Hello England,

When we last left you, we were just about to leave to go to Chiang Mai. Well, we arrived safely but witnessed a burnt out plane being hosed down on take off! Katherine nearly had a heart attack after that but luckily the flight was barely an hour so all was good.

We are now staying at Spicy Thai hostel until Monday, which is an awesome hostel. Is very homely and is packed full of backpackers. We've already had a lil bonding session which resulted in one of the girls we met nearly breaking her toe. Also had an exciting and speedy trip on the tuk tuks, involving a race, a wheely and a flooded engine.

Today we had a trip to one of the main temples in Thailand which is right at the top of the mountain behind the hostel. Was very hot, not good for nursing hangovers and Jo's sick episode, but was good and we all found it interesting. On the way back down from the mountain, we stopped off at a waterfall and cooled down with a dip.

In the afternoon, we all jumped in the jeep and car and headed off to a lake. There was 20 of us squeezed across both and towards the end of the trip, Thomas bravely volunteered to sit on the roof of the jeep whilst our hostel manager sped down the road whacking them with trees. It was all very exhilarating yet slightly nerve-wracking especially in our delicate state of minds.

The lake was amazing!!!!!! Panda was not quite so sure about getting into the water and not being able to see her feet because of the mud and sand. Therefore, we piled her into a rubber tube and let her bob around whilst we played ultimate frisbee! Love love loved it, was very beautiful; had the pleasure of no other tourists and the entire lake to ourselves, whoop whoop.

Tonight we had a bbq, however it chucked it down - typical English bbq's. Nevertheless, we carried on and ate our lil feast. Having a quiet one tonight with a few drinks and cards - Jordan's already passed out on the bed. Will be up early for a trek, elephant ride and bamboo rafting in the morning (Friday). Is all very exciting. Then will be off to the Night Bazaar in the evening with some people from our hostel.

So far we have been brave and sampled some of the local Thai cuisine, however we could not quite bring ourselves to eat raw dead crickets and other insects! We have been impressed with the food and will be attempting to cook it for ourselves on Saturday, again with a few other people in our hostel.

We have all been having an amazing time, the days seem to be going so quickly and is hard to keep track of time and it hasn't even been a week yet!!! Still, we are missing you all very much although none of us could say that we are anywhere near ready to come home just yet!!

Love you all, will update you next week sometime. xxxxxxxxxxxx