were really spicy. By the end of the day we were bloated, sweating loads, and we had burning mouths.

Aidan.